About Us
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.
Job Description
What is it all about?
The Head of Strategy and Commercial Operations is a critical role for shaping and executing the Nordics & Baltics cluster strategy, coordinating target setting, and managing the overall sales pipeline.
This role reports to and partners closely with the Group Country Manager (GCM), Nordics & Baltics, to ensure the cluster delivers against financial and strategic objectives. It is a Senior Director-level position, part of the Nordics & Baltics cluster Leadership Team.
The role combines strategic leadership with commercial execution. It drives revenue growth, strengthens client engagement disciplines, enhances commercial capabilities, and ensures effective governance and performance management.
What we expect of you, day by day:
Strategy:
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Translate and execute Visa’s strategy into clear, actionable cluster plans across short-, medium-, and long-term horizons.
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Align business priorities to drive revenue growth, client retention, regulatory engagement, and market leadership.
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Partner with Corporate Strategy and Corporate Development to shape strategic frameworks and support growth opportunities, including potential inorganic growth opportunities.
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Lead development of strategic content (e.g., country strategies, board materials, global business reviews).
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Orchestrate the business planning cycle, ensuring alignment across multi-year strategy, annual planning, and quarterly reviews.
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Integrate Value-Added Services (VAS), Commercial Money Movement Solutions (CMS), and Go-to-Market (GTM) strategies into a cohesive plan.
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Lead high-impact, cross-functional initiatives (e.g., market expansion, GTM acceleration).
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Partner with Country Managers and functional teams to define and deliver cluster and client strategies.
Sales & Commercial Operations:
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Actively track and manage the cluster sales pipeline, ensuring robust coverage and data quality to meet or exceed targets.
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Partner with Country Managers and sales teams to develop coordinated commercial plans.
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Drive a strong performance and sales culture across the cluster.
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Capture and translate client feedback into actionable commercial and strategic priorities.
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Act as the key interface with central Sales Excellence teams for reporting, analytics, and performance tracking.
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Support the development of sales enablement and training programs.
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Engage with generalist and specialist sales teams to support client strategy development and major deals.
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Partner with the GCM and Country Managers to develop content for key client forums (e.g., Client Councils).
Governance:
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Define and facilitate effective cluster governance, including leadership meetings, pipeline reviews, and strategic forums.
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Own content for Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), in partnership with Finance, and contribute to broader business reporting.
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Drive simplification and continuous improvement in governance processes to enable faster, higher-quality decision-making.
Cluster Operations:
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Support key operational priorities, including executive visits and internal audits.
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Provide ad hoc support to the GCM as required.
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Partner with Workforce Planning and Risk teams to ensure strong data quality, compliance, and risk management.
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Identify and implement process improvements across the business.
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Define performance targets and KPIs for the cluster in partnership with the GCM.
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Lead planning and prioritization of strategic investments.
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Act as the primary stakeholder for data and analytics teams, ensuring insights are actionable and drive performance.
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Translate data into clear actions to improve business outcomes.
Leadership:
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Lead and develop the strategy and commercial operations team, fostering a high-performance culture.
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Coach and mentor team members, ensuring strong talent development and succession planning.
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Contribute as an active member of the Cluster Leadership Team.
Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Qualifications
What we're after...
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Extensive experience in strategy, commercial leadership, or general management roles within payments, financial services, or related sectors.
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Strong understanding of the payments ecosystem, including digital commerce and evolving market dynamics.
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Experience leading cross-functional initiatives in complex, matrixed organizations.
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Strong analytical and financial acumen, with the ability to translate data into actionable insights.
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Demonstrated success in developing and executing strategy end-to-end.
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Effective leadership experience, including building and developing high-performing teams.
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Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence senior executives internally and externally.
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Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to engage at executive level.
Personal Attributes:
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Commercially driven and results-oriented.
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Collaborative, with strong influencing skills.
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Strategic thinker with a hands-on, execution-focused mindset.
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Resilient and adaptable in a fast-changing environment.
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Curious, pragmatic, and solution-oriented.
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Ability to inspire and lead through change.
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.
