Principal Officer

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

Role Title:

Principal Officer & Head - Visa GIFT City Branch:

Business Function:

Sales, Client Relationship Management, Revenue Operations, Regulatory Governance, Branch Leadership

Level: Director

Reports To: Country Manager - India

Role Summary:

The Principal Officer & Head - Visa GIFT City Branch will serve as the senior-most accountable executive for Visa’s GIFT City office and its IFSCA Ancillary License operations. This individual will act as the effective branch head (similar to a local office CEO) responsible for overall business leadership, regulatory oversight, revenue growth, client engagement, sales execution, and operational governance for Visa’s activities in GIFT City.

The role will combine three major mandates:

Principal Officer accountability for Visa’s licensed ancillary services activities in GIFT City. Commercial leadership for sales of Visa products, services, and solutions to GIFT City entities, including banks, payment service providers, fintechs, financial institutions, and other eligible clients. Branch leadership and revenue operations ownership, including targets, forecasting, pipeline governance, operational controls, stakeholder management, and cross-functional coordination.

The successful candidate will be a commercially strong, regulatory-aware, senior leader capable of representing Visa with clients, regulators, internal leadership, ecosystem partners, and other strategic stakeholders.

What the Principal Officer & Head - Visa GIFT City Branch Will Do:

Principal Officer & Regulatory Leadership:

• Serve as Visa’s designated Principal Officer for its IFSCA Ancillary License in GIFT City.
• Ensure Visa’s GIFT City activities are conducted in accordance with the scope of the approved ancillary license and applicable IFSCA requirements.
• Act as the senior local point of accountability for the GIFT City branch’s regulated activities.
• Partner with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance, Tax, Regulatory Affairs, and business teams to ensure ongoing adherence to regulatory obligations.
• Maintain strong governance discipline across licensed activities, including documentation, approvals, reporting, records, and audit readiness.
• Ensure appropriate governance frameworks, standard operating procedures, escalation mechanisms, and internal controls are in place for the GIFT City office.
• Support regulatory inspections, information requests, internal audits, reviews, and management reporting.
• Ensure that material business, operational, regulatory, or control issues are escalated promptly to appropriate internal stakeholders.
• Represent Visa professionally in engagements with IFSCA, GIFT City authorities, industry forums, ecosystem bodies, and other relevant stakeholders, in coordination with Legal and Regulatory Affairs.
• Ensure that services offered from or through the GIFT City branch remain aligned with permitted activities, internal approvals, and applicable regulatory conditions.

GIFT City Business Leadership & Branch Ownership:

• Lead Visa’s overall GIFT City office as the senior-most local executive responsible for business performance, operating rhythm, governance, culture, and execution.
• Own the local business agenda for Visa in GIFT City, translating regional and country strategy into a clear market execution plan.
• Develop and execute a strategic growth plan for Visa’s presence in GIFT City, including client acquisition, relationship expansion, revenue growth, and ecosystem development.
• Build Visa’s position as a trusted partner to GIFT City-based banks, payment service providers, fintechs, financial institutions, funds, exchanges, insurers, and other regulated or eligible entities.
• Drive local market development by identifying high-potential segments, emerging client needs, new use cases, product opportunities, and ecosystem partnerships.
• Lead the branch operating cadence, including business reviews, pipeline reviews, revenue reviews, client reviews, compliance updates, and risk/control forums.
• Act as the consolidated voice of GIFT City clients within Visa, ensuring that client feedback on products, solutions, pricing, servicing, and implementation is clearly captured and communicated internally.
• Partner with India, Asia Pacific, and global teams to bring relevant Visa capabilities to GIFT City clients.

Sales & Client Relationship Leadership:

• Own sales of Visa products, platforms, services, and solutions to GIFT City entities, including banks, payment service providers, fintechs, financial institutions, and other eligible clients.
• Build and manage senior client relationships with CEOs, founders, business heads, product leaders, risk leaders, compliance leaders, treasury teams, and technology executives.
• Develop deep understanding of client business models, regulatory requirements, payment flows, commercial objectives, and strategic priorities.
• Lead client coverage strategy, account planning, stakeholder mapping, opportunity origination, and relationship expansion.
• Drive end-to-end sales execution across the client lifecycle, from opportunity identification through proposal development, deal structuring, approvals, contracting, implementation, revenue realization, and renewal.
• Promote Visa’s full suite of relevant capabilities, including but not limited to:
• Card issuing and acquiring solutions
• Cross-border payment solutions
• Commercial and B2B payment solutions
• Risk and fraud solutions
• Digital payment enablement
• Tokenization and authentication solutions
• Data, advisory, and value-added services
• Processing, acceptance, and network capabilities
• Partner with Product, Solutions, Client Services, Risk, Legal, Finance, and Technology teams to structure commercially viable and operationally executable client solutions.
• Provide leadership oversight for complex, strategic, or high-risk opportunities.
• Ensure disciplined client follow-up, clear ownership of sales actions, and timely closure of opportunities.

