Head of Marketing– Southern Europe

Visa is a world leader in payments and technology, with over 259 billion payments transactions flowing safely between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive while driven by a common purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

Make an impact with a purpose-driven industry leader. Join us today and experience Life at Visa.

We are open to candidates from various locations outside of Madrid.

The Role

The Visa brand is one of the most powerful brands in the world. We connect consumers, businesses, banks, fintechs, developers, and governments to each other in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, and the brand is a unifying symbol of Visa’s promise to clients, partners, consumers and employees. The brand is known for trust, security and globality.

We bring our brand to life in many ways with an increasing array of B2B, B2C, G2B and G2C audiences. We focus on a wide range of marketing endeavors including delivering purpose-led strategic brand messages, encouraging contactless payments, supporting cross-border travel, and supporting our new business units of Value Added Service, and Commercial Money Movement solutions to enable e-commerce, generate leads for new client solutions, elevate small businesses and support our clients’ marketing efforts. We do this by leveraging a network of channels, agencies and through longstanding partnerships with key assets such as the IOC/Olympics and FIFA/World Cup globally and through regional assets in the sports, fashion, gaming, and music space. In Marketing our mission is to capture the next generation of culture and commerce and drive measurable impact for both the brand and the business.

Visa is seeking a Head of Marketing Southern Europe. This crucial role will manage teams in eight countries across Southern Europe, including 3 of Europe’s top seven priority markets: Turkey, Spain and Italy. The role is accountable for driving measurable impact for both Brand building (relevance, preference, usage) and Business building (revenue: acceptance, partnership and business development, lead generation, creating capabilities, cross-selling, and upselling marketing services, and sponsorship assets. Demonstrating an expertise and success in engaging the younger generation through culturally relevant channels, like social, creator, gaming, content and experience creation will be critical to success. The role also includes the ability to create short, mid and long term marketing strategies based on data and insights, sponsorship strategy, and client partnerships for a variety of markets.

The successful candidate will regularly interact with key executives, influencing decisions on investment, campaign development, agency selection, and Objectives / Key Results (OKRs). This includes interaction with the EU CMO, VP Brand, VP Growth Marketing, VP B2b & Product Marketing, Content & Experiential, Regional and Global Centers of Excellence, regional cross-functional VPs, and Regional Managing Director /Country Managers in the region. Regular interaction, and relationship development with Client and Partner senior executives is also required.

Head of Marketing SE will be an active member of SE Leadership and EU Marketing Leadership.

What’s it all about:

The Head of Marketing Southern Europe will:

• Formulate a unified vision and marketing strategy for the cluster / sub region and product lines, aligning with Visa's global and regional strategies and brand transformation roadmap, with a clear focus on commercial outcomes.
• Collaborate globally and regionally with teams including Marketing Services, Visa Consulting and Analytics, and Product Marketing to expand capabilities and synergies and drive commercial outcomes, while building strong internal and external partnerships.
• Partner with the Head of Marketing Strategy and Investment and SE CFO to manage marketing budgets, prioritizing high impact outcomes that advance Visa’s strategies across consumer payment flows, commercial solutions and value-added services. · Work with HUB Marketing Services to utilize a strategic approach to business development. unlocking opportunities with clients and leveraging available resources for greater impact for Visa, clients and the industry.
• Oversee the end-to-end delivery of marketing services to clients, ensuring high quality, timely execution. Successful candidate will be responsible for SE MS revenues.
• Build and deploy marketing services and capabilities that can be commercialized. Be accountable for the Marketing Services revenues target across the cluster.
• Develop B2B strategies, narratives, and experiences that differentiate Visa as a partner for clients-especially fintechs, digital wallets, merchants, and acquirers.
• Leverage data insights to drive actionable initiatives for Visa and key pipeline clients that create best in class results and case studies.
• Partner with the commercial teams in BAU, renewals and RFPs, focusing on developing unique value propositions and managing high-quality content
• Develop and execute top-tier digital marketing strategies to efficiently reach core target audiences.
• Lead the creation and implementation of marketing campaigns to drive issuance, preference, activation, and usage among diverse audiences in partnership with Communications.
• Oversee the execution of sponsorship assets and creation of unique, differentiated experiences.
• Enhance brand positioning to drive relevance and preference across Europe, targeting key audience segments including Gen Z through music, gaming, and social media platforms.
• Responsible for the deployment and execution of cross-border and affluent marketing strategies, ensuring timely delivery and achievement of revenue targets.
• Understand market trends and consumer needs to deliver marketing strategies that meet core OKRs.
• Manage complexities across countries, customer segments, media, and distribution channels.
• Ensure all marketing activities have measurable outcomes and maintain a robust feedback loop for continuous improvement.

Other activities include:

• Supporting the implementation of a global operating model, facilitating local empowerment while eliminating hub / cluster silos.
• Collaborating with Product and Design teams to enhance brand integration in payment UX.
• Utilizing insights from Analytics and Data Science teams to identify opportunities for Visa and partners.
• Executing test and learn pilots for potential scaling pan-regionally or globally (music, gaming, creator, mobile).
• Prioritizing digital marketing actions, incorporating AI/Machine Learning.
• Collaborating with Sourcing to identify specialized agencies and manage briefings for content and experience initiatives.
• Addressing client/market conditions with data-led marketing solutions.
• Adapting global frameworks for market-level impact.
• Working with EU Marketing Leadership team to ensure strategic and measurable marketing activities, delivering both brand and commercial impact
• Leading and inspiring teams, holding individuals accountable for clear outcomes while upholding the leadership principles.
• Participating in Client CMO Council, and client RFIs as needed.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

What we’re after:
Professional experience with a Bachelor’s Degree, Advanced degree (e.g. Masters/MBA/JD/MD) highly desired
Experience with executive level client engagement, with a proven track record in selling product and services to clients, cross-selling/up-selling, and cultivating and growing strategic partnerships is critical.
History of meeting or exceeding sales targets
Expertise in B2B/Product Marketing and Solution/Capability selling, lead generation, with a focus on crafting compelling value propositions, narratives, and sales pitches.
Comprehensive Brand strategy/marketing experience, with progressive responsibilities and a specialization in at least two areas among B2C, B2B, and B2B2C marketing
Proven leadership skills building and leading high performing organizations in a multi-national and/or matrixed environment, with strong cultural awareness.
Self-motivator and strong collaborator with a pioneering spirit who can demonstrate success in advancing brands and marketing efforts, creative problem solver, with solution-oriented perspective.
Outstanding written and verbal communications and ability to communicate to a diverse customer audience, including C-level executives, internal audiences and external partners. Case study will be required to demonstrate ability to articulate a clear and persuasive sales pitch.
Proven ability to lead a portfolio of high impact programs and initiatives end-to-end to meet commitments with a strong work ethic and exceptional customer-centric perspective.
Adept and rigorous strategic thinker, problem solver and pragmatist, using data to convey insight with strong story telling capabilities.
Strong commercial acumen Demonstrate strong commercial acumen to drive strategic marketing decisions and business growth.
Proactive sense of urgency and ‘can do’ attitude, ability to lead a team that can be agile and evolve and adapt to dynamic business conditions.
Demonstrable experience managing relationships with partners, suppliers, and vendors.
English proficiency essential while at least one other major language in the relevant countries highly desired.

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.