Job DescriptionVisa's North America Value Added Services (VAS) organization is responsible for accelerating growth by delivering solutions that help clients modernize their businesses, improve customer experiences, mitigate risk, drive operational efficiency, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
The Senior Director, Issuing Solutions Sales, Canada will serve as a senior commercial leader responsible for driving revenue growth, market expansion, and client adoption across Visa's Issuing Value Added Services portfolio. This role combines strategic sales leadership, payments industry expertise, commercialization, executive relationship management, and ecosystem engagement to help Canadian issuers navigate an increasingly complex landscape shaped by fraud, digital transformation, real-time payments, open banking, customer expectations, and emerging payment technologies.
The successful candidate will have deep knowledge of the Canadian financial services ecosystem and a proven track record of commercializing solutions, building executive relationships, influencing industry stakeholders, and translating market opportunities into measurable business outcomes.
This individual will be responsible for originating, developing, and closing strategic opportunities across Visa's portfolio of fraud and risk products, digital enablement solutions, loyalty and engagement offerings, network products, dispute solutions, payment optimization capabilities, and emerging Value Added Services.
The role requires a highly consultative leader capable of engaging C-suite executives, payments leaders, fraud and risk organizations, digital banking teams, and innovation stakeholders while orchestrating complex, multi-stakeholder sales motions within a matrixed global organization.
Essential FunctionsLead Growth Across Canada's Issuing VAS Portfolio- Own and deliver revenue and bookings targets across the Canadian Issuing VAS portfolio.
- Develop strategic account growth plans that align Visa's capabilities with client priorities and market opportunities.
- Identify expansion opportunities within existing issuer relationships while developing new client growth opportunities.
- Own opportunities through the full sales lifecycle from strategy and discovery through negotiation, close, implementation, and activation.
Serve as a Trusted Strategic Advisor- Partner with executive stakeholders to understand business priorities, growth ambitions, risk management objectives, digital transformation goals, and modernization initiatives.
- Position Visa's capabilities as strategic solutions that drive measurable client outcomes.
- Develop compelling business cases supported by financial analysis, industry insights, and value realization frameworks.
- Present executive-level recommendations that connect Visa's solutions to broader enterprise priorities.
Drive Commercialization and Go-to-Market Strategy- Identify emerging trends across payments, fraud and risk, digital identity, open banking, real-time payments, embedded finance, account-to-account payments, and financial services modernization.
- Translate market opportunities into commercialization strategies that accelerate client adoption, market penetration, and revenue growth.
- Provide field-based insights to product, strategy, and go-to-market teams to influence product roadmaps, packaging, pricing, sales readiness, and market positioning.
- Help shape differentiated value propositions that resonate with Canadian financial institutions and ecosystem partners.
Build and Execute Territory and Market Growth Plans- Develop and execute a disciplined territory strategy focused on sustainable pipeline generation and account penetration.
- Drive outbound business development activities, opportunity qualification, and consistent funnel progression.
- Maintain strong forecasting discipline and pipeline governance.
- Deliver regular business reviews, growth plans, and execution updates to leadership.
Partner Closely with Account Executives and Market Leaders- Collaborate with Generalist Account Executives to align VAS opportunities to broader client and account strategies.
- Integrate VAS growth objectives into strategic account plans.
- Coordinate executive sponsorship and engagement activities across Visa and client organizations.
- Drive alignment across relationship owners and solution teams.
Orchestrate Cross-Functional Deal Teams- Lead complex, multi-stakeholder sales pursuits across product, consulting, pricing, finance, legal, risk, operations, client success, and sales engineering teams.
- Align resources around client priorities and deal strategy.
- Ensure effective execution throughout the sales process while maintaining commercial rigor.
Build and Leverage Ecosystem Relationships- Develop and maintain relationships across banks, credit unions, fintechs, payment processors, technology providers, consultants, industry associations, and strategic partners.
- Identify opportunities to create value through ecosystem collaboration and strategic partnerships.
- Engage external stakeholders to strengthen Visa's market presence and industry influence.
