Senior Director, Head of Sourcing – CEMEA

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

Global Sourcing

The Global Sourcing organization, embedded within the Visa Global Finance function, serves as a strategic enabler of enterprise-wide value creation. The team leads the end-to-end sourcing and procurement lifecycle for goods and services, aligning supplier partnerships with Visa’s business priorities to drive innovation, operational excellence, and risk mitigation.

Through deep collaboration with business leaders, Global Sourcing leads strategic sourcing initiatives globally, ensuring supplier selection optimizes total value across cost, quality, and resilience. Beyond sourcing, the team provides critical governance and support across contracting, supplier risk management and procure-to-pay, reinforcing compliance with regulatory standards and corporate policies.

As a trusted advisor to the business, Global Sourcing plays a pivotal role in delivering sustainable cost efficiencies, accelerating speed-to-value, and enabling Visa to operate with agility and integrity in a dynamic global marketplace.

Position Summary

The Senior Director, Head of Sourcing – CEMEA is a senior regional leadership role responsible for leading sourcing execution, stakeholder engagement, value delivery and business partnership across Central Europe, Middle East and Africa. As the senior-most sourcing leader dedicated to the region, this leader represents Global Sourcing within CEMEA and serves as a strategic advisor to regional executives on commercial, supplier, risk, and sourcing matters.  The role supports 88 countries and is responsible for sourcing execution across multiple categories, representing approximately $700M in annual addressable spend. 

Reporting to the Vice President of Global Sourcing – International, this leader translates global category strategies and enterprise sourcing priorities into regionally relevant execution plans that support CEMEA business objectives, market dynamics, regulatory requirements, and stakeholder needs. The role is accountable for driving disciplined sourcing execution across strategy development, competitive bidding, negotiations, contracting support, supplier relationship management, governance adherence, and value delivery.

As the senior-most sourcing leader dedicated to CEMEA, the Head of Sourcing partners closely with regional business executives, Finance, Legal, Risk, global category leaders, and the India Shared Services Center to deliver measurable value while balancing enterprise consistency with local market requirements. The role is expected to maintain regular engagement with regional CFOs, Legal leadership, functional stakeholders, and business leaders to ensure sourcing activity is aligned to regional priorities and executed with quality, pace, and commercial discipline.

Job Scope

Reporting to the Vice President of Global Sourcing – International, this leadership role is responsible for leading sourcing delivery across CEMEA while ensuring consistent execution of enterprise sourcing strategies, governance requirements, and operating standards. The role is an execution-oriented, business-facing with primary accountability for regional delivery, stakeholder partnership, team leadership, and value realization within CEMEA.

• Stakeholder Engagement: Act as the primary sourcing partner to CEMEA business leaders and functional stakeholders, building trusted relationships and maintaining regular engagement with regional CFOs, Legal leadership, Risk, Finance, People and business partners. Influence sourcing decisions, align priorities with business objectives, and ensure sourcing is positioned as a responsive and commercially focused partner to the region. Represent Global Sourcing in regional leadership forums.
• Regional Sourcing Execution: Translate global category strategies into clear regional sourcing plans and lead disciplined execution across sourcing strategy development, competitive bidding, supplier selection, negotiations, contracting support, and implementation. Ensure regional execution reflects local market conditions, cultural dynamics, regulatory considerations, stakeholder needs, and supplier capabilities.
• Value Delivery & Commercial Performance: Deliver measurable value across the region through savings, cost avoidance, demand management, supplier optimization, process improvement, and commercially sound negotiations. Establish clear regional performance metrics, monitor progress against sourcing objectives, and ensure value commitments are tracked, validated, and communicated effectively. Own regional sourcing performance reporting and value realization transparency.
• Operating Model & Governance Execution: Drive adoption of consistent sourcing processes, governance requirements, buying channels, negotiation standards, contracting practices, supplier management approaches, and stakeholder engagement routines across CEMEA. Identify where regional differentiation is required and escalate opportunities to improve or adapt the operating model where it drives business value. Lead regional sourcing governance reviews and portfolio oversight.
• Supplier Relationship Management: Lead regional supplier engagement and performance management for key suppliers operating in CEMEA. Partner with global category leaders to support supplier governance, executive supplier engagement, issue resolution, risk mitigation, innovation opportunities, and broader enterprise or multi-regional leverage where appropriate.
• India SSC Partnership: Partner closely with the India Shared Services Center supporting CEMEA to align sourcing priorities, intake processes, work allocation, service levels, escalation paths, and delivery expectations. Actively manage regional demand, improve handoffs between regional teams and shared services, and support continuous improvement in stakeholder experience.
• Governance, Risk & Compliance: Ensure sourcing activities comply with corporate policies, ethical standards, regional regulatory requirements, and established governance frameworks. Partner with Legal, Risk, Compliance, Finance, and business stakeholders to proactively manage supplier risk, contracting issues, supplier performance concerns, and supply chain continuity requirements.
• Talent & Leadership: Lead and develop a high-performing CEMEA sourcing team, building capability, accountability, collaboration, and execution discipline across the region. Provide coaching, performance leadership, development planning, and succession support to strengthen regional talent depth and prepare leaders for broader sourcing opportunities.
• Transformation & Continuous Improvement: Support Global Sourcing transformation priorities by adopting AI, GenAI, advanced technologies, validated sourcing practices, and process improvements that improve productivity, execution quality, cycle times, and stakeholder experience. Serve as a regional change leader, helping the team embed new ways of working while maintaining delivery discipline.

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

Qualifications

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in sourcing, procurement, supply chain, vendor management, or related commercial disciplines within large, complex, and matrixed organizations.; advanced degree and/or procurement certification preferred.
• Proven success leading regional sourcing teams and delivering measurable business outcomes across multiple countries and stakeholder groups.
• Deep expertise in strategic sourcing, competitive bidding, supplier negotiations, contracting, supplier performance management, and procurement governance.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with senior business stakeholders, including Finance, Legal, Risk, HR, and regional business leaders; influencing decision-making across a complex matrix organization.
• Strong understanding of regional market dynamics, supplier ecosystems, regulatory requirements, and cultural considerations across CEMEA.
• Proven ability to translate enterprise sourcing strategies and category priorities into effective regional execution and business results.
• Track record of delivering commercial value through cost optimization, demand management, supplier innovation, process improvement, and risk mitigation.
• Experience leading complex negotiations, managing supplier escalations, and balancing commercial objectives with business and regulatory requirements.
• Strong analytical, financial, and commercial acumen, with the ability to assess tradeoffs, evaluate business cases, and support fact-based decision-making.
• Demonstrated success building, developing, and leading high-performing teams while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

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.