Sr Director, Keynote and Production

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 Mission:

Build and lead the production capability for North America Events, delivering world-class keynotes, mainstage programs, executive stage experiences, and signature live moments across the full event portfolio.

Position Summary:

Visa is seeking a seasoned production practitioner to lead keynote and mainstage production across the North America client experience portfolio, from the flagship event, Visa Payments Forum, to client councils, sponsorship business sessions, specialized forums, and bespoke high-impact programs. Partnering directly with Communications and senior business leaders, this role translates Visa's strategic narratives into bold, audience-first live experiences, scaled appropriately for each audience and business objective.

This is a highly hands-on portfolio leadership role reporting to the Head of North America Events. The Senior Director will set the creative and production vision, establish consistent standards across programs, and personally drive the work from early concept through show close, including executive preparation, content development, production planning, rehearsals, and live execution. The role will build the production capability for North America Events, manage and develop a team of two, and work side-by-side with internal partners, agencies, vendors, and senior executives.

Key Responsibilities:

Portfolio Leadership

• Own the keynote and mainstage production portfolio across North America client experiences, setting a clear vision and scalable approach for flagship, mid-size, and smaller high-impact programs.

• Serve as Executive Producer for Visa Payments Forum while providing creative and production leadership across client councils, sponsorship business sessions, specialized client forums, and other priority experiences.

• Match the ambition, production model, and resources to each program's audience, business objective, format, and scale without compromising quality or impact.

• Create a cohesive portfolio approach that connects content, graphics, technology, and production while allowing each program to feel distinctive and purpose-built.

Executive Storytelling & Show Design

• Partner directly with Communications and executive stakeholders to bring Visa's strategic narratives to life through compelling keynotes, mainstage programs, and live experiences.

• Personally drive executive presentation development, speaker preparation, rehearsals, coaching, and stage readiness across programs of varying size and complexity.

• Build show flow and shape each element of the audience experience across content, staging, video, technology, and production.

• Navigate evolving inputs and senior stakeholder feedback while protecting the clarity, quality, and impact of the experience.

Production & Delivery

• Lead production from concept through show close, personally driving creative development, technical planning, Run of Show creation, rehearsals, broadcast, and onsite execution.

• Move fluidly between large-scale flagship productions and smaller, business-critical programs, remaining equally effective in strategic reviews and hands-on execution.

• Lead cross-functional production teams, agencies, and creative partners to develop concepts, solve complex challenges, and elevate execution.

• Anticipate risk, remove blockers, and make calm, decisive adjustments in high-pressure live environments while ensuring creative quality, brand integrity, accessibility, safety, and operational excellence.

Team & Capability Building

• Build and lead a scalable production capability for North America Events, establishing the standards, operating model, tools, playbooks, and partner ecosystem required to support the portfolio.

• Manage, train, and develop a team, strengthening their production leadership and technical capabilities while working alongside them on delivery.

• Direct multimillion-dollar budgets, schedules, scopes, vendor relationships, and production resources across the portfolio, making disciplined trade-offs based on program needs.

• Partner across Events, Communications, Brand, Product, Technology, Legal, Risk, and business teams to drive alignment, accountability, and timely decisions.

• Identify and scale practices, technologies, AI capabilities, and workflows that improve quality, efficiency, consistency, and audience engagement.

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

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 10 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters/MBA /JD/MD), or a minimum of 5 years of work experience with a PhD

Preferred Qualifications:

• 15 or more years of experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 12 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, or MD), PhD with 9+ years of experience 

• 12+ years leading and personally delivering keynote, mainstage, conference, executive, broadcast, or experiential productions across a range of formats and scales.

• Proven success serving as an Executive Producer or senior production leader for large-scale flagship conferences with audiences of 1,000+ and multimillion-dollar budgets, combined with the agility to lead smaller, high-impact programs hands-on.

• Deep expertise in keynote and mainstage production, executive stage preparation, stagecraft, show direction, broadcast, technical production, and experiential design.

• Exceptional creative judgment and storytelling instincts, with the ability to translate complex business and technology topics into compelling audience experiences.

• Demonstrated executive presence and the ability to advise senior leaders, influence stakeholders, lead creative reviews, and align diverse partners around a shared production vision.

• Proven ability to operate as a player-coach, balancing portfolio leadership, people development, detailed production decisions, and hands-on execution.

• Experience building production capabilities, standards, playbooks, and teams within a complex organization; experience in payments, fintech, financial services, or technology preferred.

• Calm, collaborative, and decisive leadership style, with the range to move from long-term capability building to in-the-moment problem solving under pressure.

Information for US Applicants

For roles located in the US, the estimated salary range for this position is $200,000.00 to $ 320,000.00 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.

Work Hours

Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements

This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.

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