Tech Lead – Credit and Lending (80-100%)

Sygnum Bank; Zürich; Hybrid; CHF 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Remote days/year

Mentoring program

FlexY Days

Sabbatical after 5 years

Job summary

Sygnum Bank in Zürich seeks a Tech Lead to head the Credit & Lending team, building applications, APIs and integrations for the digital lending business. You’ll stay hands‑on in architecture, design, code reviews and production development while growing the team.

You will lead through ambiguity, ensure security, and deliver a balanced roadmap in partnership with product management, in a hybrid work model with global collaboration. Strong Java experience required.

Qualifications

• Experience leading or mentoring an engineering team that delivers full‑stack products with a focus on quality and security.
• Proven track record architecting resilient systems with maintainability and observability.
• Designing flexible, robust REST APIs with an API‑first mindset.
• Strong hands‑on Java (17+) experience with Quarkus or Spring.
• Practical experience with PostgreSQL and AWS; cloud‑native thinking.
• Clear communication to explain trade‑offs to non‑technical stakeholders.
• Comfort operating in fast changing environments with competing priorities.
• Experience with risk management systems or trading platforms is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the engineering team; guide delivery and coach engineers.
• Shape roles, onboard great people, and ensure cross‑function collaboration.
• Stay close to the code; write and review high‑quality, well‑tested code.
• Champion quality and security; integrate secure coding into the SDLC.
• Keep systems dependable; ensure availability, resilience and observability.
• Shape planning with Product Management; maintain a balanced roadmap.
• Lead through ambiguity; provide structure and sound trade‑offs for priorities.

Skills

Team leadership

Architect systems

REST API design

Java (17+)

Frontend review

Stakeholder comms

Operational reliability

Security mindset

Tools

Quarkus

Spring

PostgreSQL

AWS

React/Angular/Vue

Job description

About Sygnum

Sygnum is a global digital asset banking group, founded on Swiss and Singapore heritage. We empower professional and institutional investors, banks, corporates and DLT foundations to invest in digital assets with complete trust. Our team enables this through our institutional-grade security, expert personal service and portfolio of regulated digital asset banking, asset management, tokenization and B2B services.

In Switzerland, Sygnum holds a banking licence and has CMS and Major Payment Institution Licences in Singapore. The group is also regulated in the established global financial hubs of Abu Dhabi, Luxembourg and is registered in Liechtenstein.

We believe that the future has heritage. Our crypto-native team of banking, investment and digital asset technology professionals are building a trusted gateway between the traditional and digital asset economies that we call Future Finance. To learn more about how Sygnum’s mission and values are shaping this digital asset ecosystem, please visit sygnum.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X.

Our Values

A key pillar of our success are the Sygnum values that define and unite us a team. We proudly call them our SYGN values:

• S stands for the importance we hold in Seeking and seizing opportunities, and the way we take personal ownership for delivering results for our clients;
• Y represents the way we say Yes to maintaining the highest level of integrity and fairness in everything we do. Sygnumers always display confidence without attitude;
• G reminds us to always Grow and win together. We only succeed by supporting each other and challenging ourselves, and our team-mates, to reach for new heights;
• N is here for Nose for value because we are always looking to focus on what matters most to our clients, partners and team.

Sygnum has one of the most diverse teams in the industry. Diversity plays a central role in keeping our work culture open, our teams productive and energised, and our solutions at the forefront of the industry. In the spirit of our SYGN value to “grow and win together”, we fully embrace an equal opportunity mindset in the way we onboard, develop and promote our team members.

About the role

You will lead the Credit & Lending team, building the applications, APIs and integrations that power Sygnum’s digital asset lending business.

The team owns the technology behind the full lending lifecycle, from product discovery, credit origination and collateral onboarding to contract activation, drawdown, repayment and self-service account management. Our goal is to let clients access, activate and manage their lending products entirely online.

As Tech Lead, you’ll wear two hats: technical and managerial. You will stay hands‑on in architecture, solution design, code reviews and production development while leading and growing the team.

Your main responsibilities

• Lead and grow the team. Guide delivery, coach engineers, and help build the team you’ll work alongside, from shaping roles to bringing great people on board. The team spans backend and frontend engineers, and you’ll help them work as one unit.
• Support people's growth. Set clear goals together, hold meaningful 1:1s, and give honest, caring feedback that helps each engineer do their best work and grow their career.
• Stay close to the code. Keep your hands in the work by writing and reviewing high-quality, well-tested code across the stack, from services to UI. Facilitate design discussions that the team captures in RFCs and ADRs.
• Champion quality and security. Help the team weave secure coding and the SSDLC into how they work.
• Keep our systems dependable. Work with the team to safeguard the availability, resilience, and observability of our services and user‑facing applications.
• Shape planning and steady delivery. Together with your Product Manager create a balanced roadmap, smooth out cross‑team dependencies, and protect the team’s focus so they can deliver predictably.
• Lead through ambiguity and changing priorities. Bring structure to unclear or fast‑moving situations, clarify options and trade‑offs, and help the team stay focused while adapting to business, regulatory, and operational needs. Nurture a safe, energizing culture. Create an environment where every team member feels heard, supported, and empowered to contribute meaningfully.

Our ideal candidate

You’ll thrive here if you find energy in both technical and people leadership, enjoy taking a team through the full journey (from designing solutions to running them in production), and care about building quality and security in from the start rather than bolting them on later.

• Experience leading or mentoring an engineering team that deliver full-stack products, with a genuine care for quality and security.
• Proven track record in architecting resilient systems, with focus on maintainability, observability and stability of those systems.
• A knack for designing flexible, robust REST APIs with an API‑first mindset.
• Strong hands‑on skills in Java (17+) with Quarkus or Spring.
• Practical experience with PostgreSQL (or similar RDBMS) and AWS (or a comparable cloud).
• Clear, pragmatic communication style, with the ability to explain technical trade‑offs to non‑technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable operating in a fast‑changing environment with competing priorities, incomplete information, and a need for sound judgement.
• Experience with risk management systems, trading or similarly critical enterprise platforms is a strong plus; curiosity to understand the business context behind the technology is essential.
• Working knowledge of modern frontend development (React / Angular / Vue), enough to review and guide frontend work.

Our Engineering Culture

• Do you identify with these values and principles?
• Team first mindset. The team above its individuals
• Our people first. Everything starts there
• We deliver frequently, with high quality and security. Yup, that’s right
• We celebrate success and learn from failures. The key to a healthy balance
• We are pragmatic and look for simplicity. KISS everywhere
• We have positive impact. We deliver results

Our Offer

Joining Sygnum means being part of a dynamic, global team that is building a trusted gateway between the traditional and digital asset economies. Working at Sygnum, you will experience our fast‑paced, exciting work environment that embraces meritocracy and collaboration and open communication. Alongside our ambitious long‑term mission, we also come together for reaching important milestones and annual crypto‑industry anniversaries like Bitcoin Pizza Day, and regularly celebrate together at themed company events as part of our journey to shape Future Finance.

Sygnum offers a comprehensive package of benefits for all team members. They include:

• Participation in our entrepreneurial incentive scheme from day one
• Hybrid working, with up to two days per week working from home and three days in the office
• Option to work remotely from approved countries for up to 20 days per year
• Access to mentoring and buddy programmes
• Option to purchase additional annual leave through our FlexY Days programme
• One‑month fully paid sabbatical after five years of continuous employment