Director, Financial Planning Strategy and Playbook

The Director of Financial Planning Strategy and Playbook will play a critical leadership role in defining and governing Visa’s global financial planning operating model. This role is responsible for setting the planning strategy -- defining enterprise planning priorities, eliminating low-value or redundant activities, and identifying structural constraints in the planning operating model -- while converting those insights into scalable, repeatable planning frameworks. The Director owns the end‑to‑end planning playbook, leads enterprise‑wide standardization, and ensures disciplined, consistent execution across regions, business units, and corporate functions. This role shapes how financial planning informs enterprise decision-making, ensuring alignment between financial insights, business strategy, and executive governance.

Key Responsibilities:

Planning Playbook Ownership & Governance

• Own and evolve the global Planning Playbook across Budget, Forecast, LRP, and Outlook cycles, ensuring clarity, consistency, and efficiency.
• Define and maintain end‑to‑end planning process standards, roles & responsibilities, decision rights, and governance models.
• Act as a central point of accountability for planning process integrity and adherence.

Process Strategy & Continuous Improvement

• Lead process simplification and standardization initiatives to reduce cycle time, eliminate duplication, and improve planning quality.
• Identify structural process gaps and drive targeted improvements based on stakeholder feedback and cycle retrospectives.
• Partner with FP&A leaders to balance global consistency with necessary regional or business‑specific flexibility.

Cross‑Functional Leadership & Change Management

• Navigate and align competing priorities across Corporate, Regional, and Business Unit FP&A teams, often with differing incentives, timelines, and planning maturity.
• Drive change management and adoption of new or improved planning processes through clear communication, enablement, and documentation.
• Support executive‑level decision‑making by ensuring planning frameworks are transparent, defensible, and well understood.

Tooling & Enablement (in partnership)

• Partner with FSS, CIT and Finance Transformation teams to ensure process design is effectively enabled by systems and tools.
• Translate process requirements into clear business needs, ensuring tools support -- not dictate -- planning behavior.
• Support training, rollout, and stabilization of new planning capabilities.

Team Leadership & Development

• Provide day‑to‑day leadership, coaching, and prioritization for individual contributors within the Playbook & Process team.
• Establish clear deliverables, timelines, and quality standards for workstreams owned by the team.
• Foster a culture of ownership, rigor, and continuous improvement.

What Success Looks Like

• Ensure planning processes enable high-quality decision-making around investment prioritization, resource allocation, and long-range strategic direction.
• Planning processes are simpler, clearer, and more consistently executed across the enterprise.
• Stakeholders know who owns what, when decisions are made, and how plans tie together.
• Planning cycles run faster with fewer escalations and less rework.
• The Planning Playbook is a trusted, living reference document.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in the office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

Basic Qualifications:

• 10 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 8 years of work experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters/ MBA/JD/MD) or at least 3 years of work experience with a PhD
• 8+ years of experience in FP&A, finance strategy, or finance transformation roles
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field

Preferred Qualifications:

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD
• Experience leading enterprise‑scale planning processes (Budget, Forecast, LRP) in a global organization
• Strong understanding of FP&A operating models, governance frameworks, and planning methodologies
• Proven ability to lead cross‑functional initiatives and influence without direct authority
• Experience partnering with EPM or finance systems teams
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with comfort operating at VP/SVP level

Work Hours: Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements: This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.

Mental/Physical Requirements: This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

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.

Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.

U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated salary range for this position is 178,300.00 to 285,600.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401 (k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.