Senior Director - Head of Corporate Risk CEMEA

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.

Job Description

We're seeking an exceptional Head of Corporate Risk to lead the implementation and embedding of Visa’s Enterprise, Operational, Supervisory and Third-Party Risk Management framework across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA). This is a pivotal role for a hands-on risk leader who thrives on making risk management real and actionable for the business—not just theoretical frameworks, but practical tools that drive better decision-making, transparency, and mitigation.

You'll be responsible for ensuring our payments business has robust, embedded risk practices that provide management with clear visibility into our risk landscape and enable proactive mitigation. This role requires someone who can translate complex regulatory requirements and risk frameworks into practical business applications while building strong collaborative relationships across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise & Operational Risk Management

• Implement and embed the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework across the region, ensuring it becomes an integral part of how the business operates
• Drive the adoption and operationalization of the Operational Risk Framework, making risk identification, assessment, and mitigation a natural part business
• Partner with business teams across all functions to define in-scope processes for Risk and Control Self-Assessments (RCSA), ensuring comprehensive coverage of key operational activities
• Guide and enable business teams to complete RCSAs effectively, providing hands-on support, training, and quality assurance throughout the assessment process
• Drive consistent use of risk and issue logging system (GORO) across the region, ensuring data quality and completeness
• Establish processes that translate logged risks and issues into actionable management insights, driving awareness and appropriate response at all levels
• Work with business owners to develop and track risk mitigation plans, ensuring accountability and progress monitoring
• Develop comprehensive risk reporting that provides clear insights for senior management decision-making, highlighting trends, concentrations, and areas requiring attention
• Foster a culture where business teams view RCSA and risk assessment as valuable tools for their own operations, not just compliance exercises
• Collaborate with risk teams across other sub-regions to identify emerging risks and share best practices

Third-Party Risk Management

• Own end-to-end third-party lifecycle management including due diligence, onboarding approvals, and ongoing monitoring
• Embed robust vendor risk assessment processes that balance thoroughness with business agility
• Ensure third-party risks are properly identified, measured, and mitigated throughout the vendor relationship
• Collaborate with global third-party risk teams on projects and initiatives, ensuring regional alignment while addressing local requirements
• Embed and disseminate global best practices in third-party risk management across the region, adapting them appropriately for local context
• Provide timely reporting and escalation of significant third-party risks to management and risk committees
• Contribute regional insights and lessons learned to global third-party risk frameworks and standards

Supervisory Risk Management

• Partner closely with Legal, Country Management, Government Engagement and Compliance teams to ensure all regulatory requirements and changes are thoroughly understood and implemented flawlessly and on time
• Translate regulatory requirements into practical business changes and control enhancements
• Maintain deep understanding of the regional regulatory landscape affecting payments operations
• Work closely with global regulatory and supervisory risk teams on cross-border projects and initiatives to ensure consistent approaches
• Adopt and disseminate global regulatory best practices while ensuring they are appropriately tailored to regional supervisory expectations
• Establish robust processes for timely reporting and escalation of regulatory risks, breaches, and supervisory matters to management and risk committees
• Ensure proactive communication with global teams regarding emerging regulatory changes and their potential regional impact

Risk Governance & Committee Management

• Lead and facilitate the regional risk committee, ensuring it serves as an effective forum for surfacing and discussing key risks with senior management
• Drive consistent governance standards, frameworks, and reporting templates across all sub-regional risk committees to ensure quality and comparability
• Ensure local and sub-regional risks are adequately identified, discussed, and documented in sub-regional risk committees with appropriate rigor and accountability
• Establish clear escalation protocols and criteria to ensure material risks from sub-regional committees are escalated to the regional risk committee on a timely basis
• Develop high-quality, insightful content and materials that drive meaningful management discussions and decision-making at both regional and sub-regional levels
• Create a committee environment that encourages balanced, constructive conversations about risk appetite, emerging threats, and mitigation strategies
• Ensure risk committees highlight critical risks to the business in a clear, actionable manner that prompts appropriate management attention and response
• Drive accountability for risk decisions and follow-up actions identified in committee discussions across all levels

Critical Skills & Attributes

• Entrepreneurial self-starter - You take initiative, identify gaps, and drive solutions without waiting to be told
• Hands-on implementation expert - You roll up your sleeves and get into the details—this isn't a purely strategic role
• Outstanding collaboration skills - You build strong relationships across functions and geographies, influencing without authority
• Exceptional communicator - Superior written and verbal communication skills with ability to articulate complex risk concepts clearly to diverse audiences
• Strong leadership abilities - Proven team leader who can inspire, develop, and manage high-performing risk professionals
• Business acumen - You understand how to balance risk management with business objectives and operational realities
• Change management capability - Experience driving organizational change and adoption of new frameworks and processes

Personal Characteristics

• Pragmatic and solutions-oriented mindset
• High degree of personal accountability and ownership
• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to create structure where needed
• Strong executive presence and credibility with senior stakeholders
• Resilient and adaptable in a fast-paced, evolving environment

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

Qualifications

• 15+ years of extensive hands-on experience implementing ERM and operational risk frameworks at a large multinational financial institution, payments company or a consulting firm where you have implemented such frameworks
• Proven track record of successfully embedding risk frameworks into business operations—you've done this before and can demonstrate impact
• Deep practical knowledge of third-party risk management and regulatory compliance in financial services
• Experience working in or with payments, banking, or financial services regulatory environments
• Advanced degree (MBA, Master's) or professional certifications (FRM, PRM, CFA) required

Critical Skills & Attributes

• Entrepreneurial self-starter - You take initiative, identify gaps, and drive solutions without waiting to be told
• Hands-on implementation expert - You roll up your sleeves and get into the details—this isn't a purely strategic role
• Outstanding collaboration skills - You build strong relationships across functions and geographies, influencing without authority
• Exceptional communicator - Superior written and verbal communication skills with ability to articulate complex risk concepts clearly to diverse audiences
• Strong leadership abilities - Proven team leader who can inspire, develop, and manage high-performing risk professionals
• Business acumen - You understand how to balance risk management with business objectives and operational realities
• Change management capability - Experience driving organizational change and adoption of new frameworks and processes

Personal Characteristics

• Pragmatic and solutions-oriented mindset
• High degree of personal accountability and ownership
• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to create structure where needed
• Strong executive presence and credibility with senior stakeholders
• Resilient and adaptable in a fast-paced, evolving environment

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.