Software Engineer CV: Example and Template
A complete Swiss CV example for Software Engineers - with tech stack, quantified achievements and the qualifications that HR and tech leads actually recognise here.
Currently 273 open Software Engineer positions in Switzerland, across 16 cantons, 28 of them from the last 7 days. speechify advertises the most.
CV example — two-page template
This template is editable straight away — or upload your existing CV and it is carried into this layout automatically.
Which qualification counts in Switzerland for Software Engineers?
The qualifications most recognised are the Informatiker EFZ in Application Development, a Dipl. Techniker HF in Computer Science, and a BSc/MSc in Computer Science from a FH, ETH or university - and increasingly, proven hands-on experience.
The classic Swiss path begins with the four-year apprenticeship as an Informatiker/in EFZ, specialising in Application Development, often combined with the Berufsmaturität (Vocational Baccalaureate). This is then built on with either a Dipl. Techniker HF in Computer Science, a Bachelor of Science FH (for example FHNW, ZHAW, HSLU, BFH), or a degree from ETH Zurich, EPFL or a university. State the title exactly as it appears on your diploma - 'Bachelor of Science FH in Computer Science' tells HR something different from 'studied computer science'.
If you are a career changer or studied abroad, put your practical experience front and centre: role, tech stack, team size, production systems with user numbers. For foreign diplomas, it's worth mentioning recognition by SBFI or swissuniversities. Certificates that are genuinely in demand here also strengthen your profile: CKA, AWS or Azure Associate, PSM I, ISTQB, and less commonly SAFe.
Also demonstrate domain-specific knowledge, since a large share of Swiss software jobs sit in banking, insurance, MedTech, industry and the public sector. Knowledge of ISO 20022 and the QR-bill, of eCH standards for government applications, of HL7 FHIR and CDA-CH for the electronic patient record, or of IEC 62304 for medical device software immediately sets you apart from a generic profile. A salary band of CHF 95'000 to CHF 140'000 is usually negotiated based on this combination of stack and domain.
How do you present work experience and tech stack convincingly?
For each role, briefly describe the technical context, followed by three to four measurable results - not just a list of technologies without impact.
Start each position with a context sentence: product, industry, architecture, team size, methodology and operating environment. This lets a tech lead understand within ten seconds whether you maintained a monolith or were responsible for 14 services in Kubernetes. Then follow with results backed by figures: p95 latency from 2.4s to 0.7s, test coverage from 41% to 82%, deployment frequency from quarterly to four releases per month, cloud costs down CHF 210'000 per year.
Use the language of engineering practice rather than marketing phrases: DORA metrics, change failure rate, mean time to restore, SLOs and error budgets, trunk-based development, strangler pattern, contract tests. In your skills section, clearly separate languages and frameworks, data storage, platform/operations and quality assurance, and state your levels honestly. Anyone who lists Rust as 'in production for 3 years' will be tested on exactly that in a live-coding or pair-programming interview.
Back up your claims with external evidence: a tidy GitHub or GitLab profile, a link to an open-source contribution, a talk at a meetup or a technical blog post. Two to three links are enough, but they need to be current. For projects under NDA, write 'major bank, name available on request' and describe the architecture and impact without disclosing confidential details.
How long should the CV be, and is a photo needed?
Two pages is standard; a professional photo is still common in Switzerland and optional at tech companies.
Keep to two pages: profile, experience from the last ten to twelve years, skills, education, certificates, languages. Summarise older positions in a single line. Submit a PDF with a descriptive file name, for example 'CV_Brunner_Lukas_Senior_Software_Engineer.pdf', and avoid graphic gimmicks such as percentage skill bars - many application systems can't read them, and tech leads tend to distrust them.
A plain, professional portrait photo remains common at Swiss companies and is almost expected by recruitment agencies. At international tech firms and start-ups in Zurich, Zug or Lausanne, you can leave it out. Details such as date of birth, nationality and - for non-EU/EFTA nationals - permit status (B, C, G) belong in the header, as they immediately clarify the work permit question. Leave out marital status and religion.
Supplement your CV with reference letters and diplomas as a PDF, since qualified interim and final reference letters are standard practice here and are checked. Note your availability, notice period, acceptable commuting radius and remote-work share, as well as your language levels according to the CEFR - German C1 or French B2 often determines how well you can work with business departments in many teams. Finally, tailor your profile and skills to each job ad: 'Java, Spring Boot, OpenShift, ISO 20022' gets you through screening, a generic 'full-stack developer' does not.
Where Software Engineer are hired in Switzerland
How the 273 open positions are spread across the cantons.
Figures as a table
| Canton | postings |
|---|---|
| Zürich | 89 |
| Waadt | 20 |
| Genf | 18 |
| Basel-Stadt | 17 |
| Bern | 14 |
| Zug | 8 |
| Solothurn | 4 |
| Graubünden | 4 |
Which languages the postings require
Of 233 postings that state a language — in brackets, those requiring professional level.
