At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead innovative solutions for government payments and digital transformation.
- Company: Join Visa, a global leader in digital payments with a diverse and inclusive culture.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible work arrangements, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with opportunities to influence future technology directions.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on global payment systems and improve citizen experiences.
- Qualifications: 10+ years in solution architecture or related fields, strong communication skills required.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
About Us
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
Overview: Visa is a global leader in digital payments. Our goal is to connect people and businesses through a secure and reliable payment network, helping economies grow. We focus on new technology to make digital payments simple and accessible for everyone, everywhere. At Visa, we value each person's uniqueness. Working here gives you the opportunity to make a difference, develop your career, and join a welcoming, diverse team. We are innovators working to improve financial access and digital payments for people worldwide, including those who have never had access to these services before.
What’s it all about: Visa Government Solutions (VGS) supports governments as they modernise payments, improve citizen experiences, protect public funds, and build trusted digital ecosystems. Governments are among the largest contributors to payment flows in every market and are investing heavily in digital transformation, financial inclusion, fraud prevention, digital identity, AI and resilient public infrastructure. The purpose of this role is to provide the technical solution architecture, partner ecosystem and platform commercialisation capability that underpins the Growth Initiatives operating model, helping transform government opportunities into scalable growth platforms. The role is strategic, highly technical and commercially focused. It sits within the Global Growth Initiatives team and works across priority areas including: Citizen Wallets, Visa Protect for Government, Financial Risk Indicators, Digital Identity, AI for Government, and future growth platforms and incubation opportunities. The successful candidate will help opportunities move from qualification to lighthouse to repeatable scale through robust technical architecture, commercial design and ecosystem enablement.
What we expect of you, day to day: This role is crucial in helping VGS convert strategic opportunities into practical, scalable solutions. The ideal candidate should have over 10 years of experience working in technical solutioning roles within payments, financial services, government technology or adjacent sectors, and be comfortable operating between architecture, pre-sales, partnerships and commercialisation. Strong commercial skills are needed alongside expertise in solution architecture, technical feasibility assessment, platform design and ecosystem strategy. The role is hands-on and consultative, requiring the ability to work directly with governments, partners, regional teams and product owners to design solutions that can scale across multiple markets. The solutions this role supports are varied and may include Value Added Services (VAS), fraud and risk solutions, AI-enabled government services, payments modernisation, acceptance, merchant and citizen ecosystems, digital issuance, money movement, platform services and new forms of public-sector infrastructure.
Key responsibilities:
- Collaborate with global and regional teams to design scalable government growth platforms and commercial solution frameworks.
- Define reusable architecture patterns, integration approaches and deployment models across priority Growth Initiatives.
- Lead technical assessment of opportunities, including feasibility, implementation complexity and readiness for scale.
- Support strategic sales and pre-sales teams by shaping solution architectures, ecosystem models and GTM approaches.
- Design cross-capability solution architectures that combine Visa products, Value Added Services and partner capabilities into coherent government propositions.
- Design partner ecosystems and pathways covering distribution, capability, delivery and commercial routes-to-market, while assessing the technical and commercial viability of prospective partners and supporting partnership solutioning across both the Global CoE and regional teams.
- Work with Product, Technology, Risk, VAS, Advisory and regional teams to identify capability gaps and recommend scalable solutions.
- Create reusable reference architectures, solution patterns and deployment playbooks that can be reused across markets.
- Conduct architecture and risk reviews and recommend changes to products, platforms or partner approaches where required.
- Translate government technology requirements into Visa capability, product and prioritisation recommendations.
- Support lighthouse deployments, define technical success criteria, and determine readiness to scale, rework, pause or stop opportunities.
- Influence future platform and product direction through ongoing engagement with government clients, partners and regional teams.
Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Qualifications
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.
- Strong communication, presentation and stakeholder-management skills.
- Significant experience in solution architecture, pre-sales, technical consulting, payments, fraud/risk, digital identity, cybersecurity or government technology.
- Ability to combine technical architecture expertise with commercialization and GTM thinking.
