Director, Innovation Engagements – Nairobi Innovation Studio at Visa

Additional Information

Job Number: REF25631Z

Job Description

Part of the global Solutions org, Visa Innovation & Design is a global client facing organization that sets Visa’s public innovation agenda, supports our clients accelerate their innovation agenda and transform their consumer digital experiences, and promotes hands on incubation and rapid prototyping to demonstrate the art of the possible for clients and partners. Innovation & Design runs innovation centers in various regional offices, this function focuses on Visa’s CEMEA region. Reporting Directly to the Head of Visa’s Nairobi Innovation Studio, the Director - Innovation Engagements is a key leader defining the future of commerce in Visa’s Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) region. The individual will partner Visa’s ecosystem partners (banks, merchants, FinTechs, internet companies) to discover opportunities and co-create innovative new solutions.

As a Director, Innovation Engagements, you'll be a key leader driving Visa’s new way of partnering our ecosystem to innovate. You’ll be running 6-8 week engagements with our most strategic key partners and clients to identify opportunities to innovate with the user in mind, build solutions that address user needs, and ensuring those solutions succeed in the market. The six week engagements will culminate in a three-day sprint, where you’ll use best in class HCD and agile techniques to make magic happen. Throughout the engagement, the joint partner + Visa team will be under your leadership and vision to build something that will succeed in market, in record time. You'll be involved in the early stages of research, ideation and storytelling and collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams through the iteration and implementation process. A natural collaborator, you'll lead co-creation engagements, bringing together client partners, designers, technologists, product stakeholders and subject matter experts and inspire and lead solutioning discussions. This role would ideally suit someone looking to make a move from an Agency/Consultancy role into an in house role.

Lead Co-creation projects with Visa’s largest clients and strategic partners across SSA

• Run a cross-functional team of designers, engagement managers, product experts and technologists over a 6-week engagement culminating in a 2-4 day facilitated sprint
• Use best in class design thinking and agile methods to Discover, Design, Develop and Deploy new innovations
• Discover: Lead market immersions to understand user needs and preferences
• Design: Lead teams of designers and clients to build and quickly iterate new user journeys and prototypes
• Develop: Lead developers to build coded prototypes and target solution architectures that use Visa capabilities
• Deploy: Equip the client + Visa teams with strong rollout plans, governance, and business model tools to ensure that the co-created solution succeeds in market
• Use exceptional project management, facilitation and leadership skills to inspire the joint Visa + client / partner team to deliver their best through the six-week sprint
• Be equally effective running engagements in the Nairobi Innovation Studio or on-site in any of the SSA markets

Client Leadership

• Develop robust, proactive pipeline of tangible collaboration/prototyping projects with clients/partners that will drive c-level sponsorship and engagement
• Build trusted advisor relationships with key clients and partners in the industry

Team Leadership

• Lead and inspire large and diverse teams of 15-30 client + Visa staff for 6 weeks during co-creations, providing clear vision, direction, and allocating roles based on skills, strengths and need
• Lead (directly or indirectly) teams of engagement managers and designers, grooming them to independently run co-creation and design engagements
• Indirectly manage larger teams of designers, developers and product experts in swarm staffing models on co-creations

Innovation

• Provide thought leadership in payments and related aspects, in order to develop a vision for specific areas of innovation, identify key innovation opportunities for Visa and our clients, and identify potential partners
• Build a repeatable and scalable client/partner engagement strategy, encompassing understanding of their innovation agenda and capabilities and communication of the Visa innovation agenda

Qualifications

• 12 – 15+ years of experience in top-tier consulting or strategy, with experience in technology working in client focused functions
• Proven capabilities in leading design thinking/co-creation engagements with virtual teams that include Managers and Executives at senior levels – communication, presence, thought leadership and gravitas
• Substantial client facing experience with the ability to translate client and partner needs into meaningful problem statements, engagements and tangible collaboration/prototyping outcomes
• Experience running customer experience centers focused on helping clients solve real business issues
• Outstanding facilitation skills, ideally with formal training and sprint management experience
• Strong project/program management skills to successfully manage multiple, concurrent work streams
• World-class client-facing skills and proven ability to engage with C-level executives and drive commercial outcomes
• Degree qualified in business and/or design. Post graduate qualifications highly desirable
• Formal qualifications in Human Centered Design/UX/Agile is a huge plus