Sr. Manager, Innovation Center Operations & Experiences, North America

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.

Visa Innovation Center team in North America is looking for a Sr. Manager, Innovation Center Operations & Experiences, to take ownership of day-to-day operations of the new flagship Mission Rock Innovation Center in Visa's new headquarters in San Francisco.

We are looking for a confident and experienced client-facing leader with exceptional interpersonal and negotiation skills to drive operational excellence and impact in delivering client engagements in Mission Rock Innovation Center that address key account needs, strengthening client relationships and supporting account goals. This person will own end-to-end Center operations, including but not limited to managing the Center booking system, scheduling and conducting intake conversations, creating, maintaining, and updating appropriate documentation and Center collateral, and preparing reporting on key Center metrics.

This is a highly visible internally and externally role that will regularly engage with Visa's account teams, product owners, and senior leaders as well as a wide range of client and partner groups. This role will be a key ally to Account Executives and directly impact Visa's customer relationships, acting as a conduit from Sales, to Product, Technology, and other cross-functional teams.

The ideal candidate is exceptionally organized, has unparalleled attention to detail, has a strong bias for action, can independently manage projects and engagements end-to-end, and is deeply curious about payments and commerce as the role requires the ability to understand and explain complex technologies, products and trends during client engagements in the Center.

This role is key for Center operational excellence and superior client experience and also includes the responsibility to provide Center Experiences to clients and partners. Training and coaching will be given for delivering client experiences, but a high level of curiosity and enthusiasm for learning is required. The position is well-suited for an outgoing, highly extraverted, dynamic, positive, self-starter with a strong appetite for learning, a passion for payments and commerce innovation.

Job responsibilities

Intake & Scheduling

• Establish an effective operating model for intake and scheduling, including but not limited to a step-by-step process documentation, guides, requirements, FAQs, etc.
• Drive the intake and reservations for client experiences on a daily basis.

Delivering Center Experiences

• Become proficient in delivering an end-to-end Center Experience, which includes multiple activations in a variety of formats, narrated and driven by the Host (you), and covering a number of business-critical topics, for example, key payments and commerce trends, fraud detection & prevention trends, cross-border payments, ecommerce, AI, etc.
• Collaborate closely with account/client teams on ensuring the Center experience is closely aligned with the account strategy and adds value to the overall client engagement agenda surrounding the Center experience.

Documentation, Communication & Reporting

• Develop and implement an end-to-end Innovation Center experience standards, processes, documentation, and collateral(i.e. experience plan, clientscheduling, host scheduling, host training) - from intake, through the experience delivery, to post-experience communication and reporting.
• Play an active role in communications towards internal stakeholders including Account Executives and senior executives, ensuring stakeholders are consistently informed of new activations or updates, intake process, interruptions to service, etc. This might require internal website updates, email campaigns, or short webinar updates.
• Own the feedback collection mechanism and feedback loop to ensure relevant stakeholders are consistently apprised of technical issues and client feedback including metrics.

Troubleshooting

• Identify problems in the Center as they arise and assist with carrying out basic maintenance and troubleshooting of AV, operational and demo infrastructure, or escalation (develop a protocol) to appropriate parties (internal and external) to remedy the issues.

Optimization

• Own and optimize Innovation Center operations end-to-end - intake, scheduling, client experience, outtake, and reporting. Proactively seek feedback, make recommendations, and continuously implement process and experience improvements.
• Continuously and proactively identify and communicate opportunities for Center experience and host script improvements and updates based on client experiences and feedback.

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

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

*Undergraduate degree required, plus 5+ years combined industry and/or product management experience.

*5+ years of experience in client-facing roles interacting with/presenting to executives at various levels. Experience with Executive Briefing Centers/Innovation Centers/Innovation Labs/Experience Centers preferred but not required.

*Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to address different audiences and levels appropriately.

*The ideal candidate is highly extraverted and collaborative, gains energy from interacting with a diverse set of people, taking on new challenges, solving problems, enabling customer delight and creating new ground-breaking experiences as a team.

*Strong project management skills required, from analytics and reporting to vendor management.

*Ability to lead virtual cross-functional teams and stakeholders. This role will interface with many internal stakeholders and building functions (IT, Real Estate, Executive Assistants to senior leadership, etc.) driving structured, documented meetings, and workshops, with actionable outcomes to achieve the center goals.

*An interest in, or enthusiasm to learn, AV and demo infrastructure technology and to address rudimentary troubleshooting.

*Intellectually curious and an avid learner and user of emerging technologies. Curiosity and desire to learn about Visa products, strategy, and Visa operating culture with self-motivation to continually update knowledge for themselves and the team.

*An interest in, or enthusiasm to learn how to distill complex products and technologies into compelling narratives with story-telling technique.

*Proven ability to operate under pressure or to tight deadline and ability to prioritize, make decisions and deliver on time whilst maintaining high attention to detail.

*Proven aptitude for solving unstructured problems within deadline.

*Strong self-starter with proven success in effectively navigating complex environments with an eye for details and proactive mindset.

*Proficiency with Microsoft 365.

*Familiarity with or willingness to learn online tools required for performing daily responsibilities, for example, online booking system (BriefingSource), design tools (Figma), etc.

Work Hours: Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements: This position requires travel5-10% of the time.

Mental/Physical Requirements: This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

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.

U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated salary range for a new hire into this position is 159,100.00 to 230,900.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401 (k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.