What are the responsibilities and job description for the Lead System Architect position at Visa?
About the Integrated Risk Platform:
Visa is committed to building the next generation of risk management solutions for the global payments ecosystem. As part of Value Added Services (VAS) and RaIS, the Integrated Risk Platform (IRP) draws inspiration from industry-leading solutions, delivering advanced, scalable, and intelligent risk decisioning. IRP leverages modern architecture, data science, and AI/ML to proactively address the evolving landscape of fraud, compliance, and risk in digital payments - through both powerful backend services and intuitive, high-performance user interfaces.
Responsibilities
As Lead System Architect of IRP Architecture, you will be responsible for setting the technical vision, strategic architectural direction, and execution for various areas of Visa’s next-generation Integrated Risk Platform. Reporting to the Sr. Director of Engineering, you will partner with product, engineering, and data science leaders to define and deliver a unified, extensible, and resilient risk platform – from data pipelines to user-facing applications – supporting mission-critical services across Visa’s global footprint.
- Strategic Leadership: Define and champion the architectural vision and roadmap for IRP, ensuring alignment with Visa’s business and technology objectives, as well as integration with VAS/RaIS and the broader Visa ecosystems. Balance backend innovation with a scalable, consistent, and secure UI platform strategy.
- Technical Direction: Provide hands-on guidance and oversight to engineering and architecture teams in the design and delivery of secure, high-performance, and scalable systems for real-time fraud detection, risk scoring, and value-added services - including interactive dashboards, case management tools, and other user-facing applications.
- Platform Architecture: Architect and evolve the IRP platform, leveraging cloud-native patterns, distributed systems, and modern data platforms to support high-throughput, low-latency decisioning at global scale. Drive innovation in areas such as fraud operations, streaming analytics, ML model orchestration, real-time data visualization, responsive web apps, mobile-friendly interfaces, component libraries, and adaptive risk controls.
- UI Platform Enablement: Define the architecture for front-end frameworks, design systems, and client-side performance optimization. Ensure accessibility (WCAG), localization, and internationalization are built into the UI platform. Collaborate with UX design teams to ensure technical feasibility and optimal user experience.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner with Product, Data Science, Security, UX, and Operations teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions, balancing tactical needs with long-term scalability and resilience.
- Governance & Best Practices: Establish and enforce architectural standards, technical best practices, and design principles across backend and front-end platforms. Set UI development guidelines, API contracts for front-end consumption, and performance/security benchmarks for web and mobile applications.
- Mentorship & Thought Leadership: Mentor senior engineers and architects, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement. Represent IRP architecture in executive and cross-organizational forums.
- Technology Evaluation & Adoption: Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends in risk, fraud, payments, UI frameworks, and digital experience platforms. Evaluate and introduce new tools, frameworks, and methodologies to maintain IRP’s position as a leading-edge platform.
- Stakeholder Management: Serve as a key technical advisor to executive leadership, providing regular updates on architectural strategy, risks, and milestones.
This is a hybrid position with the expectation of the three days per week in-office (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays).