Steve Greensill

Tech Lead

I'm a Tech Lead with 30+ years of experience in Software Development, and a Cloud Native since 2021. My career is mostly in banking and finance. Most recently I led a Cloud Automation team transforming how Avaloq deploys client infrastructure, moving from legacy data centres to automated Terraform and GitHub-based pipelines on OCI. I'm now building a greenfield platform that brings all of that automation together to give clients something that was never possible before. In parallel, I'm bootstrapping Avaloq's AI-Native journey from the grassroots up: using Claude Code to accelerate infrastructure diagnostics and complex reporting across disparate internal systems, and rolling out a best-practice set of agentic skills, agents, commands and rules across the enterprise, with the guardrails, intent layers and evals to scale it safely. I've done the full arc: hands-on development, architecture, cloud migration, team building. I'm strongest when there's a messy legacy situation that needs someone to bring structure and get people moving in the same direction.

Summary

Steve Greensill is an accomplished Tech Lead based in Zurich, Switzerland, with over 30 years of extensive experience in software development, primarily within the banking and finance sectors. His journey reflects a consistent pursuit of technical excellence and leadership that merges innovation with operational efficiency. Currently at Avaloq, since 2017, he has played a pivotal role in modernizing infrastructure and advancing cloud technology by leading transformative projects that enhance client service delivery. One of his most notable achievements has been spearheading the Cloud Automation team at Avaloq, where he has significantly redefined how infrastructure is deployed, transitioning the organization from legacy data centers to a modern cloud-based architecture utilizing Terraform and GitHub's deployment pipelines on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Steve is also building an innovative greenfield platform that consolidates these automation tools, offering clients capabilities that were previously unattainable. Alongside these initiatives, he is instrumental in launching Avaloq's AI-Native journey, utilizing Claude Code to streamline infrastructure diagnostics and reporting across various internal systems, ensuring that the company's technological advancements align with contemporary market demands. Steve's career trajectory showcases a steady ascent into leadership roles, beginning as an analyst/programmer in Brisbane, Australia. Since then, he has taken on a series of increasingly impactful roles across prominent organizations worldwide, including UBS, Credit Suisse, and SwissRe. At UBS, he contributed to the award-winning FX Prime Brokerage platform, while at SwissRe, he developed a pricing engine that directly led to a 35% increase in market share in the natural catastrophe reinsurance sector. His strengths lie in his ability to tackle complex, legacy situations, bringing critical structure to disorganized environments and energizing teams to pursue collective goals effectively. Technically, Steve's expertise encompasses a wide array of software development and DevOps skills. He exhibits a robust command over Java and Spring, foundational elements throughout his career, along with proficiency in Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and GitHub Actions. His technical acumen extends to the realms of automation, cloud infrastructure, UI/UX design systems, as well as current trends in AI tooling. He is not only a hands-on developer but also a proactive leader who emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture of learning and innovation within his teams. Steve’s leadership style is characterized by a hands-on approach that motivates his teams through collaboration and mentorship. He believes in empowering his team members and providing the necessary guidance to help them bridge skill gaps, particularly in transitioning operations staff into DevOps engineers. He is recognized for not only leading through authority but through influence, inspiring those around him to embrace change and innovation. Steve's experience navigating organizational resistance teaches him the critical importance of stakeholder engagement and transparent communication. As he looks to the future, Steve seeks to move into higher leadership roles, aiming to take on responsibilities such as Head of Engineering or Engineering Director. His vision includes making significant strategic contributions while continuing to lead teams through transformational projects that leverage advanced technology for enhanced business value. His results-oriented mindset paired with his rich experience uniquely positions him to drive success in an engineering department, impacting both people and processes within an organization.