Revenue Ownership, Targets & Commercial Performance:

• Own revenue targets, sales targets, pipeline development, and commercial performance for Visa’s GIFT City business.
• Partner with Sales, Finance, Strategy, and regional leadership to develop annual plans, multi-year growth plans, revenue forecasts, and client-level account plans.
• Establish a strong performance management operating system for the GIFT City office, including:
  • Revenue scorecards
  • Pipeline dashboards
  • Client-level performance reviews
  • Deal conversion tracking
  • Forecast accuracy monitoring
  • Target attainment reporting
  • Risk and opportunity tracking
• Identify revenue gaps, performance risks, delayed deals, billing issues, and client execution blockers early, and drive corrective action.
• Ensure consistency between GIFT City strategy, annual operating plans, revenue targets, and execution outcomes.
• Drive commercial discipline across pricing, deal economics, contract terms, revenue realization, and account profitability.
• Partner with Finance and business stakeholders to ensure accurate financial reporting, revenue forecasting, budget planning, and business case governance.
• Lead initiatives to improve revenue realization, billing accuracy, collections visibility, and operational transparency.

Deal Excellence & Governance:

• Own end-to-end deal lifecycle governance for GIFT City clients, from qualification and solutioning to internal approvals, contracting, implementation, and revenue activation.
• Ensure deals are structured in accordance with Visa’s commercial, legal, regulatory, risk, tax, and compliance requirements.
• Work closely with regional deal desk, Legal, Finance, Risk, Tax, Product, and Client Services teams to ensure deal excellence and adherence to Visa’s internal standards.
• Ensure high-quality deal modeling, business cases, financial analysis, pricing rationale, and executive approval materials.
• Maintain strong contract review discipline and pipeline hygiene.
• Establish standard operating procedures and review mechanisms for deal governance and client opportunity management.
• Provide senior leadership oversight for complex or high-value deals while empowering teams and functional partners to execute day-to-day activities.
• Ensure timely resolution of deal blockers and cross-functional dependencies.

Business Planning, Sales Discipline & Pipeline Management:

• Build and maintain a robust qualified pipeline of opportunities across GIFT City clients and prospects.
• Establish a consistent account planning framework for GIFT City clients, including account reviews, opportunity reviews, senior stakeholder maps, revenue plans, and execution priorities.
• Own ongoing tracking and analysis of sales performance, revenue performance, pipeline quality, and quota attainment.
• Drive disciplined use of CRM tools, including timely opportunity updates, accurate stage progression, clear next steps, and credible close dates.
• Translate complex market and performance data into clear business insights and recommendations for senior leadership.
• Support strategic initiatives related to market entry, product expansion, client segmentation, revenue growth, and productivity improvement.
• Embed consistent sales methodologies and governance practices across the GIFT City coverage model.
• Drive regular pipeline reviews and performance discussions with relevant internal stakeholders.

Revenue Operations, Billing & Controls:

• Partner with relevant operations, finance, billing, and client services teams to ensure timely and accurate billing for GIFT City clients.
• Lead initiatives to reduce billing issues, revenue leakage, manual interventions, disputes, and delinquencies.
• Ensure strong operational controls and transparency across revenue processes.
• Drive process simplification, automation, and standardization to improve sales efficiency and productivity.
• Ensure accurate client, contract, pricing, and billing data is maintained across relevant systems.
• Support tax, audit, risk, and compliance processes by ensuring complete, accurate, and timely business inputs.
• Build a culture of operational rigor, evidence-based decision-making, and accountability.

Product, Solutioning & Market Development:

• Act as a senior commercial translator between client needs and Visa’s product capabilities.
• Identify new product opportunities, regulatory use cases, payment flows, partnerships, and business models that can be developed for GIFT City entities.
• Work with Product and Solutions teams to tailor Visa capabilities for GIFT City-based clients and cross-border financial activity.
• Support market education initiatives, client workshops, industry events, and thought leadership forums.
• Provide structured feedback to Product, Strategy, Pricing, and regional leadership on client needs, competitive dynamics, regulatory trends, and market opportunities.
• Help position Visa as a leader in digital payments, cross-border commerce, fintech enablement, and secure payment innovation in GIFT City.

