Senior Manager, Network Partner Solutioning

**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.

What a Senior Manager, Network Partner Solutions does at Visa:
The Network Partner Management team is responsible for the global commercial strategy for the Visa Direct Network, identifying and acquiring network partners and owning the partner relationships for Visa Direct around the world. Aligned with Visa Direct’s global strategic objectives, this team plays a critical role in enabling growth of the cross-border payments offering.
What we expect of you, day to day.
This role will report to the Director, Network Partner Solutions.
- Responsible for the CEMEA regional Partner Solutions and RFP Process.
- Management of the end-to-end Partner RFP and Selection process for the respective region, simplifying the complex and removing commercial and technical barriers to delivery.
- Provide solution recommendations to Visa Direct stakeholders, based on analysis of network partners, to ensure Partners align with strategic objectives and provide the necessary capabilities.
- Support Partner and Stakeholder meetings, workshops and Q&As throughout the Partner RFP and Selection process.
- Present key findings, risks and issues as part of initial partner analysis and highlight the impact of any deviations from minimum standards.
- Provide end-to-end functional, commercial and technical support when reviewing high-profile partner opportunities.
- Conduct the assessment of potential network partners against Visa Direct minimum standards across: technical integration, Treasury, FX and payment operations.
- Identify opportunities and make recommendations to drive improvements and increase effectiveness.
- Provide regional market insight and feedback to influence priorities and drive network enhancements.

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

Basic Qualifications
8 or more years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor Degree or at least 5 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 2 years of work experience with a PhD

Preferred Qualifications
9 or more years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor Degree or 7 or more relevant years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 3 or more years of experience with a PhD

This is a key role that supports a much needed capability for the Visa Direct team, responsible for engaging prospect partners and assessing their capabilities. Liaising across all key functions and stakeholders to ensure Visa Direct minimum standards are met and the best solution design is enabled to create a best-in-class, scalable, flexible, compliant and future-proofed Payments network for Visa Direct.
What you will need:
For this role, the key skills required are:

- Mid to senior level experience in a Payments Product or Technical Integration role gained from a Transaction Banking, Payment’s (FinTech), or Remittance institution.
- Have a passion for the future of payments and a deep understanding of global payment ecosystems, industry trends and schemes - including wallets, virtual accounts and associated capabilities such as: Real-time-payments (RTP), confirmation of Payee (COP), GPI and Open-Banking etc.
- A good knowledge and industry network across CEMEA, an understanding of the African market would be an advantage.
- Deep understanding of connectivity standards such as Swift, API and H2H/ SFTP.
- In-depth knowledge of payment industry standards such as ISO 20022, SWIFT MT, JSON with ability to analyze specifications as required.
- Knowledge of cross-border payments, Treasury and FX processes desirable.
- Knowledge of Virtual accounts, Banking-as-a-service (BAAS) and Wallets desirable
- Experience of managing a bank tender process, proposals or RFP processes an advantage.
- French or local language skills language desirable.
- Knowledge of compliance, regulatory, product and technical aspects associated with payments.
- Experience with both File based and API integrations between Financial Institutions and their customers.
- Knowledge of Correspondent banking desirable.
- Ability to balance a complex mix of interpersonal skills, technical proficiency, outstanding communication skills and commercial judgement to drive outcomes.
- Excellent presentation skills and a proven ability to influence and communicate effectively ac