- Proven experience translating client needs into scalable solution designs and product requirements.
- Strong understanding of APIs, integration patterns, ecosystems, SaaS platforms, cloud architectures and modern digital infrastructure.
- Experience working across governments, regulated industries or large public-sector programmes.
- Experience supporting strategic partnerships, evaluating partner capabilities, designing ecosystem-led solutions, and working with systems integrators, GovTechs and multi-party delivery models.
- Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional teams in a complex matrix environment.
- Proven ability to work through ambiguity and convert concepts into actionable recommendations.
- Strong problem-solving skills with a track record of shaping scalable solutions rather than bespoke deployments.
- Demonstrated leadership capability and experience leading complex initiatives across multiple stakeholders and geographies.
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.
Summary Location: GB - London, United Kingdom Type: Full time
Director, Solution Architect, Global Growth Initiatives in London employer: Visa
Visa is an exceptional employer that fosters a dynamic work culture, encouraging innovation and collaboration among its employees. With a strong focus on professional development, Visa offers numerous growth opportunities and the chance to work on cutting-edge financial technologies in a global environment. Located in a vibrant area, employees benefit from a supportive atmosphere that values diversity and inclusion, making it a rewarding place to build a meaningful career.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Director, Solution Architect, Global Growth Initiatives in London
✨Tip Number 1: Tap Into Professional Networks
The finance world loves a good connection, so jump into industry-specific groups on platforms like LinkedIn where you can find discussions on financial controlling. Engaging in these communities can expose you to hidden job leads that aren't openly advertised!
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✨Tip Number 3: Showcase Your Expertise
Consider writing articles or sharing insights related to financial controlling or industry trends. Publish these on platforms like LinkedIn to establish yourself as a knowledgeable player in the field. This not only increases your visibility but also catches the attention of recruiters from Visa.
✨Tip Number 4: Apply Directly on Company Websites
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We think you need these skills to ace Director, Solution Architect, Global Growth Initiatives in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Numbers Game:In financial controlling, detail is everything! Make sure your CV showcases your proficiency with numbers—highlight any relevant experience in budgeting, forecasting, or working with financial software. Quantifying your past achievements will make you stand out, so don’t be shy about flaunting those impressive percentages or cost savings you've implemented.
Tailored Cover Letter is Key:Your cover letter is a chance to shine, especially for a full-time role. Use it to express your genuine interest in Visa and the specific impact you hope to make in financial controlling. Mention any relevant qualifications or experiences that align with the company’s goals, and don’t forget to show that you're ready for a long-term commitment!
Certifications Matter:List relevant certifications such as ACCA or CIMA on your CV. These qualifications not only showcase your dedication to the field but also your technical competence in financial principles. If you have any ongoing training or courses, make sure to mention those as well to demonstrate your commitment to continual learning in financial controlling.
Don’t Overlook Soft Skills:While numbers are crucial, so are those soft skills! Financial controllers need strong communication and analytical reasoning abilities. We recommend embedding examples of these skills in your CV and cover letter, like how you’ve successfully delivered financial reports to stakeholders or collaborated with teams to improve processes. Let’s show Visa how you can be a team player!
How to prepare for a job interview at Visa
✨Brush Up on Technical Skills
Make sure you're comfortable with key financial concepts, especially around forecasting, budgeting, and variance analysis. Sometimes, interviewers may throw in technical questions or case studies, so practicing these types of scenarios will help you shine!
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If you've had experience with specific financial software like SAP or Oracle, make it known! Be ready to discuss how you used these tools to improve processes or reporting, as this hands-on knowledge can really set you apart in a full-time role with Visa.
✨Know Your Numbers
In full-time interviews, especially in financial controlling, be prepared for numerical reasoning tests or questions. Brush up on your mental maths and understand how to interpret and analyse financial statements on the spot, as this may come up during the assessment.
✨Connect with Company Goals
Familiarise yourself with Visa's financial objectives and any recent developments. During the interview, try to weave your understanding of their business model and challenges into your answers—this shows your genuine interest and alignment with their goals!
