Sr. Manager - Marketing Research

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

Visa is seeking a Senior Research Manager, Marketing Insights to join the North America Insights & Analytics team supporting North America Marketing Services.

As an individual contributor reporting to the Director of NA Insights & Analytics, this role will partner with Visa clients - including financial institutions, merchants, fintechs, and other ecosystem partners - to deliver marketing insights that inform client strategy, campaign development, activations, and performance measurement. The Senior Research Manager will work directly with external clients, internal Marketing Services stakeholders, and research vendors to design and deliver research that drives decision-making.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned market research professional with strong quantitative and qualitative research experience, excellent presentation skills, and the ability to translate insights into clear, actionable marketing recommendations. This person should be comfortable working in a client-facing environment, managing multiple projects, and building trusted relationships with both clients and internal partners.

Key Responsibilities:

Client Insights & Strategic Advisory:

• Partner directly with Visa clients and internal stakeholders to understand business objectives, marketing priorities, campaign goals, and research needs.
• Translate client business questions into research plans that inform marketing strategy, campaign development, audience understanding, messaging, channel planning, and activations.
• Build strong relationships with client stakeholders by demonstrating credibility, responsiveness, curiosity, and business acumen.

Research Design & Execution:

• Lead quantitative and qualitative research initiatives, including campaign effectiveness studies, brand lift, creative testing, positioning and messaging testing, concept testing, journey research, experiential research, audience insights/segmentation, and brand and competitive positioning.
• Develop research briefs, questionnaires, discussion guides, sample plans, analysis plans, and reporting frameworks in partnership with vendors and internal stakeholders.
• Ensure research is methodologically sound, aligned to client business objectives, and designed to produce actionable recommendations.
• Manage external research vendors from scoping and proposal review through execution, analysis, reporting, and final presentation.

Insight Storytelling & Stakeholder Partnership:

• Synthesize complex findings into clear, compelling narratives that connect insights, implications, and recommended actions.
• Develop executive-ready presentations and present findings confidently to clients, internal teams, and senior stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Marketing Services, strategy, creative, media, analytics, and account teams to shape insight-led recommendations for clients.
• Contribute to the broader Insights & Analytics agenda by identifying opportunities to improve research processes, share learnings, and scale insights across clients.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office 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.
• 8+ years of relevant professional experience, with the majority in market research, consumer insights, or a related insights function.
• Demonstrated experience designing and executing both quantitative and qualitative research.
• Experience using research to support marketing strategy, campaign development, brand strategy, customer experience, or consumer behavior analysis.
• Strong experience managing external research vendors (or direct vendor side experience) and overseeing research projects from brief through final presentation.
• Proven ability to translate research findings into actionable business and marketing recommendations.
• Excellent written, verbal, visual communication, and presentation skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport and credibility with clients, internal stakeholders, and cross-functional partners.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced, client-focused environment.
• High attention to detail, intellectual curiosity, and comfort working with ambiguity.
• Experience working at a market research agency, insights consultancy, or similar client-service environment.
• Experience in financial services, payments, retail, commerce, technology, or consumer marketing.
• Familiarity with campaign effectiveness, brand lift, creative testing, message testing, segmentation, and consumer/B2B journey research.
• Experience working in a matrixed organization with multiple internal and external stakeholders.

U.S. Applicants Only

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