Director, Marketing Services Delivery, Agency Strategy

Visa•San Francisco, CA

1d•$178,300 - $285,600•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Marketing Services Delivery (Agency Strategy) will play a critical role in shaping how we engage, scope, and manage agency partners, serving as the key bridge between internal business objectives and external marketing partners. This individual will to lead the evaluation, scoping, and negotiation of all agency engagements, and will focus on building strong, accountable agency relationships while maximizing return on investment, ensuring operational rigor, and streamlining campaign execution across channels. The role operates in close partnership with Delivery segment leads and the Director of Business Planning for Marketing Services, North America, ensuring agency strategies, investments, and execution are tightly aligned to segment priorities, business plans, and performance goals. The ideal candidate is highly collaborative, detail-oriented, and experienced in managing agency relationships, contract negotiations, and cost structures within a fast-paced, matrixed organization.

Requirements

12+ years of relevant work experience with a bachelor’s degree, or 8-10 years of work experience with an advanced degree (e.g. MBA)
Extensive experience working with marketing, event or creative agencies, with a strong understanding of agency pricing models, cost structures, and resourcing approaches
Demonstrated experience developing, reviewing, and negotiating Statements of Work (SOWs)
Strong financial acumen with the ability to evaluate cost structures, challenge assumptions, and drive cost-efficient outcomes while maintaining quality
Proven track record of successfully negotiating with agency partners, balancing relationship management with achieving business objectives
Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, highly matrixed organization, working across Business Development, Delivery, Finance, Procurement, and agency partners
Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and align cross-functional teams and senior leaders
Highly detail-oriented with strong analytical skills and the ability to assess complex proposals and identify risks or optimization opportunities
Experience building and scaling processes or frameworks for vendor/agency management, including standardizing ways of working and improving operational efficiency
Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to clearly articulate scope, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary point of contact for external marketing agencies.
Lead regular status and performance reviews, assess agency effectiveness and partner with Strategic Sourcing to determine when to scale, evolve, or exit partnerships.
Lead end-to-end negotiations with agencies across pricing, resourcing, and deliverables to achieve competitive, scalable, and financially optimized outcomes.
Challenge agency proposals appropriately to ensure transparency, efficiency, and value without compromising quality.
Establish consistent ways of working with agencies, including expectations around pricing models, deliverables, and performance.
Identify opportunities to optimize agency utilization, reduce costs, and improve speed to market.
Continuously assess and optimize Marketing Services’ agencies as an integrated portfolio of service providers to unlock efficiencies and maximize ROI for Visa and its clients.
Define, enforce, and monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs) related to event and campaign delivery.
Ensure high standards for reporting and accountability are met consistently.
Inform forecasting and oversee management of budgets on a per agency and project basis.
Ensure spend remains within scope while continuously improving efficiency and value delivered per dollar spent.