Director- Generative AI Platform and Hub

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.

In this role, you will manage Visa Generative AI Platform and Hub team based in Austin, TX where you will be responsible and accountable for end-to-end development and production support for Generative AI Platform - Core Services. 

The Work Itself

The Director as a part of our Generative AI team, will play a multifaceted role in the design, development, and deployment of our Large Language Model (LLM) applications. Key responsibilities will include creating applications based on the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework, developing efficient inferencing algorithms, and fine-tuning the LLM to cater to various applications.
This role will also involve leveraging various machine learning stacks to enhance system efficiency, researching new techniques to advance our LLM applications, and collaborating with cross-functional teams within the organization. In addition, the engineer will be responsible for documenting processes and workflows and sharing insights with the team.

This position requires a solid understanding of AI and machine learning principles, robust problem-solving skills, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Essential Functions

• Responsible for end-to-end software engineering aspects of design, development, testing and deployment of platform to support global customer needs, product innovations and technical initiatives.
• Responsible for technical capabilities of the product and the platform in terms of data design/architecture, UI/UX design/architecture, and API based backend systems.
• Create and promote an agile development culture in his or her team focused on Engineering Excellence with high quality code development and deployment to production.
• Facilitate knowledge transfer to the Engineering and Operations team during and after deployment.
• Work with geographically distributed teams on technical challenges and process improvements.
• Drive the strong automation culture with proven and open source-based technologies, frameworks, and best practices to reduce complexity and encourage operational excellence to the team.
• Engage and communicate with stakeholders of business, product, technology, operations, and customer success teams.
• Develop code, specifications, architecture and design documents as needed.

People Management

• Build and maintain a high performing team, hire and retain the right talents in the right roles.
• Foster a culture of teamwork, collaboration, and mentoring.
• Develop and empower direct reports to make appropriate technical decisions. Ensure resource availability to support deployment activities in various environments.
• Effectively handle goal setting and team performance management.
• Identify process improvements and/or ineffective use of project hours and resources.
• Manage development resources across multiple technologies including Big Data technologies, Virtualization, Containerization, AIML and various open source and public cloud offerings.
• Work collaboratively with senior management, architecture, product management and lead development staff to develop broadly acceptable solutions.
• Take complete responsibility of the full life cycle of projects and oversee software release implementations when required.

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
• Solid understanding of Large Language Models, Generative AI systems and applications.
• Background in developing and deploying AIML platforms and applications in on premises and public cloud infrastructure.
• Have prior hands-on experience using languages such as Python, Go, Java, Python, Rust. Strong on coding and code reviews.
• Experience in leading teams that have built full stack applications from the ground-up using distributed high performance and scalable technologies such as K8s, Docker, Ray, Airflow, Hadoop, Spark, Kafka and so on.
• Experience in leading teams that have built cloud platform solutions using AWS, Azure and GCP for high performance real time AIML applications
• Experience in DevSecOps world - Github/Git, CI/CD Pipelines, Jenkins, Ansible, Shell Scripts, Security Tools, Observability, Alerting, IaC etc.

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 this position is $214,500.00 to $343,400.00 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.