Lead Data Engineer - job 1 of 3

Visa is a world leader in payments and technology, with over 259 billion payments transactions flowing safely between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive while driven by a common purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

Make an impact with a purpose-driven industry leader. Join us today and experience Life at Visa.

 The Data and Artificial Intelligence Platform (DAP) is a critical component of Visa's Technology organization, providing the essential technology and processes to manage Visa's extensive data and AI assets and deliver valuable intelligence, products, and services to customers.  Within DAP, the Data as a Service (DaaS) team consists of skilled data engineers focused on building data pipelines to meet Visa's data needs and delivers secure, high-quality, and easy-to-use Visa core data assets.  

We are seeking a Lead Data Engineer who will play a crucial role in developing next-generation enterprise-level data pipelines and data assets for Real Time and Batch Data ingestion and processing, incorporating Agentic AI to support Visa's 2030 strategy.  In this role, you will collaborate with business partners, scrum masters, data engineers, and operations across the company to tackle complex, high-impact data-related initiatives on a global scale. You will also guide and mentor junior engineers, ensuring security, scalability, performance, and reliability in all data solutions. As an individual contributor based in Foster City, California, USA you will be reporting to Sr. Director of Data as a Service (DaaS) team.

About the Role:

• Oversee the entire data lifecycle, from data acquisition and ingestion to transformation, storage, and governance for both streaming and batch data pipelines and assets.

• Lead the analysis, design, development, and implementation of various initiatives, with end-to-end ownership to deliver business capabilities.  

• Ensure data security, privacy, governance, and compliance with all relevant regulations, and develop and implement auditable policies and procedures.

• Actively contribute with hands on development to critical projects by developing reusable modules, core frameworks and automation tools.

• Develop new products iteratively by building quick Proofs of Concept (POCs) and converting ideas into real products. 

• Establish engineering best practices for application development, testing, deployment and monitoring.

• Champion the adoption of GenAI and Agentic AI technologies and develop strategies to integrate them into existing data pipeline workflows or develop new ones.

• Leverage AI/ML technologies in bringing productivity across the SDLC phases.

• Provide technology leadership and motivate a high performing team of data engineers through coaching and mentoring and elevate team talent expertise fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning.

• Adhere to Visa's Leadership Principles by promoting collaboration, encouraging constructive debate, and executing with excellence.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

Basic Qualifications:
•10 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 8 years of work experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters/ MBA/JD/MD) or at least 3 years of work experience with a PhD

Preferred Qualifications:
•12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD
•Proven track record of building and deploying complex architectures for streaming and batch ETL pipelines using the latest Big Data technologies.
•Expertise with Apache Spark, Kafka, Hadoop, Hive, Trino, Presto, Apache Airflow and NoSQL databases like Hbase working with PB level data volume.
•Advanced proficiency and expertise in Scala, Java, Python, J2EE technologies, Microservices and REST APIs.
•Hands on Experience in on-prem (Hadoop) and cloud-based data platforms (AWS, Azure, DataBricks) and related data storage (HDFS, S3) and processing tools (Spark)
•Experience with GenAI or Agentic AI technologies (e.g., LLMs, NLP) and RAG-based architecture and MCP and Vector DBs.
•Experience developing proper metrics instrumentation in software components using Prometheus, Grafana for monitoring, logging, auditing, and security implementation to help facilitate real-time and remote problem solving /performance monitoring is highly preferred.
•Experience in deployment with automated and scalable CI/CD tools, including Jenkins and Maven
•Experience with containerization technologies and orchestration tools, including Docker and Kubernetes preferred.
•Highly motivated, self-driven, resourceful, and results-oriented.
•Excellent written and verbal communication skills, interpersonal and presentation skills, and proven ability to influence and communicate effectively.

Work Hours: Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements: This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.

Mental/Physical Requirements: This position will be performed in an office setting.  The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

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.

Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.

U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated salary range for a new hire into this position is 194,600.00 to 282,150.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401 (k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.