Common Purpose, Uncommon Opportunity. Everyone at Visa works with one goal in mind – making sure that Visa is the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone everywhere. This is our global vision and the common purpose that unites the entire Visa team. As a global payments technology company, tech is at the heart of what we do: Our VisaNet network processes over 13,000 transactions per second for people and businesses around the world, enabling them to use digital currency instead of cash and checks. We are also global advocate for financial inclusion, working with partners around the world to help those who lack access to financial services join the global economy. Visa’s sponsorships, including the Olympics and FIFA™ World Cup, celebrate teamwork, diversity, and excellence throughout the world. If you have a passion to make a difference in the lives of people around the world, Visa offers an uncommon opportunity to build a strong, thriving career. Visa is fueled by our team of talented employees who continuously raise the bar on delivering the convenience and security of digital currency to people all over the world. Join our team and find out how Visa is everywhere you want to be.

You may have noticed that payment has become a very active/hot area in the last several years. Given the strong demands and innovation, this will be a very exciting area in the next 5 to 10 years. VISA is clearly a very strong leader in the payment industry, and is in a fast pace of technology transformation. For a payment system to work well, advance technologies such as data platform, big data, data mining, machine learning, cloud, etc. are critical. In VISA, we have all of these. The Data Platform Department is in the center for many of these technologies and development.

The Data Platform team is a key component of Visa's Technology organization that provides an enriched and valuable ecosystem of data platform and data services that drive innovation for our partners and clients, within Visa and globally. Data is the most valuable asset in Visa. The Data Platform Department is dedicated to develop advanced technology (e.g. Cloud, Machine Learning and Big Data), systems and services to make data secure, high quality, rich, fast, and easy to use, therefore enabling Visa the ability to leverage its data asset in an effective and timely manner to maximize technology/business development and differentiate Visa from others in the payment industry. The department maintains tens of petabytes of data supporting over 100 services for various internal lines of business and external clients. Our technical stack has two layers: Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Data as a service (DaaS).

Position Summary:

Visa is seeking a Chief Systems Architect in the Data Platform department to act as one of key technology leaders to build and manage Visa’s technology assets in the data Platform as a Service (PaaS) layer.

This individual will act as a trusted technical advisor and strategic thought leader to the Data Platform department. The successful candidate will be comfortable navigating challenging forces in the dynamic payments space especially in the PaaS areas and be comfortable in a fast-paced environment with significant changes; developing/implementing strategies and processes that enable the organization to innovate and grow fast. You will have the opportunity to lead, participate, guide, and mentor other people in the team on architecture and design in a hands on manner. You are responsible for the strategic and technical direction of Visa Data Platform for the PaaS layer. This position reports to the head of data Platform as a Service group and will be based in Palo Alto, CA. The ideal candidate will have very strong leadership with rich industrial experience in the big data and/or large scale software platform areas

Primary responsibilities will include:

• Provide Architectural leadership and vision for Visa’s Data Platform – the PaaS layer. Develop and maintain architectural roadmap for products and services plus ensuring alignment with the business and enterprise architecture strategies and standards. Able to develop, present and explain the value and vision of proposed architectures and solutions to a wide range of audience.
• Contribute to the DP strategies and roadmap development to meet business objectives with existing or emerging technologies. Ability to translate business concepts to technical terms. Understands and communicates company goals and objectives.
• Apply creative thinking/approach to determine technical solutions that further business goals and align with corporate technology strategies, keeping in mind performance, reliability, scalability, usability, security, flexibility, and cost.
• Define and drive technology standard and best practices in the Data Platform areas, and lead some key projects.
• Oversee and sign off key architecture artifacts in the group.
• Maintain broad technical and solution knowledge in software, infrastructure, big data, security, and business architecture areas.
• Articulate technology solutions as well as explain the competitive advantages of various technology alternatives.
• Work on highly complex issues with broad technical or strategic implications for the organization.   
• Collaborate with the key stakeholders, other product development groups and software vendors to identify and define solutions for complex business and technical requirements.
• Engage with Data Platform customers/partners to understand their needs and provide suggestions/guidance on what PaaS techniques are appropriate to solve their problems with pros/cons articulated clearly.
• Drive internal proof of concept initiatives. When needed, quickly design and implement a prototype of a system or component with a proper architecture, and then hand over to (may lead) a small group of devs to finish.
• Build relationships with key architects across technology organizations and collaborate on promoting architectural best practices across technology
• Provide mentorship and help team growth especially on technical side.
  
  

• Experienced technology leader with a minimum of 15+ years of software development experience including 5+ years of application or platform architecture experience with deep technology expertise in the following:
  o   Extensive experience on architecture design and development of large scale platforms and application with simple solutions
  o   Deep knowledge and hands on experience on big data and cloud computing technologies including Hadoop, Spark, Hive, HBase, etc.
  o   Extensive hands on design/coding experience/skills using Java, J2EE, C++, C#. Strong on elegant coding, can write very solid prototypes or core components quickly.
  o   Strong service development experience with high performance and scalability
  o   Object-Oriented design and development
  o   SQL/noSQL technology
  o   Web Services (REST/ SOAP)
  o   Service Oriented Architecture
  o   JavaScript Framework and AJAX
  o   Experience on application/platform instrumentation, measurement, log data processing, and monitoring.
  o   Familiar with Database, ETL and Business Intelligence technologies like Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, etc. 
  o   Experience on distributed application performance engineering, mobile application development, database design, middleware, user interface development, and information security engineering
• Technical background in data with deep understanding of issues in multiple areas such as data management, query processing, distributed processing, high availability, statistical, data mining, machine learning and operational excellence of production systems is required
  
• Have a successful track record of leading architecture work for large scale projects that represent broad strategic initiatives meeting quantifiable business objectives and resulting in tangible impact for the organization. Demonstrated expertise in leveraging agile and other development methodologies
  Strong at technical goal setting for a project with actionable success metrics. Good knowledge and experience on measuring a service from user experience angle.
• Strong at identifying problems, solving complex problems with simple solutions.
• Think strategically:  See patterns and relationships in information and events; clarify and simplify complex information; anticipate trends and possibilities that may lead to new business opportunities; consistently think and act “ahead of the curve;” anticipate and effectively respond with urgency to immediate opportunities; executes plans vigorously and with flexibility; operate proactively; identify and address long-term opportunities.  
• Demonstrated proficiency and experience in one or more of the following areas: application architecture, solutions architecture, software systems architecture, and data architecture.
• Strong on driving for results and self-motivated, strong learning mindset, with good understanding of related advanced/new technology. Keep up with the technology development in the related areas in the industry, which could be leveraged to enhance current architectures and build durable new ones.
• Outstanding verbal, written, presentation, facilitation, and interaction skills, including ability to effectively communicate architectural issues and concepts to multiple organization levels and executive management.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline required; advanced degree is a plus.
• Fast learner on both technical side and business side
• Strong customer centric mindset
• Strong leadership and team player.
• Strong skills on mentoring/growing junior people
• Payment industry experience is a plus.
  
  

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.