Director, Marketing Services, North America Sponsorship Enablement

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.

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Sponsorships represent a sizable amount of our annual Marketing Services revenue and remain a core asset for both the Visa Brand and Visa Clients. As we work towards delivering our 2030 growth strategy and achieving our future aspirations, we need to evolve our approach to productize, price, and extract maximum value out of our vast portfolio of world-class Sponsorship assets. Therefore, we are searching for a Director of Marketing Services to oversee all operational performance excellence for Sponsorships within the North America Marketing Services business. This new role will develop unique activation opportunities for new & existing sponsorships, implement a robust pricing strategy, create set plays, proactively manage asset inventory, and partner with the Marketing Services and Sponsorship teams to successfully sell and deliver Sponsorship activations and marketing programs to clients in the United States and Canada. The Director will coordinate across internal teams, external partners/agencies, and Sponsorship property representatives to ensure maximum client engagement with Sponsorship opportunities in North America. Additionally, the Director will support the exploration of net-new sponsorship and partnership opportunities and their applicability in North America, in close collaboration with the Global Marketing Services Team, Global Sponsorship Team, other Regional Marketing Services Partners, and Finance. As a member of the North America Practice Development Team, the selected candidate will help drive the strategy and go-to-market approach to advance North America Marketing Services to a profitable and strong revenue driver for Visa and achieve our financial and operational excellence goals. This person will report directly to the Senior Director of North America Practice Development.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Identify, implement and support the creation of client offerings and concepts leveraging Visa sponsorship properties in North America, including set-plays and custom activation strategies.
• Customize and/or design, implement, and optimize asset resale models for all Sponsorship properties for North America to ensure maximum utilization of assets.
• Customize and/or develop best-in-class Marketing Services sales support model & materials to enable the robust sell-in of sponsorship programs with clients in North America, support client RFPs, and document best-practices to promote knowledge sharing across the Marketing Services team.
• Support and enable NA Marketing Services team members in successfully selling, negotiating, briefing and delivering client engagements utilizing Visa sponsorship and promotional assets as differentiators
• Direct and manage relationship with dedicated client teams at Visa partner agencies to ensure alignment, prioritization and appropriate levels of support, and manage category conflict process.
• Support NA Marketing Services target setting and reporting across all Sponsorship properties; proactively report on sales pipelines and client activity, and deliver any other custom analyses as required.
• Act as subject matter expert to support talent strategy, Visa Legal engagement and overall process improvements in the activation of sponsorships with Visa clients in North America.
• Lead internal status meetings, and build & maintain a robust tracking mechanism to understand Sponsorship asset inventories allocated to North America and sell-in status by client.  Develop end of season/event North America recap for all sponsorships and incorporate learnings and insights into go-forward strategy.
• Collaborate with Global Marketing Services Senior Director and Global Sponsorship Client Development team to implement a pricing methodology to ensure consistency and clear margin targets by project/asset type.
• Represent NA Marketing Services’ interests in the exploration of new sponsorships and partnership opportunities, assess client demand/subsequent revenue potential for new assets. Partner with regional Finance and regional leaders to advance Marketing Service’s 3-year growth strategy and extend to a 2030 view.
• Participate in cross-functional and cross-geography task forces and touchpoints, including Global and Regional Sponsorship Task Forces, regular meetings with our Regional Marketing Services Sponsorship Leads, Global Marketing Service Senior Director, Global Sponsorship Client Development Team, Finance partners, relevant PMOs and more.
• Directly manage a team to deliver against goals and key functions outlined above.
• Given global nature of the role, flexibility to accommodate meetings across many time zones required.

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

Preferred Qualifications

• 12 or more years of experience with a bachelor’s degree or 10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, or MD), PhD with 6+ years of experience.
• Seven (7) or more years of relevant marketing and/or sponsorship experience, and five (5) or more years agency/agency management experience a requirement
• Background in Sponsorship management, implementation and commercialization and/or Partnership Marketing is required.
• Understanding of the Visa Marketing Services business and operating model is strongly preferred
• Strong financial acumen with ability to structure and analyze financial models. P&L understanding is a must.
• Organized with strong attention to detail and quick follow through.
• Proven track record of success independently driving large, complex programs of work.
• Creative thinker with a results orientation who approaches challenges with thoughtfulness, drive, and appropriate urgency.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to succinctly synthesize complexity and influence peers and organizational leaders.
• Ability to navigate through ambiguity and experience in building new frameworks and processes.
• A great team member who adds energy, ideas and fun to our team and corporate culture.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word required.

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 a new hire into this position is 169,100.00 to 220,000.00 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.