Senior Director Risk - West Central Africa

Visa's Global Risk organization is seeking a Senior Director to lead its Risk team in the West Central Africa (WCA) region, focusing on Digital Payment Risks. This pivotal role involves proactively identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks, providing strategic guidance to the payment ecosystem, and driving effective risk management practices. The Senior Director will shape the risk management landscape, mature Visa’s Risk roadmap initiatives, and provide risk thought leadership for the WCA subregion, collaborating with senior internal and external stakeholders.

Must Have

• Lead team to ensure effective interactions with clients, merchants, regulators, and third parties on risk-related matters.
• Build and leverage market knowledge to align Visa’s risk-related policies, programs, and frameworks with business demands.
• Engage clients, merchants, and other stakeholders to mitigate fraud and data compromise events, promote stronger authentication and data security.
• Provide deep insights and support against a broader set of risk-related issues and activities.
• Promote effective and executive-level information flow around strategic, regulatory, and other risks to the Visa enterprise.
• 12+ years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree, or 10+ years with an Advanced degree, or 5+ years with a PhD.
• Leadership experience in the Chief Risk Officer’s team of a large financial institution.
• 5+ years leading underwriting operations for SME, Retail, or Corporate lending.
• 5+ years responsibility for credit risk policy within SME, Retail, or Corporate banking.
• Exposure to board, audit, and risk committees.
• Strong understanding of Fraud Risk, Operational Risk, Compliance, AML, and KYC risk.
• Experience implementing compliance programs and managing regulatory audits in the lending domain.

Good to Have

• Master’s degree with 15+ years of progressive experience in financial services.
• At least 5 years of senior leadership experience relevant to the domain.
• Ability to influence at an executive level both internally and externally.
• Excellent written, oral, and presentation skills with the ability to synthesize complex and technical information into clear recommendations.
• Strong analytical skills and proven thought leadership.
• Ability to manage multiple initiatives, adapt quickly, and deliver under tight deadlines.
• Strong leadership skills with experience in influencing and driving change through cross-functional teams.

Company Description

Visa is a world leader in payments and technology, with over 259 billion payments transactions flowing safely between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive while driven by a common purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

Make an impact with a purpose-driven industry leader. Join us today and experience Life at Visa.

Job Description

Visa's Global Risk organization is seeking a dynamic and experienced Senior Director to lead its Risk team in the West Central Africa (WCA) region, focusing on Digital Payment Risks. This pivotal role will oversee risk management across key WCA markets, including Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and other countries in the sub-region.

The ideal candidate will be responsible for proactively identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks while providing strategic guidance to the payment ecosystem, in alignment with Visa's growth objectives. As a member of Visa’s CEMEA Risk Leadership Team, the Senior Director will play a vital role in shaping the risk management landscape by being an effective risk business partner to the Group Country Manager for the WCA Sub-region.

The Head of Risk for WCA is expected to drive effective risk management practices, enabling cross-functional teams to handle Visa’s Strategic, Regulatory, Compliance, and Third-Party risks efficiently. This leader will be responsible for maturing and advancing Visa’s Risk roadmap initiatives and providing risk thought leadership for the WCA subregion. The role will also be a member of the WCA Leadership Team.

Reporting directly to the Regional Risk Officer CEMEA, this high-impact and high-visibility leadership role requires frequent collaboration with senior internal stakeholders across WCA and CEMEA, including teams in Business, Finance, Operations, Controls, Processing, Government Engagement, Risk Value Added Services, Visa Consulting & Analytics, and Risk. Importantly, the position involves extensive external engagements with clients, partners, government, and other payment industry stakeholders. The Senior Director will provide leadership and guidance to a team of risk managers supporting the WCA subregion.

Purpose:

• Lead the team to ensure that Visa’s interactions with clients, merchants, regulators, and other third parties on risk-related matters are well-informed, effective, and collectively moving the Visa ecosystem towards a stronger state.
• Build and leverage market knowledge and presence to ensure Visa’s risk-related policies, programs, and frameworks are aligned with current and future business demands.
• Engage clients, merchants, and other stakeholders to mitigate fraud and data compromise events, promote stronger authentication and data security, and help enforce Visa’s external risk programs and policies.
• Provide deep insights and support against a broader set of risk-related issues and activities, including client fraud and approval optimization, credit settlement risk, anti-money laundering, deployment of Visa Risk Products, the use of third parties, and deployment of emerging technologies.
• Promote effective and executive-level information flow around strategic, regulatory, and other risks to the Visa enterprise, and minimize audit and compliance concerns.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ecosystem Risk Management: Provide deep insights into the sub-regional business environment, payment systems, and other risks to senior client executives operating in each market and serve as the trusted risk advisor to leadership across all Visa business functions.
• Business Alignment: Align Visa’s risk-related objectives and activities with Visa’s business goals in the sub-region to optimize long-term growth, while ensuring that risk management strategies support and enhance the overall business strategy.
• Risk Relationship Management: Engage key senior stakeholders, including clients, law enforcement, government, and other relevant entities, to secure support for Visa’s goals and address identified risks and foster strong relationships to facilitate risk management efforts.
• Thought Leadership: Differentiate Visa by demonstrating thought leadership on risk issues to senior payment system stakeholders. Lead and orchestrate client meetings (e.g., sub-regional Risk Executive Councils) and industry forums (Risk Summits, government initiatives) to drive greater awareness and support for Visa’s payment system risk strategy. Positively influence regulations and risk/security-related practices to ensure a strong payment ecosystem and a growth environment for Visa, its clients, and the industry.
• Communication: Deliver effective and executive-level communication and provide marketplace feedback regarding Visa’s risk-related programs, policies, and other activities, while maintaining transparency and keeping all relevant parties informed about risk management initiatives and outcomes.

Skills and Experience:

• Leadership experience in the Chief Risk Officer’s team of a large financial institution, preferably in WCA or regions of similar maturity and diversity.
• Led underwriting operations for SME, Retail, or Corporate lending for a large Financial Institution as the functional head for a minimum of 5 years, with full accountability for application processing, credit decisioning, and disbursal.
• At least 5 years of responsibility for credit risk policy within SME, Retail, or Corporate banking, covering Underwriting, Portfolio Management, and Collections.
• Exposure to board, audit, and risk committees, with accountability for presenting portfolio performance to the board.
• Strong understanding of Fraud Risk, Operational Risk, Compliance, AML, and KYC risk.
• Experience implementing compliance programs and managing regulatory audits in the lending domain.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 10 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters/MBA /JD/MD), or a minimum of 5 years of work experience with a PhD

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree required with 15+ years of progressive experience in financial services.
• At least 5 years of senior leadership experience relevant to the domain.
• Ability to influence at an executive level both internally and externally.
• Excellent written, oral, and presentation skills with the ability to synthesize complex and technical information into clear recommendations.
• Strong analytical skills and proven thought leadership.
• Ability to manage multiple initiatives, adapt quickly, and deliver under tight deadlines.
• Strong leadership skills with experience in influencing and driving change through cross-functional teams.

Additional Information

Visa is an EEO Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.