Sr. Manager, Visa Government Solutions, West & Central Africa

Job description

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 Responsibilities: Sales Strategy and Market Expansion: Execute Visa’s Government Solutions sales strategy across selected Western and Central Africa markets, identifying priority clients, solution opportunities, and growth areas that support revenue, market expansion, and broader strategic objectives. Originate opportunities that help governments use digital payments, wallets, and payments data to strengthen service delivery, improve decision-making, and drive better outcomes across sectors such as social protection, agriculture, health, education, mobility, and public finance. Support strategic accounts, priority pursuits, and multi-stakeholder initiatives across the region, with travel as required based on client, partner, and business needs. Pipeline, Account Planning, and Opportunity Execution: Build, manage, and advance a strong pipeline of public sector opportunities, developing account plans, sales strategies, business cases, and value propositions that position Visa competitively and connect commercial outcomes to measurable public sector impact. Lead or support RFP development, proposal coordination, and opportunity execution, ensuring disciplined pipeline management, high-quality submissions, and timely progression of strategic pursuits. Government and Public Sector Stakeholder Engagement: Establish and strengthen relationships with key public sector stakeholders, including national, provincial, and local government agencies, ministries, regulators, and public institutions, to understand priorities, shape opportunities, and navigate procurement processes through bid and award stages. Representing Visa with professionalism and sound judgment, proactively resolving issues that may affect sales performance, stakeholder engagement, or solution delivery, while leading through influence in a matrix environment. Ecosystem Partner Development and Commercial Enablement: Identify and engage ecosystem partners, including issuers, processors, program managers, fintech's, and technology providers, to strengthen Visa’s government solutions offering and support scalable, locally relevant payment programs. ·Support partners in developing and executing clear commercial strategies and action plans to achieve their agreed business commitments, including revenue targets, program milestones, and market activation objectives. Work closely with issuers, processors, fintech's, program managers, and other ecosystem partners to identify growth opportunities, remove execution barriers, and align activities with Visa Government Solutions’ priorities. Monitor partner progress, provide guidance on corrective actions where needed, and ensure partner initiatives contribute to measurable commercial outcomes and successful public sector program delivery. Internal Collaboration and Cross-Functional Alignment: Collaborate closely with internal stakeholders across VGS Centre of Excellence, VGS CEMEA Commercialization and Go-to-Market, Visa Government Affairs, Product, Solutions, Marketing, Communications, Client Services, and regional and country teams to align on outreach, opportunity development, market education, and proposition roadmaps. Market Intelligence and Solution Positioning: Provide market insight and client feedback to help shape Visa’s solutions and support the positioning of Visa’s capabilities in payments intelligence, digital acceptance, wallet-enabled service delivery, and public sector transformation. Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager. Qualifications Basic Qualifications: 8 or more years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor Degree or at least 5 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 2 years of work experience with a PhD Preferred Qualifications: 9 or more years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor Degree or 7 or more relevant years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 3 or more years of experience with a PhD Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Economics, Public Policy, Public Administration, Technology, or a related field required; MBA or relevant Masters’ degree an advantage. 5 - 8 years of relevant experience in business development, enterprise sales, account management, or government solutions sales, ideally in payments, financial services, fintech, technology, or the public sector. Experience selling to West and Central Africa public sector institutions an advantage. Strong understanding of public sector institutions, procurement, and government decision-making, with a proven ability to influence stakeholders and originate opportunities in complex sales environments. Strong consultative sales, relationship management, and business case development skills, with the ability to clearly articulate the value of digital payments for both commercial and public sector outcomes. Strong financial and commercial acumen, with excellent negotiation, communication, presentation, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills. Excellent written and spoken English required; French is an advantage. Experience with government payment programs, public finance digitization, digital disbursements, wallets, social payments, procurement payments, or related infrastructure would be an advantage, as would familiarity with how payments data, transaction insights, and digital platforms can improve decision-making and service delivery. 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.