Description
The Risk Management Director serves as Head of Risk for the Eastern Africa cluster, with primary accountability for protecting and strengthening the payments ecosystem while enabling responsible business growth across a diverse set of markets, clients, regulators and payment use cases.
The role holder leads end-to-end risk engagement across Eastern Africa with Visa clients, partners, merchants, fintechs, regulators and internal stakeholders. The role covers all relevant risk dimensions, including fraud, scams, cybersecurity, data security, ecosystem integrity, credit and settlement risk, third-party risk, regulatory risk, AML/sanctions considerations, emerging technologies, cross-border flows, mobile-first digital payments and new money movement models.
Externally, the Risk Director ensures Visa’s interactions with clients, merchants, regulators, law enforcement, government agencies, mobile money operators, fintechs and other ecosystem participants across Eastern Africa are well informed, constructive and focused on building digital trust, strengthening resilience, advancing financial inclusion and supporting secure growth.
Internally, the Risk Director translates market intelligence into actionable insights that influence Visa’s strategy, products, policies, controls and client solutions. The role partners across business, product, legal, compliance, government engagement, technology, operations and regional risk teams to ensure risk management is embedded early in commercial and innovation decisions.
The role combines traditional risk management disciplines with the capabilities required of a modern payments risk leader: ecosystem intelligence, data-driven decision-making, AI and fraud analytics fluency, regulatory credibility, commercial judgment, crisis leadership and the ability to influence outcomes without direct authority.
Success in the role is measured by the ability to reduce risk, build trust, enable growth, strengthen client and regulatory relationships, enhance Visa’s reputation, and improve ecosystem outcomes through proactive prevention, effective response and sustained stakeholder engagement.
The Risk Director will also help strengthen Visa shareholder value by improving information flow around strategic, regulatory, operational and emerging risks; supporting disciplined execution of risk programs; and minimizing audit, compliance, operational and reputational concerns.
Key Responsibilities:
- Market and ecosystem intelligence: Maintain a deep understanding of the business environment, regulatory expectations, client capabilities, payment flows, fraud typologies, cyber and scam trends, third-party dependencies and emerging risks across each market.
- Growth with control: Align risk priorities with Visa’s commercial strategy by helping clients, partners and internal teams grow responsibly, launch safely and make risk-informed decisions early.
- Digital trust and resilience: Strengthen ecosystem confidence through prevention, monitoring, response, recovery and control maturity across fraud, scams, data security, cybersecurity, credit settlement and operational risk.
- Stakeholder influence: Engage clients, merchants, fintechs, regulators, law enforcement, government and internal partners to secure alignment, shape outcomes and address identified risks.
- Thought leadership: Differentiate Visa by translating local, regional and global intelligence into practical insights, risk strategies, client advisory, industry education and policy engagement.
- Clear communication and accountability: Provide timely marketplace feedback, executive-level updates, risk reporting, escalation and transparent communication on programs, policies, incidents and outcomes.
Requirements:
- At least 10 years of relevant experience in international payments, financial services, technology, risk management, fraud, compliance, regulation, cybersecurity, operations, product risk, client advisory or ecosystem risk roles, with demonstrated ability to operate across complex, multi-country markets and stakeholder groups.
- Strong payments experience and critical understanding of how digital payments are evolving, including digital acceptance, mobile-first ecosystems, tokenization, new payment technologies, cross-border solutions, money movement, commercial payments and value-added services.
- Experience in banking, fintech, mobile money, acquiring, issuing, digital commerce, remittances, commercial payments, merchant risk, operations, technology or regulatory environments.
- Demonstrated ability to identify, evaluate and mitigate significant payment risks at strategic and operational levels, including fraud, scams, cyber-enabled crime, data compromise, authentication, dispute management, transaction monitoring, AML/sanctions considerations and ecosystem integrity controls.