Post IT jobs in Switzerland: a guide for international employers

Swiss contracts state the workload as a Pensum, a percentage of a full-time week. Full time means 41 hours 47 minutes a week on average by contract (BFS, 2024), and the legal ceiling for office and technical staff is 45 hours (the Labour Act, Arbeitsgesetz, Art. 9). IT ads usually carry a range such as 80–100 %. Weekly hours, salary, function, start date and the parties must be confirmed in writing within a month of the start (Code of Obligations, OR, Art. 330b).

Salaries are gross annual amounts in CHF, usually twelve monthly payments plus a 13th salary. The 13th is not a statutory right (OR Art. 322d only protects special payments once agreed), but 75.9 % of employees received one in 2024 (BFS), so a candidate reads CHF 120'000 as including it unless you say otherwise. swissICT, the Swiss ICT industry association, puts the 2026 median for a senior ICT professional at CHF 130'650 a year. Bands per role and city are on the salary report.

Probation is the first month by default, extendable to three months in writing, with seven days' notice on either side (OR Art. 335b). After that the statutory notice is one month in the first year of service, two months from the second to the ninth and three from the tenth, always to the end of a month (OR Art. 335c). Ask each candidate for their current notice period before promising a start date.

On top of gross pay, you carry the employer's share of social insurance:

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  5.3 % for AHV/IV/EO (pension, disability, income compensation)

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  1.1 % unemployment insurance up to CHF 148'200

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  At least half of the pension-fund (BVG) contributions

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  The occupational-accident premium

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  Family allowances of 0.6 to 3.8 % by canton (2023 rates; confirm with your Ausgleichskasse)

A CHF 120'000 salary adds an estimated 12 to 18 %. Foreign employees who do not hold a C permit (the open-ended settlement permit granted after five to ten years of residence) pay withholding tax (Quellensteuer) through your payroll.

Switzerland admits foreign workers under two systems. EU and EFTA citizens fall under the free movement agreement, with no quota; everyone else, including UK citizens since 1 January 2021, falls under the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (AIG), with quotas and conditions. Which process you run depends on the candidate's passport, not the CV.

For an EU/EFTA citizen the permit follows the contract: no permit up to three months, an L permit for three to twelve months, and a B permit (valid five years) for twelve months or more; the FAQ below has the notification and registration steps.

Hiring outside the EU/EFTA runs through the cantonal labour-market authority instead. You file the application there, and AIG Art. 18 to 23 set three conditions:

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  No suitable candidate could be found in Switzerland or the EU/EFTA, shown through dated ads or a listing with the regional employment office (RAV)

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  Pay matches local and sector norms

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  The person is a manager or specialist, normally with a degree and several years of experience

One relief helps IT employers: the SEM directives list ICT specialists among the shortage occupations, letting authorities waive the proof of search efforts. No official processing time is published, so build lead time into the offer.

Third-country quotas for 2026 stay unchanged at 4'000 L and 4'500 B permits, plus 1'400 L and 2'100 B for UK citizens (Federal Council, 19 November 2025). They are rarely the obstacle: in 2025 the cantons used 74 % of the B quota and 62 % of the L quota (SEM).

One more check applies: the Stellenmeldepflicht, the obligation to report a vacancy to the regional employment office (RAV) first when an occupation's unemployment rate runs at 5 % or above. No ICT occupation is on the 2026 list, so software, systems, data and support roles can go live at once; the FAQ below covers the fines and the five-day rule for roles that are on it.

Above, a live figure shows the share of company profiles on itboard listing English as their team language; it moves as companies post, so read it as a snapshot, not a statistic.

German is named as a requirement in 87 % of Swiss job ads, English in 32 %, peaking at 42 % in Zurich and south-western Switzerland (Adecco Group and University of Zurich, Q1 2023). Only about 11 % of ads are written in English (x28, 2012 to 2024). Yet English-language ads for technical and IT roles drew about 23 % more attention than German ones on jobs.ch (JobCloud and ZHAW, 2021).

As a working rule, write in English when the team works in English and the role has no contact with Swiss customers. Write in German, or state «Deutsch B2» in an English ad, when it touches Swiss customers, the public sector or on-site operations. Keep the title in the form candidates search for, such as Software Engineer. Authorities also weigh language skills in a third-country permit file (AIG Art. 23). itboard has no language gate; English ads reach the same search, filters and newsletter.

Candidates scan an ad for a few facts and close the tab when one is missing. The Pensum range comes first, the salary band second. On itboard, ads with a salary band received 145 % more applications (platform data; results vary by role) and feed Google for Jobs. Quote it as an annual gross in CHF including the 13th salary, for example CHF 110'000 to 130'000.

The work model matters just as much. swissICT's 2026 survey found 94 % of companies allow home office, three office days a week being the most common pattern, so «hybrid» alone says little; state the office days and address. Name the actual stack and first-year tasks, and give languages with a level. Applications arrive as a dossier: CV, a short letter, diplomas and a reference letter (Arbeitszeugnis) from each previous employer, which every employee can demand under OR Art. 330a.

itboard is a self-service board for IT jobs in Switzerland: pay per ad, no subscription, no fee after a hire. A new company account gets three free ads of 30 days each.

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  Basic, CHF 49: 1 month online, one push (a refresh on the board and in search engines), company page.

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  Standard, CHF 99: 2 months, two pushes, in-app applications, SEO insights, 1-on-1 setup support.

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  Premium, CHF 199: 1 year, twelve pushes, performance report, priority support.

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  Packs: 5× Basic CHF 149, 5× Standard CHF 399, 10× Standard CHF 699, 25× Premium CHF 2'999.

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  Create a company account: name, location, industry and logo, no Swiss registration number or address.

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  Write the ad in German or English: title, sections, skills, Pensum, work mode, location, salary band, apply link.

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  Choose a free ad or a package; pay by card through Stripe from any country, or on invoice with a Swiss QR-bill on request.

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  Publish. The ad is live at once, carries JobPosting data for Google for Jobs and goes into the skill-based newsletter; editing is free.

The pricing page has the details. For a first hire, run a free ad with a salary band and see what arrives before buying a pack.

If your jobs are already on a Recruitee, Refline or Workday career site, itboard reads them and prefills the ad: title, location and Pensum where stated, plus the apply link back to your system. Sections and bullet points stay close to your original wording, with Recruitee's checked word-for-word. The import takes 10 to 30 seconds; you check, pick a package and publish. Nothing is written back into your ATS, and there is no automatic re-import; you rerun the check yourself for fresh content. The integrations page documents each system in German.

Other systems, such as onlyfy, SAP SuccessFactors or Personio, have no automatic import yet. Contact us and we will check whether your career site's public job data makes one possible.