Director, Major Incident Management

Visa•Denver, CO

9d•$166,700 - $266,700•Hybrid

About The Position

Visa is seeking an experienced technology operations leader to lead its global Major Incident Management function. The role has enterprise accountability for the strategy, operating model, and execution of major incident response across Visa’s global, 24x7x365 technology environment. The Director leads a globally dispersed team and influences incident response across engineering, infrastructure, security, product, and operations, while maintaining executive visibility and stakeholder confidence during high-severity events. The Director leads enterprise escalation and response for critical technology incidents affecting Visa products, services, infrastructure, and clients. The position oversees incident command, communications, restoration, operational readiness, post-incident review governance, and continuous improvement. It also advances operational resilience, incident governance, automation, analytics, and AI-enabled operational capabilities, partnering with engineering and related functions to improve detection, triage, response, and communication. The role includes developing team members and supporting career development and succession planning. The position requires at least three days in the office; the specific days will be confirmed by the Hiring Manager. Work hours vary according to departmental needs, and the position requires travel 5–10% of the time. The work is performed in an office setting and involves sitting and standing at a desk, communicating in person and by telephone, and frequently operating standard office equipment such as telephones and computers.

Requirements

At least 10 years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s degree, at least 7 years with an advanced degree, or 4 years with a PhD, or 13 or more years of relevant work experience.
12 or more years of experience in technology operations, infrastructure operations, site reliability engineering, incident management, service management, or related disciplines.
At least 5 years of people leadership experience managing high-performing technical teams.
Proven experience leading response and recovery for large-scale production incidents.
Experience working in complex, mission-critical, global technology environments.
Deep knowledge of Major Incident Management, IT Service Management (ITSM), Change Management, Problem Management, and Operational Governance.
Experience supporting highly available distributed systems with stringent service availability requirements.
Strong understanding of cloud platforms, observability solutions, monitoring technologies, and modern operational practices.
Experience with SRE principles, operational resilience frameworks, AIOps, and automation technologies.
Demonstrated success influencing senior executives and cross-functional technology leaders.
Exceptional written, verbal, and executive communication skills.
Experience operating in regulated or highly secure environments.
Ability to work at least three days in the office.
Ability to travel 5–10% of the time.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of AI, Generative AI, automation, or predictive operations capabilities is strongly preferred.
Preferred experience levels include 12 or more years with a Bachelor’s degree, 8–10 years with an advanced degree, or 6 or more years with a PhD.

Responsibilities

Own Visa’s global Major Incident Management organization supporting a 24x7x365 technology environment.
Lead enterprise-wide escalation and management of business-critical technology incidents with significant client, operational, reputational, or regulatory impact.
Establish operational priorities and drive rapid service restoration during high-severity incidents.
Serve as the senior accountable escalation point for complex, cross-functional production events.
Balance speed of response with risk management and business impact mitigation.
Lead major-incident communications and provide timely, accurate updates, executive summaries, operational risk assessments, and status communications.
Build trusted relationships across Product Development, Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, Operations, and Corporate Functions.
Define, implement, govern, and improve incident management standards, operating procedures, policies, and performance metrics.
Establish and monitor key performance indicators for operational effectiveness and service resilience.
Lead operational reviews, trend analysis, and improvement initiatives to reduce customer impact and operational risk.
Drive operational discipline and accountability across incident response stakeholders.
Establish governance for root cause analysis and corrective action programs.
Ensure lessons learned lead to measurable operational improvements and partner with engineering and operations leaders to address recurring issues and systemic weaknesses.
Partner with crisis management, business continuity, cybersecurity, and operational resilience functions.
Design and lead enterprise major incident simulations, readiness exercises, and operational reviews.
Drive adoption of automation, advanced analytics, and AI-driven capabilities across incident management processes.
Partner with engineering and automation teams to improve incident detection, triage, correlation, response, and communication workflows.
Identify opportunities to reduce manual effort and improve operational speed, consistency, and quality; advance predictive and proactive operating models.
Build, develop, and lead a diverse, high-performing global team; foster operational excellence, collaboration, resilience, accountability, and innovation; coach and mentor future leaders and support career development and succession planning.