Innovation Engagements & Design, Snr Manager at Visa

Position Summary

Visa is looking for a talented Innovation Engagements & Design, Snr Manager to join our Innovation & Design team. Join a dynamic group that conceives and designs new concepts and plays a pivotal role in collaborations with Visa partners, working with emerging technologies such as biometric payments and emerging digital payments & acceptance methods.

You will be part of product development projects that include scoping, ideation, iteration and testing. Projects are derived based on forces shaping how consumers earn, spend, and save. This role will also contribute to driving much of Visa’s global new product roadmap through applied exploration and development.

You'll apply user-centered design principles and work closely with stakeholders to conceive and design best-in-class, useable and engaging product interfaces. You'll be involved in the early stages of research and ideation and will collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams through the iteration and development process. You are an accomplished UX designer who is fluent with digital experiences across platforms. 

Creating great UI is an important part of this role. This means creating both rapid UI prototypes as well as pixel perfect outcomes. This requires you to have a passion for building UI and you have a deep understanding and appreciation of how a delightful visual can drive user behavior and affect digital interactions.

You will also be leading co-creation sprints and other shorter cycle engagements. In many engagements, you will serve as a lead agile facilitator and sprint manager, helping diverse teams come together and deliver outcomes. You will also be required to lead in-market immersions to gain user insights.

This job is in Visa's Innovation Studio in Nairobi, where we partner with Visa clients from across Sub Saharan Africa to create ground-breaking payments products and experiences and solve unique client problems.

Responsibilities

• Lead engagements, end-to-end (from scoping, to research and client delivery in Center/Market/virtual), including, billable Value-in-kind (VIK) engagements 
• Lead and support key SetPlays, product explorations, and thought leadership pieces
• Serve as a facilitator and sprint manager for smaller engagements and parts of co-creations, helping diverse teams come together and deliver outsize outcomes.
• As needed, run Discovery sessions on a variety of topics
• Run Innovation Exiepriences and help build experiential assets in the center, e.g. content narratives, customized tours and demos. Support the development and deployment of physical and digital experiences in the Innovation Studio.
• Support the I&D Experiences team in ensuring the Innovation Centers & Studios are always cutting edge and at the forefront in showcasing latest payment experiences.
• Manage Innovation Center materials (technical resources, tools), generate and customize tools (physical and digital templates, wireframes, visual designs, style guides, pattern libraries, inspiration materials, etc.).
• Support Innovation Center operations in areas such as reporting of engagements & client activity
• Lead in-market immersions to gain user insights
• Define research (e.g., format, scope, candidate, interview guides, survey content, etc.) 
• Manage research agencies in market as required
• Design mobile, desktop and device specific experiences that are delightful and engaging
• Produce wireframes, visual designs, style guides and pattern libraries
• Create working UI prototypes that communicate the next generation commerce experiences (InVision or other similar product knowledge is a plus).
• Be comfortable and able to flex between rapid prototyping and building pixel perfect outcomes. E.g. on one project, produce rapid UI prototypes in record time for iteration with clients, in another project, take final outputs to the highest standards of UX and UI design.
• Build a world-class User Experience solution that supports the needs of the Visa digital solutions team and products
• Present design concepts to Senior Leadership and external partners
• Gather and incorporate requirements and feedback from multiple stakeholders
• Understand and advocate for the consumer's experience 
• Foster a deep and rewarding collaboration with the Product Managers, Engineers, Marketers, and our customers. Highly collaborative working is critical for success in the role

This is a hybrid position. Hybrid employees can alternate time between both remote and office. Employees in hybrid roles are expected to work from the office two days a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with a general guidepost of being in the office 50% of the time based on business needs.                                   

Qualifications

Essential Functions

• Experience in consumer payment, e-commerce and acceptance is preferred
• Proficiency designing and developing prototypes using Balsamiq, Invision or other industry tools
• Proficiency designing high-fidelity mockups using Figma, Sketch or other industry tools
• Subject Matter Expertise in interaction design
• Experience conducting usability tests (including with users with disabilities) a plus
• Experience working with SCRUM in an Agile environment a plus
• Subject Matter Expertise in Accessibility (508/WCAG) a plus
• Experience is constructing and conducting analytical, qualitative & quantitative research
• Demonstrated experience in running sprints that involve needs discovery, design, services design and solution development
• Management consulting and agency experience would be a big plus
• Group facilitation and teaching (design thinking) skills a plus
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including thorough and methodical attention to detail
• Fully fluent in English and able to understand and be easily understood in English
• Ability to communicate concepts and recommendations confidently to a variety of audiences
• Ability to self-manage time and work independently or as part of a team
• An online portfolio that demonstrates outstanding product and ecosystem thinking