Vice President, Global Head of Executive Recruiting

Company Description

Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world. Join Visa and do work that matters — to you, to your community, and to the world.

Progress starts with you.

Job Description

Visa's Global Executive Talent Acquisition function is seeking an exceptional executive talent leader to serve as Vice President, Global Head of Executive Recruiting. This is one of the most strategically critical roles within Talent Acquisition with full global ownership of executive talent acquisition from strategic sourcing to delivery across all five regions: North America, Latin America & Caribbean (LAC), Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa (CEMEA), Europe and Asia Pacific (AP) and the Technology Organization.

Reporting directly to the Global Head of Talent Acquisition, this individual serves as the chief architect of Visa's enterprise executive search model overseeing a geographically distributed team with regional coverage for recruiting VP, SVP, and C-suite-level talent globally. This leader partners directly with senior stakeholders to shape and execute the talent strategies that define Visa's future leadership. This role demands a blend of strategic vision, operational rigor, executive presence, and deep global market expertise.

Essential Functions

Global Executive TA Strategy & Governance

• Designs, owns, and continuously evolves Visa's Global Executive Search Operating Model — defining standards, processes, intake methodology, talent mapping frameworks, and selection criteria for all VP+ and C-suite searches worldwide.
• Sets the enterprise-wide strategic direction for executive talent acquisition, ensuring alignment with Visa's long-term business priorities, growth ambitions, and leadership succession imperatives.
• Establishes consistent governance, quality, and compliance standards across all five regions (North America, LAC, CEMEA, Europe and AP), while enabling regional teams to tailor approaches to local labor market dynamics.
• Drives innovation in executive search methodology, championing the adoption of AI-enabled tools, advanced assessment platforms, and data-driven decision-making to continuously raise the bar on executive hiring quality and efficiency.
• Defines and monitors global executive TA metrics, SLAs, and KPIs, delivers regular executive-level reporting on pipeline health, time-to-fill, diversity outcomes, and market intelligence.

Executive Partnership & Strategic Advising

• Serves as the primary strategic talent advisor to the C-suite, and senior business leadership globally, building deep trust and credibility through consistently excellent delivery and proactive market intelligence.
• Acts as a thought partner to regional People leaders, and executive stakeholders on organizational design, leadership capability gaps, succession planning, and internal vs. external talent decisions.
• Anticipates future leadership needs by maintaining a continuous dialogue with business leaders, translating enterprise strategy into proactive executive hiring and succession pipelines.
• Advises on role definition, level calibration, candidate assessment frameworks, and compensation considerations for leadership appointments.
• Represents the Global Executive TA function in senior leadership forums and cross-functional strategic planning processes.

Global Team Leadership & Development

• Leads, inspires, and develops a high-performing, globally distributed team.
• Establishes a clear vision, operating principles, and culture of excellence, accountability, inclusion, and continuous development across the global executive TA organization.
• Manages total team capacity, search prioritization, and resource allocation across concurrent, high-impact global executive searches.
• Coaches and upskills regional leaders and executive recruiters on advanced sourcing, executive assessment, stakeholder management, and the responsible use of AI and data tools.
• Fosters a collaborative, globally connected Executive TA Community of Practice, ensuring consistent application of search standards and knowledge-sharing across all regions.

Executive Search Delivery & Quality

• Maintains direct delivery accountability for a select portfolio of the most strategically critical, complex, or sensitive global executive searches.
• Champions a premium, high-touch, differentiated candidate experience globally — ensuring all senior candidates, regardless of outcome, receive an experience that reflects and reinforces Visa's employer brand.
• Partners closely with Workforce Planning, Total Rewards, People Business Partners (PBPs), Talent Management, and Preboarding teams to deliver a seamless, best-in-class end-to-end executive hiring experience.
• Oversees relationships with external executive search partners where utilized, ensuring partner alignment, governance, and cost effectiveness.

Global Succession Planning & Talent Pipeline

• Develops and governs a multi-year proactive talent mapping strategy, building and nurturing relationships with external leadership talent pools to address Visa's long-term succession planning and capability needs across functions and geographies.
• Identifies and monitors competitor talent movements, emerging leadership trends, and global compensation benchmarks to inform proactive pipeline development.

Insights, Analytics & Market Intelligence

• Drives a data-first culture within the global executive TA team, leveraging advanced analytics, talent intelligence platforms, and reporting tools to assess performance, mitigate risks, and inform executive hiring decisions.
• Provides the C-suite and People leadership with regular, forward-looking insights on executive talent availability, competitor activity, leadership hiring trends, and macro market dynamics across all five regions.
• Maintains deep expertise across regional and global executive labor markets, cross-border regulatory considerations, cultural nuances, and executive compensation dynamics.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications 12 or more years of work experience with a bachelor’s Degree or at least 10 years of experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters/ MBA/JD/MD) or at least 8 years of work experience with a PhD Preferred Qualifications 15 or more years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD, PhD) Demonstrated success leading and closing VP, SVP, EVP, and C-suite level executive searches in large, highly matrixed, global enterprises. Significant people leadership experience, with a track record of building, developing, and inspiring geographically distributed executive recruiting teams across multiple regions and cultures. Proven experience designing and elevating a global executive search operating model, including process and governance frameworks, executive talent assessment practices, and technology enablement. Exceptional executive presence and communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to partner, advise, influence, and build lasting credibility with C-suite executives. Strong capability in advanced data analytics, executive hiring metrics, talent intelligence platforms, and AI-enabled recruiting tools to drive continuous improvement and evidence-based decision-making. Extensive executive TA or executive search leadership experience spanning multiple global regions and functions. Deep understanding of cross-border executive hiring, international labor markets, regulatory considerations, cultural talent dynamics, and executive compensation frameworks across diverse geographies. Background in financial services, payments, fintech, or technology industries strongly preferred, experience in similarly complex, global, regulated enterprises also considered. Demonstrated commitment to inclusive hiring practices, diverse talent pipelines, and creating equitable executive assessment processes. Passion for innovation, continuous improvement, and elevating the standard of executive talent acquisition as a strategic business function This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

Additional Information

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 216,300 to 400,900 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.