Manager, Strategy

The Manager for the Strategy and Commercial Operations team is responsible for executing parts of the cluster strategy, helping to set cluster level targets, and driving delivery to ensure the cluster meets or exceeds its financial (i.e., Net Revenue and Net Income growth) and scorecard goals. The role reports into the Head of Strategy and Commercial Operations for the cluster. The Strategy and Commercial Operations Team is primarily responsible for all revenue-generating activities in the cluster. Additionally, it is responsible for evolving the cluster strategy to address new strategic issues and opportunities and for building strong commercial capabilities in cluster that will significantly grow Visa businesses and drive revenue growth and diversification. Further responsibilities include client engagement approach, key cluster governance and the application of performance insights to orchestrate delivery of the strategy.

Strategy - Execution
- Partners with team to execute the Visa Europe strategy at a cluster/country level as appropriate, through a cohesive, integrated data-led approach for the short/mid/long-term to drive sustained revenue growth, client retention, regulatory engagement, and Visa industry leadership.
- Works in partnership with the Team Lead, Corporate Strategy and Corporate Development teams to build strategic frameworks and content to influence, align with, and adapt functional/divisional strategies and acquisition opportunities.
- Contributes to thought leadership as required to drive cluster growth: may include country strategy, board presentations, global business reviews, and other strategic support for business development.
- Collaborates with Commercial/Business Development Teams and other key Stakeholders on the strategic components for individual Client RFP responses.
- Inputs into cluster business planning cycle linking Multi-year Strategic Outlook (MSO) to Annual Operating Plan (AOP) to Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR). This includes ensuring Value-Added Services (VAS), and Commercial Money Movement (CMS) strategy, as well as Go-To-Market (GTM) plans, are fully integrated.
- Drives execution of cross functional initiatives that are of high strategic impact to business (i.e., market acceleration, GTM initiatives)
- Contributes to identification and capture of new Generative AI use cases in support of business growth and industry evolution
- Works with Country Managers, Functional teams, and specialized sales teams to develop client and cluster specific business plans and targets aligned to strategy.

Sales/Commercial Operations
- Supports Team Lead in proactively managing the overall sales pipeline for the cluster, working with Country Managers, AEs, and BD teams to develop joined up plans which ensures pipeline meets or exceeds targets and data is of high quality to enable key sales analytics e.g., splits by country, by client, by revenue ‘buckets‘.
- Contributes to a strong sales and performance mindset and culture across the cluster.
- Captures and prioritizes client feedback to inform strategy and commercial priorities.
- Act as a point of contact with the Business Performance team for sales related queries and analysis.
- Inputs on the sales training strategies and may lead on the delivery of targeted training priorities for clusters.

Client Engagement
- Some targeted opportunities for direct client engagement to support strategy development, RFPs, or wider industry engagement.
- As and when needed, supports Team Lead (in collaboration with RMD and Country Managers) to create the Visa content for Client Councils.
Governance
- Responsible for implementing key cluster governance e.g., cluster leadership meetings (operational and strategic), leadership team offsites and sales pipeline reviews.
- Creates content for the cluster Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR) and may assist in the creation of content for Monthly Business Reviews (MBR).
- Promotes a culture of continuous improvement and efficiency in driving governance simplification, enabling high quality decision making and aligning to wider corporate governance e.g., QBR etc.
Cluster Operations
- Be responsible for key cluster operational activities e.g., development of content for executive visits.
- Consulted on quality of workforce data (by Workforce Planning Lead) to identify data gaps and issues.
- Preparing for and managing internal audits, and risk registers (supported by Ecosystem Risk Team). 
- Identify opportunities to drive process improvement/efficiency across business area.
Performance Insights
- Supports Team Lead in identifying (set) regional business performance targets (i.e., scorecard) and KPIs for the Region and aligning with the Europe Hub.
- Planning strategic investment and securing approvals, to set and achieve regional targets.
- Responsible for being the key customer for the central data performance CoE, validating the data points and insights provided to ensure they meet required quality and to lead on applying these insights to drive execution of strategy performance.
- Responsible for development of key performance governance material e.g., QBR.
Fulfilling CEE SCO calendar statements in alignment with all indicated stakeholders
Qualifications
The candidate must have advanced of skills and be able to:
- Develop a strong, transparent relationship with the business team members to drive the financial strategy forward
- Demonstrate interpersonal skills and ability to successfully collaborate across different teams, cultures, and interface with people at all levels of the organization
- Be intellectually curious, able to engage, enable and inspire others
- Possesses high personal standards of ethics and integrity towards other employees, stakeholders, and customers
- Present diversity of thought and experience. Continually seeks new perspectives and feedback, takes an inclusive approach
- Eager to seek a challenge and expand frontiers, brings a visionary approach. Sets and meets a high bar of goals and principles
- Natural ability to build strong relationships and enable collaboration through empathy and authenticity
- Show some experience in a strategic planning, market development or commercial role within the payments industry, financial services, banking or retail sectors
- Grow knowledge and experience of the card payments industry, local payments market and ecosystem. Broad and comprehensive knowledge of Visa business and its products and services
- Identify business opportunities and solutions and design and implement strategic frameworks and plans to deliver business targets
- Have an experience of driving cross-functional delivery of plans and initiatives
- Deep commercial acumen, negotiation skills and effective fact-based decision-making
- Deal with and influence senior internal and external stakeholders and decision makers
- Communicate with excellence and interpersonal skills with cultural sensitivity and proven people management and leadership skills, including ability to hear and act on feedback
- Be educated to degree level or hold equivalent professional experience

This is a hybrid position. Hybrid employees can alternate time between both remote and office. Employees in hybrid roles are expected to work from the office 2-3 set days a week (determined by leadership/site), with a general guidepost of being in the office 50% or more of the time based on business needs.

The candidate must have advanced of skills and be able to:
- Develop a strong, transparent relationship with the business team members to drive the financial strategy forward
- Demonstrate interpersonal skills and ability to successfully collaborate across different teams, cultures, and interface with people at all levels of the organization
- Be intellectually curious, able to engage, enable and inspire others
- Possesses high personal standards of ethics and integrity towards other employees, stakeholders, and customers
- Present diversity of thought and experience. Continually seeks new perspectives and feedback, takes an inclusive approach
- Eager to seek a challenge and expand frontiers, brings a visionary approach. Sets and meets a high bar of goals and principles
- Natural ability to build strong relationships and enable collaboration through empathy and authenticity
- Show some experience in a strategic planning, market development or commercial role within the payments industry, financial services, banking or retail sectors
- Grow knowledge and experience of the card payments industry, local payments market and ecosystem. Broad and comprehensive knowledge of Visa business and its products and services
- Identify business opportunities and solutions and design and implement strategic frameworks and plans to deliver business targets
- Have an experience of driving cross-functional delivery of plans and initiatives
- Deep commercial acumen, negotiation skills and effective fact-based decision-making
- Deal with and influence senior internal and external stakeholders and decision makers
- Communicate with excellence and interpersonal skills with cultural sensitivity and proven people management and leadership skills, including ability to hear and act on feedback
- Be educated to degree level or hold equivalent professional experience

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.