Director, Payroll - LAC

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

The role will lead and manage the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) payroll operations, by ensuring the execution of day-to-day payroll work and strategic projects of the department, drive process efficiencies and assist in integration projects, related to the company acquisitions and global initiatives.

We are looking for a candidate that has strong skillsets in leadership, stakeholder and people management. Successful leadership ensures the full execution of the tasks promptly with no errors. The role will involve leading and managing the payroll teams across 3 locations (Brazil, Mexico and Colombia) and have frequent and regular interactions with cross-functional departments and senior management, throughout the company.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead regional payroll strategy, governance, and operational delivery across LAC.
  • Ensure timely and accurate end-to-end payroll delivery, legislative compliance, and effective issue resolution across supported countries.
  • Maintain strong payroll governance, internal controls, audit readiness, risk management, and remediation processes.
  • Ensure payroll systems and processes accurately calculate and record pay, benefits, deductions, taxes, garnishments, time, and company liabilities.
  • Confirm general ledger accuracy and pay-element mapping, protect confidential payroll data, and maintain compliant payroll policies and procedures.
  • Oversee system testing for upgrades and legislative changes and use analytics to improve service delivery, accuracy, and efficiency.
• Serve as the strategic payroll leader and cross-functional partner across LAC.
  • Partner with People Team, Finance, Controllership, Legal, Tax, M&A, and business leaders to align payroll priorities with regional and enterprise objectives.
  • Lead payroll readiness and operational integration for new countries, legal entities, acquisitions, and future growth initiatives.
  • Provide strong local leadership in Colombia while balancing regional LAC priorities, stakeholder expectations, operational escalations, and employee experience.
  • Establish clear regional ownership, accountability, and executive visibility for payroll strategy and execution across multiple countries and entities.
• Drive transformation, vendor performance, and scalable operating models.
  • Lead process optimization, automation, systems improvements, and scalable solutions that reduce manual work and support regional growth.
  • Partner with internal teams and payroll providers to improve process flow, communication, service levels, controls, and continuous improvement.
  • Hold vendors accountable for service delivery, compliance, performance expectations, and timely issue resolution.
• Build organizational capability and a sustainable regional leadership structure.
  • Lead and engage geographically dispersed payroll teams across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, with clear accountability for country deliverables and regional priorities.
  • Coach and develop payroll talent through regular feedback, recognition, upskilling, cross-training, succession planning, and leadership development.
  • Reduce key-person dependency and strengthen team capability to support growth, transformation, acquisitions, and operational continuity.

Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field; advanced degree or relevant professional certification preferred.
• 15 or more years of progressive payroll experience, including significant leadership of complex, multi-country payroll operations across LAC within a large multinational and matrixed organization.
• Proven experience setting regional payroll strategy and partnering with senior leaders across People Team, Finance, Controllership, Legal, Tax, M&A, and the business.
• Demonstrated leadership of payroll readiness, operational integration, and change delivery for new countries, legal entities, acquisitions, and business expansion initiatives.
• Strong and current knowledge of payroll legislation, statutory requirements, labor practices, tax considerations, and regulatory environments across LAC, including key markets such as Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.
• Deep experience in payroll governance, internal controls, audit management, compliance, risk mitigation, issue escalation, and remediation within complex operating environments.
• Proven ability to lead regional transformation, process optimization, automation, systems implementation, and scalable operating model improvements while maintaining service continuity and employee experience.
• 10 or more years of people leadership experience, including leading geographically dispersed teams, building organizational capability, coaching leaders, succession planning, and developing payroll talent.
• Strong vendor governance and commercial management experience, with a track record of holding providers accountable for service levels, controls, compliance, and continuous improvement.
• Executive-level communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to balance local and regional priorities, navigate ambiguity, and drive decisions across multiple countries and entities.
• Experience with payroll, time reporting, HR, and absence management platforms and providers, preferably including Workday, ADP, Deloitte, TMF, and/or CloudPay.
• Fluency in English and Spanish required; Portuguese proficiency strongly preferred.

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.

Why work here?

If you thrive on rapid growth and enjoy working alongside positive, driven teammates, you’ll feel right at home here.

Help us to uplift everyone, everywhere. Whether you’re starting your career, pushing your capabilities or are a seasoned professional, learn how we can partner to reimagine the world.

About Us

At Visa, we are driven by a common purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid. Our evolving technology keeps us at the heart of the digital economy, connecting people to 80+ million businesses worldwide. Backed by a resilient, proven model, our expanding network fuels growth—for Visa and for your career.

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