Lead System Architect

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.

About the Integrated Risk Platform:

Visa is committed to building the next generation of risk management solutions for the global payments ecosystem. As part of Value Added Services (VAS) and RaIS, the Integrated Risk Platform (IRP) draws inspiration from industry-leading solutions, delivering advanced, scalable, and intelligent risk decisioning. IRP leverages modern architecture, data science, and AI/ML to proactively address the evolving landscape of fraud, compliance, and risk in digital payments - through both powerful backend services and intuitive, high-performance user interfaces.

Responsibilities

As Lead System Architect of IRP Architecture, you will be responsible for setting the technical vision, strategic architectural direction, and execution for various areas of Visa’s next-generation Integrated Risk Platform. Reporting to the Sr. Director of Engineering, you will partner with product, engineering, and data science leaders to define and deliver a unified, extensible, and resilient risk platform – from data pipelines to user-facing applications – supporting mission-critical services across Visa’s global footprint.

• Strategic Leadership: Define and champion the architectural vision and roadmap for IRP, ensuring alignment with Visa’s business and technology objectives, as well as integration with VAS/RaIS and the broader Visa ecosystems. Balance backend innovation with a scalable, consistent, and secure UI platform strategy.
• Technical Direction: Provide hands-on guidance and oversight to engineering and architecture teams in the design and delivery of secure, high-performance, and scalable systems for real-time fraud detection, risk scoring, and value-added services - including interactive dashboards, case management tools, and other user-facing applications.
• Platform Architecture: Architect and evolve the IRP platform, leveraging cloud-native patterns, distributed systems, and modern data platforms to support high-throughput, low-latency decisioning at global scale. Drive innovation in areas such as fraud operations, streaming analytics, ML model orchestration, real-time data visualization, responsive web apps, mobile-friendly interfaces, component libraries, and adaptive risk controls.
• UI Platform Enablement: Define the architecture for front-end frameworks, design systems, and client-side performance optimization. Ensure accessibility (WCAG), localization, and internationalization are built into the UI platform. Collaborate with UX design teams to ensure technical feasibility and optimal user experience.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner with Product, Data Science, Security, UX, and Operations teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions, balancing tactical needs with long-term scalability and resilience.
• Governance & Best Practices: Establish and enforce architectural standards, technical best practices, and design principles across backend and front-end platforms. Set UI development guidelines, API contracts for front-end consumption, and performance/security benchmarks for web and mobile applications.
• Mentorship & Thought Leadership: Mentor senior engineers and architects, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement. Represent IRP architecture in executive and cross-organizational forums.
• Technology Evaluation & Adoption: Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends in risk, fraud, payments, UI frameworks, and digital experience platforms. Evaluate and introduce new tools, frameworks, and methodologies to maintain IRP’s position as a leading-edge platform.
• Stakeholder Management: Serve as a key technical advisor to executive leadership, providing regular updates on architectural strategy, risks, and milestones.

This is a hybrid position with the expectation of the three days per week in-office (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays).

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 7 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 4 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 13+ years of relevant work experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• 12+ years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD

Required experience:

• Demonstrated experience in architecting and delivering large-scale, mission-critical platforms, ideally in risk, fraud, or payments domains.
• Deep expertise in cloud-native technologies (AWS, Kubernetes, containers, microservices, DevOps, CI/CD pipelines) and distributed architectures (Kafka, gRPC, REST).
• Experience with real-time analytics, streaming data platforms, ML model integration, and high-availability systems.
• Proven experience architecting responsive, performant, secure, and accessible front-end applications using frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue.
• Strong understanding of API design patterns for efficient UI consumption, including GraphQL and REST.
• Strong understanding of risk management, fraud detection, or compliance systems within financial services or payments.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
• Experience influencing architectural direction across multiple teams and domains.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, Golang, C/C++, or similar; JavaScript/TypeScript proficiency strongly preferred for UI platform leadership.
• Working knowledge of NoSQL and RDBMS technologies.

Great to have:

• Prior experience with Fraud Operations, Case Management, and risk/decisioning engines is highly desirable.

Work Hours: Varies upon the needs of the department.

Mental/Physical Requirements: This position will be performed in an office setting.  The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

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.

Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.

U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated salary range for a new hire into this position is 151,600.00 to 219,950.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401 (k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.