Director - Risk Management

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 Director to join its team and lead Digital Payment risks management across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.

This role serves as the face of Risk with external obligation to ensure Visa’s interactions with clients, partners, merchants, regulators and other third parties on risk-related matters are well informed, effective, and collectively moving the Visa ecosystem towards a stronger state. Internally, the Risk Management Director’s obligation is to leverage their market knowledge and presence to ensure Visa’s risk related policies, programs and frameworks are aligned with current and future business demands.

The Director role provides deep insights, thought leadership 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’s Risk solutions, the use of third parties and deployment of emerging technologies.

The Director will serve as the risk leader and advisor to the KBO business and GCC & CEMEA Risk leadership teams and will play a vital role in shaping the risk management landscape in a rapidly growing cluster.

Reporting directly to the Senior Director, Risk, GCC, this role requires frequent collaboration with internal stakeholders across the GCC and CEMEA regions, and extensive external engagements with clients, partners, government and other payment industry stakeholders.

As an individual contributor, this role requires a highly self-motivated individual, with the skills and ability to work with a diverse set of stakeholders across the Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman cluster.

Five core principles provide a foundation for our work in Risk Management :

Market Knowledge :

Maintain a heightened awareness of the country or regional business environment, the payment system and other risks to clients operating in each market, and the past and present tactics being deployed to mitigate these risks.

Business Alignment :

Align Visa’s risk-related objectives and activities with Visa’s business goals in the same area in order to maximize long-term growth.

Relationship Management :

Engage key stakeholders (clients, partners, law enforcement, government and others) to secure support for Visa’s goals and address identified risks.

Thought Leadership :

Differentiate Visa by demonstrating thought leadership to payment system stakeholders on risk issues, pulling from local, regional, and global sources. As a Risk Vanguard within the cluster work with Risk to identify new & novel methods used by criminals to target clients or stakeholders and build customized and innovative risk offerings by aligning with internal stakeholders to disrupt emerging fraud & security vulnerabilities affecting the Payments Industry

Communication :

Ensure strong communication and provide marketplace feedback around Visa’s risk related programs and policies, and other activities

Key Responsibilities :

Ecosystem Risk Management :

Maintain a heightened awareness of the country or regional business environment, payment systems, and other risks to clients operating in each market. Stay informed about past and present tactics used to mitigate these risks. Monitor local risk-related trends and developments, such as fraud schemes, regulatory changes, and key developments required to enhance the risk profile of partners and clients as well as Visa’s risk posture. Take the lead in protecting the payment ecosystem by proactively managing Visa’s Ecosystem Integrity programs with internal and external stakeholders.

Business Alignment :

Align Visa’s risk-related objectives and activities with Visa’s business goals in the region to optimize long-term growth and ensure that risk management strategies support and enhance the overall business strategy.

Risk Relationship Management :

Engage key stakeholders, including clients, law enforcement, government, and other relevant entities, to secure support for Visa’s goals and address identified risks. Be the primary Visa risk expert advisor to key clients in the market. Drive customized risk engagements and provide focus to key clients, fintechs, merchants, and emerging payment stakeholders. Develop and execute a client engagement plan and materials to help clients optimize fraud performance, determine the type and frequency of engagements.

Thought Leadership :

Differentiate Visa by demonstrating thought leadership on risk issues to payment system stakeholders. Participate in and orchestrate industry forums (e.g., clients, law enforcement, regulators, industry participants), and consumer awareness campaigns of payment system stakeholders to drive greater awareness and support for Visa’s payment system risk strategy. Be the point of reference in all risk-related engagement with regulatory and industry bodies. Differentiate Visa as a digital payments leader by providing clients and other stakeholders with value-added insights, best practices, conducting onsite market fraud prevention seminars (or webinars), and educational materials.

Communication :

Ensure effective communication and provide marketplace feedback regarding Visa’s risk-related programs, policies, and other activities. Maintain transparency and keep all relevant parties informed about risk management initiatives and outcomes.

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

Qualifications

Has led underwriting operations for SME, Retail or corporate lending for a large Financial Institution for a minimum of 3 years, taking accountability for application processing and credit decisioning functions

Led the underwriting of merchants for a large acquirer including client risk assessment and due diligence, onboarding

Strong understanding of and experience managing acquiring risk with hands‑on experience improving the acquiring risk posture of an entity.

Experience in managing fraud risk, transaction monitoring operations, application fraud assessment, and suspicious transaction review.

Good understanding of Anti‑Money Laundering policies and operational processes

Assessed impact of regulation on business or operations, responsible for responding to regulatory requirements, and participated or led responses to regulatory supervision or scrutiny.

Experience with maximizing portfolio performance within the confines of local regulation.

Required

Master’s degree required with 10+ years of progressive risk management experience working in the payment services or financial industry

Strong understanding of the inter‑dependency between Credit, Operational, Strategic and Cybersecurity Risks

Understanding of current and emerging payment system risk trends across Middle East & Africa

Ability to influence at senior levels both internally and externally.

Excellent written, oral and presentation skills and an ability to synthesize complex and technical information into clear recommendations on course of action.

Detail orientation and strong analytical skills, willingness to offer thought leadership, to think creatively, and to offer new ways to approach old problems

Flexibility and ability to think creatively and to identify new ways to approach old problems.

Ability to identify and pursue multiple initiatives simultaneously and deliver superior results.

Exceptional project management and reporting skills. Strong proficiency with project management tools (i.e. Microsoft Project, Visio, PowerPoint). Proven ability to prioritize deliverables and projects to meet timelines efficiently, to adapt to changes in priorities quickly and manage multiple initiatives simultaneously to drive projects to completion and deliver quality materials under tight deadlines

Experience determining when to elevate to management and identifying the right stakeholders for decision making

Excellent collaboration and communications skills with experience in influencing, communicating and driving change through cross‑functional groups, including the ability to diplomatically build consensus across disparate views

Positive, proactive, solution‑oriented problem solver who gets things done within a matrix organization

Experience in preparing, and reviewing, and delivering (concise) executive level communications

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.

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