Figures as a table
| Language | postings |
|---|---|
| English | 200 (186) |
| German | 85 (78) |
| French | 9 (4) |
| Italian | 2 (2) |
Who hires Software Engineer in Switzerland
Employers with the most open positions. Staffing agencies are excluded.
Figures as a table
| Employer | postings |
|---|---|
| speechify | 11 |
| adesso Schweiz AG | 8 |
| proton | 6 |
| vontobel | 6 |
| Roche | 6 |
| onrunning | 5 |
Full-time or part-time?
How the positions are advertised.
Figures as a table
| Workload | postings |
|---|---|
| Vollzeit / plein temps | 184 |
| Teilzeit / partiel | 6 |
The CV in full
To read through and reuse.
Lukas Brunner
Senior Software Engineer (Backend/Cloud), BSc FH Computer Science, IT Specialist EFZ, Application Development
Senior Software Engineer with 11 years of experience developing Java and TypeScript applications for Swiss banks, health insurers and public administrations. Specialised in Domain-Driven Design, ISO 20022 payment interfaces and operating Kubernetes workloads in Swiss data centres under revDSG and FINMA requirements. As Tech Lead, leads cross-functional Scrum teams of 6 to 9 people and is responsible for architecture decisions for systems with over 400'000 end users.
What sets me apart
Payment processing per Swiss Payment Standards: Built pain.001 and camt.053 interfaces for four financial institutions and migrated 2 legacy systems to the QR-bill on schedule - including validation against the SIX test platform.
Compliance-ready architecture: Designs applications so that data storage, logging and outsourcing are revDSG-compliant and documented in line with FINMA Circular 2018/3 - audits with no major findings for 3 years.
Legacy modernisation without a big bang: Broke down a 1.2 million-line COBOL/Java monolith into 14 services using the strangler pattern, while in live operation and without unplanned downtime.
Engineering culture instead of heroics: Introduced trunk-based development, pair programming and mandatory code reviews; bug returns from testing dropped by 46%, and new developer onboarding fell from 6 to 3 weeks.
Key achievements
Increased deployment frequency 12-fold. Replaced manual releases with a GitLab CI/CD pipeline featuring automated tests and blue-green deployments: from 1 release per quarter to 4 per month, with a change failure rate below 5%.
Cut cloud costs by CHF 210'000 per year. Optimised resource requests, autoscaling and database tiering across 38 Kubernetes workloads; compute load per transaction fell by 34% while maintaining a 99.9% SLA.
Reduced customer portal response times by 71%. Introduced caching, asynchronous processing and a new data model: p95 latency dropped from 2.4s to 0.7s for 400'000 users and 1.8 million requests per day.
Experience
Senior Software Engineer / Tech Lead — Helvetic Digital Systems AG, Zurich, since 03/2020
Custom software for banks and insurers; team of 8, Scrum with 2-week sprints, operated on OpenShift in two Swiss data centres.
- Responsible for the architecture of a loan application platform (Java 21, Spring Boot, PostgreSQL) with 14 services and 1.8 million requests per day; 99.95% availability over 24 months.
- Migrated 2 clients to ISO 20022 (pain.001/camt.053) and the QR-bill; passed 100% of 320 test cases before going live.
- Increased automated test coverage from 41% to 82% and reduced production incidents (P1/P2) from 19 to 4 per year.
- Led 4 junior developers and 2 IT apprentices (Informatiker EFZ); all 3 apprenticeship completions achieved a grade of 5.0 or higher.
Backend Software Engineer — Alpenbit Software GmbH, Bern, 08/2016 - 02/2020
Specialist applications for cantonal administrations and a health insurer, interfaces based on eCH standards and HL7/CDA-CH.
- Developed an eCH-0147-compliant interface for document exchange between 11 municipalities; reduced processing time per file from 12 to 4 minutes.
- Automated premium invoicing for 96'000 policyholders, eliminating around 1'400 manual corrections per year.
- Ported 23 batch jobs from cron scripts to Spring Batch with monitoring; reduced nightly run time from 5h40 to 1h50.
- Contributed to 2 external security audits (ISO 27001); resolved 17 of 17 findings within 8 weeks.
Application Developer — Novacor Web Solutions AG, Aarau, 08/2012 - 07/2016
SME service provider for e-commerce and intranet solutions, LAMP stack and first Java projects, team of 5.
- Delivered 9 web shops with ERP integration (SOAP/REST); reduced average project duration from 14 to 9 weeks.
- Built a warehouse and shipping module for a client with 2'300 orders per month, reducing mis-shipments by 38%.
- Introduced Git, code reviews and a ticketing system, and documented 100% of delivered modules.
Education
Bachelor of Science FH, Computer Science, Software Engineering major — Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW, Brugg-Windisch · 2016
Federal Certificate of Proficiency (EFZ), IT Specialist, Application Development — Berufsfachschule Baden, apprenticeship employer Novacor Web Solutions AG · 2012
Federal Vocational Baccalaureate, Technology, Architecture, Life Sciences — Berufsmaturitätsschule Aargau · 2012
Certified Kubernetes Administrator CKA, CNCF · 2023 · AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate · 2022 · Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) · 2021 · ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level · 2018