Drive Industry Thought Leadership- Act as a senior representative of Visa within the Canadian payments ecosystem.
- Engage with issuers and industry stakeholders on topics including fraud modernization, payment security, open banking, digital identity, real-time payments, payment innovation, customer experience, and emerging technologies.
- Represent Visa at client events, industry conferences, executive forums, and market initiatives.
- Help shape strategic conversations across the Canadian financial services landscape.
Own Executive-Level Client Engagement- Build trusted advisor relationships with senior executives across payments, strategy, innovation, digital banking, risk, fraud, operations, technology, and customer experience organizations.
- Lead executive presentations, value discussions, negotiations, and commercial agreement reviews.
- Influence decision makers through compelling market insights and business value narratives.
- Develop relationships that support long-term client growth and strategic partnerships.
Ensure Operational Excellence and Commercial Discipline- Maintain accurate CRM hygiene, forecasts, and pipeline reporting.
- Communicate opportunity risks, dependencies, and close plans with clarity and accountability.
- Operate with strong commercial rigor and disciplined sales execution practices.
- Consistently deliver against growth, revenue, and client outcome objectives.
This is a hybrid position to be located in our Toronto, Canada office location. Expectation of days in office 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.
QualificationsBasic Qualifications- 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor's Degree, or at least 10 years of work experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g., MBA, Master's, JD, MD), or a minimum of 5 years of work experience with a PhD.
- Proven track record of driving revenue growth, commercial strategy, business development, or solution sales within complex enterprise environments.
- Demonstrated success commercializing new products, services, platforms, or strategic initiatives within financial services or technology organizations.
- Strong executive presence with experience engaging C-suite executives, boards, industry stakeholders, and senior decision makers.
- Proven ability to develop and execute market-entry, go-to-market, or growth strategies that translate industry opportunities into measurable business outcomes.
- Demonstrated ability to influence product direction, commercialization priorities, and market strategies through customer insight and industry expertise.
- Experience leading complex, multi-solution sales motions involving multiple stakeholders, buying centers, and cross-functional teams.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and drive alignment across highly matrixed organizations.
Preferred Qualifications- 15+ years of leadership experience in payments, financial services, fintech, banking technology, consulting, enterprise technology, or related industries.
- Deep understanding of the Canadian payments ecosystem, including card payments, open banking, real-time payments, digital banking, lending, identity solutions, and payment modernization initiatives.
- Experience building and leveraging executive relationships across financial institutions, fintechs, technology providers, industry associations, and ecosystem stakeholders.
- Strong understanding of fraud and risk management, authorization performance, payment security, digital trust, and evolving payment threats.
- Ability to engage credibly with fraud, risk, payment, operations, technology, digital banking, and innovation leaders while positioning strategic business solutions.
- Experience across one or more domains including:
- Payments and card ecosystems
- Fraud and risk management
- Digital banking and channels
- Open banking
- Real-time payments
- Commercialization and go-to-market strategy
- Strategic partnerships
- Consulting and business transformation
- Financial services modernization
- Experience owning opportunity economics, business case development, financial modeling, and executive value articulation.
- Existing relationships with Canadian financial institutions and strong understanding of the evolving Canadian financial services landscape.
- Experience representing a global technology company, payments network, consulting organization, financial institution, fintech, processor, or strategic technology partner in senior client-facing roles.
- Ability to travel regularly for client meetings, executive engagement, conferences, and industry events across Canada.
Why This RoleThis role is ideal for a senior commercial leader who combines payments expertise, strategic sales capability, ecosystem influence, and executive relationship management. Success in this position requires the ability to connect market trends, client priorities, and Visa's capabilities to create meaningful business outcomes for Canadian issuers while accelerating adoption of Visa's Value Added Services portfolio.
The ideal candidate may come from organizations such as financial institutions, payments networks, fintechs, technology platforms, consulting firms, processors, or ecosystem partners and bring a demonstrated history of building markets, commercializing innovation, influencing industry transformation, and driving growth within the Canadian financial services sector.
