Graduate Program - Data Science, Visa Consulting & Analytics (Jan 2025)

Your role

The Visa Graduate Program supports Visa’s mission to build a strong associate-level pipeline of talent with cross-functional knowledge and experience. In addition to meaningful rotations, Associates are provided training & development, mentoring, networking, and leadership exposure throughout the 12-month program. Leveraging Visa's global connectivity, the Associates will also have the opportunity to broaden their perspectives and insights through engaging with global stakeholders, both internally within the organisation and externally with partners. With over 85 offices worldwide, Associates can look forward to building a long-term, global career at Visa.

The Visa Graduate Program - Data Science is a 12-month program with two six-month rotations through the two key data science teams in Visa Consulting & Analytics: Data Science Issuer Advisory and Data Services. Please note that this program is open to candidates based in Sydney only.

Visa Consulting & Analytics

Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) is Visa's consulting division, serving Visa's clients (including card issuers, acquirers, and merchants) and solving their strategic problems focused on improving performance and profitability. Drawing on the expertise in strategy consulting, payments, data analytics, marketing, and operational and macroeconomics, VCA drives high-impact and tangible financial results.

Rotation 1: Data Science Issuer Advisory

In the first rotation, the graduate will work alongside members of the issuer advisory consulting team to deliver projects for a diverse client set (primarily issuers & FinTechs in the Australian market).

Projects may include:

• Designing the features of a new debit/credit card for an issuer that would be most appealing to their target customers and align with their strategic objectives
• Conducting a customer segmentation for an issuer client to partition their customers into groups based upon common attributes to enhance loyalty through customised marketing campaigns
• Leveraging predictive modelling to provide issuers with cardholder scores to inform targeted communications (e.g. dormancy scores, travel propensity scores, E-commerce engagement scores)

Responsibilities:

• Complete detailed analysis of client data and identify preliminary trends and themes in the data
• Assist the consulting team in developing & testing hypotheses regarding key issues highlighted by clients
• Summarise insights derived from data analysis into reports / PowerPoint packs that can be easily interpretable by clients
• Present results from data science analyses to a diversity of internal/external stakeholders (with varying degrees of seniority & technical aptitude)
• Liaise with colleagues from other business functions (e.g. product, marketing etc.) to deliver exceptional client outcomes

Rotation 2: Data Services

In the second rotation, the graduate will work in the Data Services team and assist with pipeline automation, taking ownership of existing products, and contributing to solution development to expand data science capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. The graduate will gain experience with a variety of coding languages (Python, SQL, R), data visualisation tools (Tableau), and big data infrastructure (Hadoop, Spark, Apache Airflow).

Projects may include:

• Delivering existing subscription-based projects by processing ETL pipelines, conducting quality assurance checks, and distributing to clients
• Designing end-to-end data pipelines to translate transaction data into summary insights that can be actioned by clients
• Implementing modifications to existing technical innovations / patented solutions at Visa to enhance accuracy / improve process efficiency (e.g. enhancing a Visa-patented algorithm to predict spend ‘centre of gravity’ for cardholders)
• Developing new & innovative capabilities using Visa Network data to service client needs in the AP market (e.g. geospatial analytics, time series forecasting, statistical modelling for cardholder profiling etc.)

Responsibilities:

• Contribute to solution development under the supervision of data science leads in the team
• Propose new ideas and challenge existing assumptions to provide thought diversity and pioneer innovation
• Conduct quality assurance checks on data output before client distribution
• Summarise insights from transaction data using a suitable coding language (SQL / Python / R)
• Understand existing methodologies and identify areas for improvement to enhance (a) code hygiene, (b) accuracy of results, and (c) program efficiency
• Package existing data pipelines into automated workflows using Apache Airflow
• Implement best-practice collaboration conventions by sharing code through BitBucket / GitHub
• Construct documentation manuals for data science methodologies to simplify future handover & onboarding processes
• Collaborate effectively within an agile team environment, working closely with cross-functional team members to understand project requirements and deliver high-quality solutions

This is a hybrid position. Hybrid employees can alternate time between both remote and office. Employees in hybrid roles are expected to work from the office 2-3 set days a week (determined by leadership/site), with a general guidepost of being in the office 50% or more of the time based on business needs.

About you

Basic Qualifications:

• Currently in the final year of an accredited Bachelor’s or Master's degree program, OR have graduated from university no earlier than July 2024
• Available to join full-time when the program commences in February 2025, in Sydney
• Permanent authorisation to work in Australia is a precondition of employment as Visa will not sponsor applicants for work visas in connection with this program

Preferred Qualifications:

• Background in mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering, science, or economics
• Previous exposure to coding languages (one of R, MATLAB, Python, SQL)
• Familiar with statistical models including gradient boosting machines (GBMs), generalised linear models (GLMs), clustering techniques (KNN / K-means), and principal components analysis (PCA)
• Exceptional academic achievement
• Excellent analytical abilities, intellectual curiosity, and interest in finding new ways to do things
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills
• Professional maturity, strong work ethic and the ability to be flexible and adaptable to changing business needs
• Demonstrated leadership capabilities in professional, academic, or volunteer environments
• A global mindset and ability to work in a diverse workplace

Benefits

While benefits vary by country, all Visa employees receive health insurance, life insurance, savings plans, holidays and paid time off. If you want to make your philanthropic donations more impactful, their employee Matching Gift Programme is one of the best in the industry. They also consistently recognise their employees’ achievements, be it a performance-based reward, a service award or a talent referral bonus.

To know what it's like to work for Visa, take a look at this video:

Training & development

Learning and development are critical components of Visa’s commitment to investing in its employees. Visa focuses on developing its current and future workforces through educational programs in areas such as payments, technology, professional development, inclusion diversity and leadership.  They encourage the employees’ development through a variety of mechanisms, including on-the-job training with managers, mentors and peers, classroom learning and self-directed learning. 

Sources

The following sources were used in researching this page:

• visa.com.au/careers/the-visa-experience-why-visa.html 
• usa.visa.com/about-visa/esg/workforce.html#2