Senior Lead - Staff Software Engineer

At On, everything we do is deeply rooted in innovation at its core and more specifically when it comes to our physical products. That’s why we are looking for a Staff Software Engineer for the Product Innovation team in the Product R&D Cluster with a strong background in full-stack development, cloud infrastructure, and event-driven systems to help build the next generation of digital platforms that power Product Innovation at On.

As a key member of our innovation team, you will play a pivotal role in leading the development of pioneering digital experiences that connect with our core data platform, disruptive technologies such as LightSpray and future exploratory innovations. You will be responsible for designing and building scalable, cloud-native applications from the ground up. In addition to being hands-on, you will mentor team members, share your knowledge and expertise, and influence the technical direction of our innovation efforts.

You will be based in Zurich and are willing to be in the office two days per week. You will collaborate closely with a cross-functional team between Tech and Innovation, while serving as the go-to person for the architectural vision of this space within the broader Technology and Product Management teams across On’s global office locations.

Your Mission

• Drive the development of cutting-edge platforms and interactive web applications, using technologies such as TypeScript, Node.js, and React, that integrate seamlessly with our core event-driven architecture (Kafka).
• Design, build, and maintain scalable and resilient cloud infrastructure on platforms like GCP or AWS, ensuring our innovative products are built on a solid foundation.
• Own technical knowledge across the full stack and infrastructure, retaining architectural context while providing guidance on modern web standards, API design, and event-driven patterns.
• Be hands-on by writing and owning production-quality code, from GraphQL APIs and streaming consumers to interactive front-ends. Setting a high bar through thoughtful PR reviews and continuously improving reliability and operability.
• Act as a technical mentor to engineers on full-stack development, cloud-native principles, and best practices for interacting with streaming data platforms like Kafka.
• Influence the technical direction of product innovation by collaborating with senior leadership, helping to establish well-designed and well-documented cloud architectures, and bringing new concepts from prototype to production.

Your Story

• 5+ years of experience building and operating large-scale, cloud-native applications in production.
• Extensive hands-on experience with TypeScript, Node.js, and React in a production environment, building both robust back-end systems and responsive, interactive front-ends.
• Extensive hands-on experience with database systems (e.g., PostgreSQL).
• Proven experience working with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS) and a strong understanding of infrastructure-as-code principles.
• Hands-on experience with Apache Kafka in production, including consuming from and interacting with event streams.
• Experience leading complex technical initiatives, partnering with multiple stakeholders and teams, and providing technical direction to others.
• Experience mentoring and coaching engineers, providing guidance and feedback to support their growth and development.

Nice to haves:

• Experience building data pipelines. 
• A deep understanding of 3D asset manipulation on the web (e.g., Three.js, rhino3dm).
• Previous experience in C# .NET development