Director, Benefits Centre of Excellence, Visa Europe

Visa; City Of London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial technology firm in London is looking for a strategic leader to head their Benefits Centre of Excellence. This role involves developing a consumer benefits sourcing strategy, negotiating with partners, and driving operational excellence across various products. Ideal candidates will have experience in consumer banking and partnership negotiations. The position offers opportunities for impact in a rapidly evolving space.

Qualifications

• Experience in consumer banking, payments, and loyalty management.
• Proven track record in global partnership negotiations.
• Experience in designing and launching consumer benefits.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a sourcing strategy for consumer benefits.
• Lead negotiations with benefit providers and maximize margins.
• Establish dashboards to track key metrics and optimize program economics.
• Oversee onboarding of benefit providers to ensure operational readiness.
• Drive continuous improvement in benefit delivery processes.

Skills

Consumer banking

Partnership negotiation

Product design

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Collaboration

Job description

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

Visa's Benefits Centre of Excellence (CoE) aims to centralise the sourcing, negotiation, onboarding and lifecycle management of premium benefits, giving issuers a turnkey solution that elevates Visa’s consumer propositions and directly advances our Consumer Solutions Strategy for Affluent in Europe.

Its scope spans Europe-wide supplier identification, commercial and operating model for faster time to market, higher cost efficiencies in benefits sourcing, and optimal partner integration with ongoing performance optimisation across Travel, Peace of Mind, Lifestyle & Entertainment, and other benefit areas - driving affluent acquisition, activation and spend, fuelling sustainable revenue growth for our clients.

This role heads will be responsible for establishing and leading the CoE as a strategic hub for benefits innovation, best practices, and operational excellence, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and delivering measurable impact.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Sourcing & Commercial Leadership

• Develop and execute a sourcing strategy for consumer benefits that prioritizes innovation, differentiation, and commercial viability.
• Lead negotiations with benefit providers, securing favorable commercial terms, managing cost structures, and maximizing margins.
• Own the contracting process, ensuring compliance, risk mitigation, and alignment with Visa’s strategic goals.
• Design and implement scalable benefits with clear pricing models and profitability targets.

2. Product Ownership & Innovation

• Define and evolve the strategic roadmap for benefits with propositions team, ensuring differentiation, customer relevance, and alignment with strategy.
• Own the full product lifecycle—from ideation and design to launch and post-launch optimization.
• Continuously gather user and client feedback to identify pain points and drive enhancements.

3. Profitability & Performance Management

• Establish and manage benefit-level dashboards to track key metrics including engagement, cost, margin, NPS, and ROI.
• Monitor and optimize program economics, identifying levers to improve profitability and reduce operational inefficiencies.
• Collaborate with Finance and Operations to align on financial targets, forecasting, and performance reviews.

4. Partner Onboarding & Relationship Management

• Oversee onboarding of benefit providers, ensuring seamless integration, operational readiness, and brand alignment.
• Manage ongoing relationships with global and regional partners, driving joint roadmaps and mutual value creation.
• Ensure structured performance reviews and feedback loops with providers.

5. Operational Excellence & Program Delivery

• Ensure flawless execution of benefits across markets, maintaining high standards of quality, service, and client customization.
• Implement best practices in program management, including lifecycle oversight, issue resolution, and post-event reporting.
• Drive continuous improvement in delivery processes, leveraging data and feedback to refine operations.

6. Market Activation & Sales Enablement

• Support client engagements with compelling benefit narratives and segment-specific content.
• Collaborate with sub-regional teams to tailor benefit offerings to local market needs and drive adoption.
• Lead go-to-market strategies for benefit packages, enabling deployment at issuer or market level.

7. Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Build and lead a world-class benefits team with expertise in sourcing, contracting, partner management, and operations.
• Foster a culture of excellence, innovation, and accountability, ensuring continuous development and high performance.
• Define clear roles, responsibilities, and success metrics across the team to drive execution and impact.

Qualifications

• Experience: Consumer banking, payments, engagement/ loyalty management; CVP building experience; credit card proposition design desirable.
• Partnership Skills: Proven track record in negotiating and securing high-value partnerships globally and within Europe.
• Product Expertise: Experience designing, building, and launching consumer benefits with issuers and fintechs.
• Strategic & Analytical: Ability to interpret market trends and client needs into innovative solutions.
• Technical Aptitude: Comfortable with functional specifications and diverse partners ecosystem integrations.
• Execution Focus: Results-driven, able to deliver in fast-paced environments with cross-functional engagement.
• Soft Skills: Strong negotiation, problem-solving, communication; collaborative team player.
• Mindset: Strategic thinker with ability to connect vision to execution.

Additional Information

Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.