Senior Director of Engineering, Banking & Issuing Risk
Visa, Austin, TX, United States
Job Description
Visa is seeking a Senior Director of Software Engineering to lead engineering for key capabilities within the Risk and Security Solutions (RAS) organization. This is a deeply technical role that combines organizational leadership with strong hands‑on software engineering, architecture, and delivery ownership.
You will lead a high‑performing team of engineers and AI agents responsible for building and operating high‑scale, mission‑critical, distributed systems that power customer‑facing risk and security products. The role requires an AI‑forward leader who can personally engage in architecture, design, code reviews, technical problem solving, production issue resolution, and, when necessary, hands‑on code contributions to accelerate delivery and raise the engineering bar.
Essential Functions
Own the technical architecture, design, implementation, and delivery of customer‑facing Risk & Security products and platform capabilities.
Translate product strategy into scalable, secure, resilient, and operable distributed systems.
Actively participate in code, design and architecture reviews, root‑cause analysis, and contribute code when needed to unblock teams or accelerate critical initiatives.
Establish and enforce engineering standards for agentic development lifecycle, context engineering, code quality evals, performance, scalability, availability, observability, maintainability, and secure software delivery.
Partner with Product Management, Cybersecurity, SRE/Operations to deliver solutions that maximize customer value, platform health, and execution predictability.
Build and execute technology roadmaps that balance business priorities, engineering sustainability, technical debt reduction, and operational efficiency.
Drive adoption of engineering best practices including CI/CD, test automation, and telemetry.
Communicate technical strategy, execution status, key tradeoffs, risks, and architectural decisions clearly to senior leadership.
Attract, retain and grow high‑performing engineering talent.
Enable technical and process innovation through thought leadership and influence.
Understand current and future trends within the payments industry.
Required Key Competencies
Led a team of 20 to 40 made up of full‑time employees, contractors and AI agents.
Proven hands‑on technical leadership by actively participating in code and design reviews.
Built a culture of engineering excellence (context engineering, code quality evals, security, performance, scalability, availability, resilience, etc.).
Effectively managed complex technical interdependencies across geographical teams.
Partnered with product management in developing a strategy and roadmap that align with business and engineering goals.
Partnered with remote teams to ensure alignment across product development, bringing a global mindset.
Demonstrated ability to hire, coach, retain, and develop high‑performing engineers and engineering leaders while raising the overall technical bar of the organization.
Enabled innovation through thought leadership and influence.
Deep expertise in building and operating high‑scale distributed systems with demanding requirements for latency, throughput, resilience, security, and availability.
Strong architectural judgment across service decomposition, API design, asynchronous messaging, data consistency, caching, failure isolation, and recovery strategies.
Excellent execution leadership with the ability to align teams, prioritize effectively, manage risk, and deliver against commitments in ambiguous or high‑pressure environments.
Strong cross‑functional partnership skills with the ability to influence Product, Operations, and senior stakeholders through technical credibility and data‑driven communication.
Hybrid Work This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in the office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Travel This position requires travel 5‑10% of the time.
Physical Requirements This position will be performed in an office setting and will require sitting and standing at a desk, communicating in person and by telephone, and frequently operating standard office equipment such as telephones and computers.
Compensation and Benefits US applicants only: The estimated salary range for this position is $206,100.00 to $360,800.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable).
Visa offers a comprehensive benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and a Wellness Program.
EEO Statement 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.
Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.
Relocation Visa is not offering relocation assistance for this role.
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You will lead a high‑performing team of engineers and AI agents responsible for building and operating high‑scale, mission‑critical, distributed systems that power customer‑facing risk and security products. The role requires an AI‑forward leader who can personally engage in architecture, design, code reviews, technical problem solving, production issue resolution, and, when necessary, hands‑on code contributions to accelerate delivery and raise the engineering bar.
Essential Functions
Own the technical architecture, design, implementation, and delivery of customer‑facing Risk & Security products and platform capabilities.
Translate product strategy into scalable, secure, resilient, and operable distributed systems.
Actively participate in code, design and architecture reviews, root‑cause analysis, and contribute code when needed to unblock teams or accelerate critical initiatives.
Establish and enforce engineering standards for agentic development lifecycle, context engineering, code quality evals, performance, scalability, availability, observability, maintainability, and secure software delivery.
Partner with Product Management, Cybersecurity, SRE/Operations to deliver solutions that maximize customer value, platform health, and execution predictability.
Build and execute technology roadmaps that balance business priorities, engineering sustainability, technical debt reduction, and operational efficiency.
Drive adoption of engineering best practices including CI/CD, test automation, and telemetry.
Communicate technical strategy, execution status, key tradeoffs, risks, and architectural decisions clearly to senior leadership.
Attract, retain and grow high‑performing engineering talent.
Enable technical and process innovation through thought leadership and influence.
Understand current and future trends within the payments industry.
Required Key Competencies
Led a team of 20 to 40 made up of full‑time employees, contractors and AI agents.
Proven hands‑on technical leadership by actively participating in code and design reviews.
Built a culture of engineering excellence (context engineering, code quality evals, security, performance, scalability, availability, resilience, etc.).
Effectively managed complex technical interdependencies across geographical teams.
Partnered with product management in developing a strategy and roadmap that align with business and engineering goals.
Partnered with remote teams to ensure alignment across product development, bringing a global mindset.
Demonstrated ability to hire, coach, retain, and develop high‑performing engineers and engineering leaders while raising the overall technical bar of the organization.
Enabled innovation through thought leadership and influence.
Deep expertise in building and operating high‑scale distributed systems with demanding requirements for latency, throughput, resilience, security, and availability.
Strong architectural judgment across service decomposition, API design, asynchronous messaging, data consistency, caching, failure isolation, and recovery strategies.
Excellent execution leadership with the ability to align teams, prioritize effectively, manage risk, and deliver against commitments in ambiguous or high‑pressure environments.
Strong cross‑functional partnership skills with the ability to influence Product, Operations, and senior stakeholders through technical credibility and data‑driven communication.
Hybrid Work This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in the office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Travel This position requires travel 5‑10% of the time.
Physical Requirements This position will be performed in an office setting and will require sitting and standing at a desk, communicating in person and by telephone, and frequently operating standard office equipment such as telephones and computers.
Compensation and Benefits US applicants only: The estimated salary range for this position is $206,100.00 to $360,800.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable).
Visa offers a comprehensive benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and a Wellness Program.
EEO Statement 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.
Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.
Relocation Visa is not offering relocation assistance for this role.
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