About Sygnia Ltd

What we do

Sygnia is a dynamic, fast-growing financial services company, listed on the Main Board of the JSE, with R285bn in assets under management. Its software has been developed in-house and the proprietary algorithms and systems have become world-class competitive differentiators in the industry. Our administrative platform is used by local and international clients. We continue to be at the cutting edge of technology and service innovation. We are a Microsoft shop with systems developed on SQL Server and C# .NET (Framework and Core). We use REST/JSON on Open API 3.0, and Entity Framework, MVC Razor and TypeScript for our systems development.

Why Work For Us

We attract the best developers because we are cutting edge innovators. Our CEO has made a name for herself in the industry as a market disruptor. There is a large social responsibility component, and a core value is to make the financial services industry more transparent and fair for everyday people. We spare no expense on tools and hardware. Sygnia's business is growing at a rapid pace, and we are at the most exciting stage of our systems development as we expand into new business areas, and bring enhanced automation to our established operations. We use technology to outmaneuver our larger competitors. We are in 2023 at the cusp of a large technology refresh that will take us onto the latest application and UI frameworks. Another great aspect is fully remote or hybrid working.

Our Culture

Sygnia is a small corporate, with an arty, edgy feel. Dress code is casual (jeans / t-shirts), a contrarian move in the financial industry. We strive to be better and faster than the 'big guys', and we are hungry for success. You are expected to learn on the job, but domain knowledge is easy to come by. The development culture is excellence-driven, with an open attitude and peer-review. We deliver working software that enables business-critical functions all the time. There is a high sense of individual significance.

Our Engineering Processes

The company has an agile approach to software development. We don't employ large teams of business and systems analysts - the team leads are 'close to the game'. The competitive and regulatory landscape is ever-changing and we need to be able to respond quickly. Our business leads are familiar with technology processes because technology-enabling is at the heart of our success. Requirements and technical specs for new systems are a collaborative output between the business sponsor and the lead developer. Existing systems are augmented in regular sprints. Documentation and development workflow is managed via Confluence and JIRA (Azure Dev Ops for newer projects), and for CI/CD we use TeamCity or Dev Ops Pipelines. We have a strong focus on continuous integration, testing, and a robust quality assurance processes.

Our Hiring Process

There is a 90 minute programming test for developers, and a written test for devops and QA applicants. You will have the opportunity to spend some time in our online 'space' among the developers you'll be working with, including an AMA time. It's a great way to get a sense of how we operate and feel the vibe. The second round will be a technical interview in which we cover theory and practice; we'll look at some code. After this, there is a quick third round in which we cover culture fit - this is generally a formality, and offers are made shortly thereafter.