Senior Director - Distinguished Engineer

Location: Zurich

Technology

In short

In Technology at On, everything we build fuels our mission to ignite the human spirit through movement. We craft technology that improves with every interaction, enhancing the experience for everyone who moves. Delivering Wow through our platforms, apps and services is a core value. We believe in building solutions that not only function effortlessly but also contribute positively to the world. Our work connects communities and makes movement more enjoyable and accessible for all. Joining the Tech Leadership team at On, you'll find yourself at the heart of a fast-paced, diverse environment. Our ecosystem thrives on collaboration: a confluence of curious minds challenging and learning from one another, always seeking the uncharted. Here, we venture into new territories of technology, continuously refining our approach and embracing challenges head-on. Your role will be pivotal in shaping the next generation of intelligence, learning systems, cloud infrastructure, and AI platforms at On, helping create the foundations that power every part of our technology ecosystem.

Your Mission

Strategic & Visionary Leadership :

• Architect and spearhead the engineering vision for On’s core intelligence, learning systems, agent platforms, and cloud infrastructure.
• Drive the technical strategy for building a connected, event-driven ecosystem that acts as the central nervous system of the company, enabling real-time intelligence, autonomous decision support, and agentic workflows across the enterprise.
• Lead high-level architectural decisions that resonate across the organisation, ensuring our technology choices create a compounding competitive advantage and align with On’s long-term strategic vision.
• Articulate a compelling vision for the future of intelligence systems at On, spanning data platforms, knowledge systems, agent ecosystems, cloud architecture, and AI-native ways of operating.
• Help define the foundational capabilities required for enterprise AI at scale, including identity, discovery, governance, orchestration, observability, interoperability, and trust.

Execution & Cross-Functional Influence :

• Serve as the lead engineer and technical authority for cross-company initiatives, guiding multiple teams to deliver on a unified architectural vision.
• Leverage your combined expertise in Machine Learning, Cloud Infrastructure, Distributed Systems, and Software Engineering to bridge the gap between our Brand, Operations, Product, and Technology domains.
• Establish and champion a "build the core" philosophy, creating durable platform capabilities that enable hundreds of future AI and software use cases rather than solving them one by one.
• Shape the architectural foundations that allow data, models, workflows, applications, and people to operate as a connected intelligence ecosystem.
• Advise executives and business leaders on technology strategy, implementation choices, platform investments, and the technical feasibility of our most ambitious AI-driven goals.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement :

• Foster a culture of world-class engineering and continuous technical advancement, championing direct feedback, rigorous design, and innovative solutions.
• Stay ahead of advancements in AI, agent systems, machine learning infrastructure, distributed systems, cloud platforms, and event-driven architecture, guiding R&D efforts to solve On’s most complex challenges.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry standards that will shape the future of enterprise intelligence, agent interoperability, and cloud-native systems.
• Elevate the technical bar across the engineering organisation, mentoring senior engineers and ensuring our systems are built for scale, resilience, adaptability, and long-term evolution.

Your story

• You are a master builder of high-performance, scalable, resilient systems