Application as Requirements Engineer

Requirements Engineer is a profession in IT / Software Development, typically entered via BSc Business Information Technology FH. Anyone applying here should know these requirements and pitfalls - specific to the Swiss job market, not generic.

Technical Requirements

• IREB certification is often explicitly required in Switzerland
• Writing specifications that are verifiable
• Working with requirements tools such as Jira, Confluence or Polarion
• Basic understanding of system architecture to assess feasibility
• Technical English for specifications

Personal Requirements

• Persistence in asking questions until a requirement is unambiguous
• Precision in wording - ambiguity costs money later
• Mediating between the business department, development and testing

Common Mistakes in the Application

• The IREB certificate is not mentioned at the top of the CV, even though it is the first filter criterion
• No writing sample is offered, even though wording quality is the core of the role
• The cover letter itself contains ambiguous phrasing - a direct contradiction in this profession
• Experience in a regulated environment is not mentioned, even though it counts especially here

Typical Employers in Switzerland

Siemens Switzerland, ABB, SBB, Skyguide, Bystronic, Avaloq, Federal Office of Information Technology FOITT.

Excerpt from a Cover Letter

Dear Ms. Steiner In my current position at a mechanical engineering company in Bern, I am responsible for the requirements specification for the control software of two machine types. When an acceptance test failed a year ago, the cause was a single piece of wording that allowed two interpretations. Since then I check every requirement under the four-eyes principle for clarity and testability.

View the full sample