Stakeholder Management & Thought Leadership:

• Act as a trusted advisor to the Country Manager, regional leadership, and senior internal stakeholders on GIFT City strategy, client priorities, revenue performance, and regulatory considerations.
• Build strong partnerships across Sales, Finance, Product, Strategy, Risk, Legal, HR, Tax, Compliance, Government Engagement, Regulatory Affairs, Client Services, and Technology.
• Represent the GIFT City business in senior leadership reviews, market planning forums, client escalation discussions, and strategic initiative reviews.
• Provide thought leadership on sales effectiveness, operational rigor, regulatory conduct, and market development.
• Serve as the consolidated voice of GIFT City clients, capturing feedback on Visa products, solutions, service levels, pricing, contracting, and implementation experience.
• Maintain high-quality relationships with external stakeholders, including regulators, ecosystem partners, industry bodies, advisors, and key clients.
• Promote Visa’s reputation as a responsible, compliant, innovative, and client-centric organization.

People Leadership & Branch Culture:

• Lead, coach, and develop the GIFT City team, setting clear priorities, accountability standards, development plans, and performance expectations.
• Build a high-performing, inclusive, collaborative, and commercially focused branch culture.
• Ensure the team operates with high integrity, strong governance discipline, client centricity, and regulatory awareness.
• Partner with HR and leadership teams on workforce planning, talent development, succession planning, performance management, and employee engagement.
• Ensure that team members have the right tools, data, training, and processes to achieve business objectives.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, open communication, operational excellence, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Act as the senior local leader for employee engagement, workplace conduct, and Visa values in the GIFT City office.

Key Measures of Success (Success Area):

Example Metrics:

Revenue growth:

• Achievement of GIFT City revenue targets, new revenue streams, client-level growth, renewal success

Sales execution:

• Qualified pipeline growth, opportunity conversion, forecast accuracy, deal velocity, CRM hygiene

Client impact:

• Client satisfaction, senior relationship depth, product adoption, client retention, implementation success

Regulatory governance:

• No material regulatory breaches, timely filings, audit readiness, strong documentation and controls

Branch leadership:

• Effective operating cadence, cross-functional alignment, employee engagement, issue resolution

Revenue operations:

• Billing accuracy, reduced disputes, lower manual intervention, improved revenue realization

Market development:

• New client acquisition, strategic partnerships, ecosystem influence, successful market initiatives

Risk and control discipline:

• Timely escalation, strong control environment, adherence to internal policies and approval processes.

Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• 15+ years of relevant experience in financial services, payments, fintech, banking, commercial leadership, sales leadership, revenue operations, branch management, or regulated business leadership.
• Significant experience working with banks, payment service providers, fintechs, financial institutions, regulators, or large enterprise clients.
• Proven track record of owning revenue targets, managing senior client relationships, and leading complex B2B sales cycles.
• Strong understanding of payments, digital commerce, cross-border payments, issuing, acquiring, processing, risk, fraud, and value-added services.
• Demonstrated experience in regulated environments, with strong appreciation for governance, compliance, documentation, controls, and audit readiness.
• Experience leading teams, managing cross-functional stakeholders, and influencing senior executives.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience in forecasting, pipeline management, business planning, quota setting, and revenue performance management.
• Excellent communication, executive presence, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.
• High integrity, professionalism, sound judgment, and ability to remain effective under pressure.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in payments, card networks, banking infrastructure, fintech platforms, or cross-border financial services.
• Familiarity with GIFT City, IFSCA, IFSC-regulated entities, or international financial services environments.
• Experience engaging with regulators, government bodies, financial market infrastructure, or policy stakeholders.
• Experience managing P&L, branch operations, regulatory obligations, and commercial execution in a matrixed multinational organization.
• Strong network across Indian and international banks, PSPs, fintechs, financial institutions, and GIFT City ecosystem participants.
• Ability to build a new market presence or scale an emerging business platform.

Leadership Capabilities:

The ideal candidate will demonstrate:

• Executive ownership - ability to act as the accountable leader for Visa’s GIFT City office.
• Commercial intensity - strong focus on revenue growth, client expansion, deal execution, and market development.
• Regulatory maturity - ability to operate with discipline in a licensed and supervised environment.
• Client centricity - deep commitment to understanding and solving client needs.
• Strategic thinking - ability to translate market opportunities into actionable growth plans.
• Operational rigor - strong command of process, controls, governance, data, and execution.
• Influencing skills - ability to align senior stakeholders across a matrixed global organization.
• People leadership - ability to build, coach, and inspire high-performing teams.
• Judgment and integrity - ability to balance growth, risk, compliance, and reputation.

Candidate Profile:

This role is best suited for a senior payments, fintech, banking, or financial services executive who can operate as both a commercial growth leader and a regulated branch head. The person should be comfortable selling to sophisticated financial institutions, managing regulatory expectations, owning revenue outcomes, and building Visa’s long-term presence in GIFT City.

They should bring the maturity to represent Visa externally, the commercial ability to grow the business, the operational discipline to run a controlled branch, and the leadership presence to act as the senior local executive for Visa in GIFT City.

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.