Manager, VCA, Intelligence & Data Solutions (IDS), Data Science

Company Description

Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world. Join Visa and do work that matters — to you, to your community, and to the world.

Progress starts with you.

Team Description

Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) is the consulting arm of Visa, and drives tangible, impactful results for clients. Drawing on our expertise in consulting, data analytics, technology, payments and economics, VCA solves the most strategic problems for our clients. VCA's core client segments include issuers, acquirers, merchants, fintech's, payment enablers and governments. The Intelligence & Data Solutions (IDS) team at VCA consists of data scientists, analysts, and engineers who provide analytics solutions. Their goal is to leverage VisaNet, one of the largest datasets globally, to help clients enhance their performance and increase profitability.

Job Description

The ideal candidate is a strategic problem solver with strong analytical and quantitative skills, capable of addressing key business and product needs for Visa’s clients, including issuers, acquirers, and merchants. This leader embraces an AI‑First mindset, leveraging advanced AI,ML techniques to accelerate insight generation, automate decision making, and build scalable, data‑driven solutions.

Adept at creative, critical, and structured thinking, the candidate can break down complex problems, design robust analytical approaches, and transform insights into state‑of‑the‑art, large‑scale AI solutions. The individual must be a fast learner with strong ownership, capable of guiding teams through ambiguity and driving measurable business impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and strengthen high‑impact stakeholder relationships across internal teams and Visa clients.
• Build and deploy advanced analytical and AI or ML models across Visa and VCA clients (issuers, acquirers, merchants), following AI‑First principles.
• Work with large‑scale, complex datasets, extracting, cleansing, transforming, and manipulating data using tools such as Hadoop ecosystem, PySpark, SAS, Presto, SQL, and related technologies.
• Oversee robust data‑wrangling processes, ensuring high‑quality datasets suited for predictive modeling and analytical insights.
• Develop, evaluate, and validate advanced data mining techniques, machine learning algorithms, and automated analytical capabilities to solve strategic business challenges.
• Leverage Visa’s data, AI infrastructure, and analytic assets to design, standardize, and implement scalable consulting solutions.
• Identify relevant market and industry trends, generating insights that inform strategic decisions in the payments ecosystem.
• Engage and influence internal and external stakeholders to shape analysis scope, methodologies, and solution direction.
• Continuously propose innovative ideas that improve analytical strategies, operational efficiency, and client value promoting an AI‑First and experimentation culture.
• Conduct client‑specific analyses using proprietary portfolio data, including demographics, behavioral patterns, spend, fraud, credit risk, and financial performance.
• Communicate complex analytical concepts and model results clearly and effectively to executive and non‑technical audiences.
• Support technical knowledge transfer and ensure smooth implementation of delivered solutions.
• Document analytical processes, methodologies, and best practices, contributing to continuous improvement across the organization.

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

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree preferred (e.g., Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related fields).
• 6+ years of professional experience, including at least 4 years in the Banking or Payments industry.
• Strong interest in the future of payments and evolving payment technologies.
• Experience across retail banking, payments, financial services, and,or technology sectors.
• Demonstrated experience in Credit Risk, Fraud Prevention, propensity modeling for portfolio optimization, and ad‑hoc analytical, modeling work.
• Proven ability to design, automate, and maintain scalable operational processes.
• Hands‑on experience in advanced analytics and statistical modeling, including:
• Linear and Logistic Regression
• Clustering methods (e.g., K‑means)
• Classification models (e.g., Decision Trees, Random Forest), among others
• Experience working with large scale datasets (Big Data), including data extraction, cleaning, and transformation using tools such as Python, PySpark, SQL, Hadoop,Hive, Presto, SAS, etc.
• Knowledge of data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI).
• Ability to continuously generate and present innovative, data‑driven insights to enhance business practices at Visa, particularly within the four‑party payment model (issuer, acquirer, merchant, and cardholder).
• Excellent project management, organizational, and presentation skills.
• Strong teamwork, relationship‑building, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines.
• Fluency in English and Portuguese (spoken and written). Spanish is a plus.

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.