Experience

Avaloq Evolution AG

• Tech Lead at Avaloq Evolution AG (2017-01-01 to present). Joined as Senior Software Engineer (2017), promoted to Tech Lead via instant payments project (2021)
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Now building a greenfield platform that consolidates the team's cloud automation into a single product, giving Avaloq's clients capabilities that were not previously possible
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Bootstrapping Avaloq's AI-Native journey from the grassroots up: using Claude Code to accelerate infrastructure diagnostics and complex reporting across disparate internal systems
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Rolling out an enterprise best-practice set of agentic skills, agents, commands and rules, with guardrails, intent layers and evals to scale AI adoption safely
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Led Cloud Automation team across Manila, Pune, and Switzerland - a multi-year transformation of legacy data centre infrastructure to GitHub + Terraform + orchestration-based deployment pipelines on OCI
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Designing and implementing OCI landing zone and structured Terraform modules for customer tech stack layers (in progress)
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Training and mentoring data centre operations staff into DevOps engineers - this is an ongoing skills transformation, not just a technical migration
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Driving a complete paradigm shift: moving teams from manual changes on DC machines to building automation pipelines, then making all changes through that automation - and iterating on this cycle continuously
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] The cloud migration is as much a people challenge as a technical one: (1) skills gap - DC ops staff learning entirely new toolchains, (2) mindset change - shifting from manual intervention to infrastructure-as-code thinking, (3) change management - replacing established manual procedures with automation-first workflows across the organization
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Previously led Avaloq on the Cloud team on AWS, rolling out infrastructure to APAC clients
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Trained and handed over AWS operations to Singapore-based team, still providing 3rd level support
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Established CI/CD pipeline best practices for Avaloq including tech talks
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Complete rewrite of legacy front server components
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Key contribution: Saw that the existing org chart did not provide enough diversity for SWE growth (it was binary: management or architect). Initiated, described, and pitched the new role of Tech Lead, which would allow SWEs to maintain their technical prowess while taking on more team coordination and management skills. This role now exists across the company.
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Proudest achievement: The cloud migration - leading the transformation of how Avaloq deploys client infrastructure. It laid the foundation for the greenfield client platform and AI-Native capabilities Steve and his team are building now. It was not just a technical challenge: it requires transforming people's skills, changing deeply held mindsets about how infrastructure works, and overhauling established procedures. The team is actively working through each of these dimensions simultaneously.
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Lessons learned: How to lead through influence, not authority. Getting people to change direction when you don't have direct power over them. This lesson is being applied every day in the current migration.
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Co-lead on company strategic Angular migration
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Cloud Native SaaS Solution Pioneer in Avaloq
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] First to use Event-storming technique (payment project)
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Designed and implemented hardened IAM on AWS
• [Avaloq Evolution AG] Rollout/migration of major bank on AWS

ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra

• Senior Software Engineer, Enterprise Risk Management at ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra (2013-01-01 to 2017-01-01).
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Java development of Spring/ZK web-based Enterprise Risk application
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Software architecture design and application server setup
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Scrum master, process change management across international teams
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Establishment of Docker infrastructure for dev/test environments
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Spring Boot and Hazelcast Grid cache
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] On-site customer performance troubleshooting
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Introduced Scrum across international teams, established agile process
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Setup sprint framework, chaired sprint planning, retrospectives
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Established Docker builds on enterprise cloud for Tomcat/WebSphere
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Key contribution: Introduced Scrum across international teams which was fundamentally a cultural challenge, not just a process one. Different working styles across countries had to be navigated carefully. Also built and maintained Git and Jenkins pipelines as part of ongoing responsibilities, continuing the CI/CD thread from SwissRe.
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Proudest achievement: On-site performance troubleshooting in Johannesburg. South African customer had been unable to release for 6 months due to UAT performance failures. System bootstrapped by front-loading gigabytes of content and crashed every time with hundreds of concurrent users at 8:30am. Rewrote the entire content loading bootstrap to chunk and parallelize using progressive disclosure. After days of 14-hour debugging and rewriting sessions over one week, all load tests passed and they could finally release.
• [ThomsonReuters/TechMahindra] Lessons learned: How to be effective under pressure. The Johannesburg experience and similar high-stakes situations taught me to diagnose, decide, and deliver when the clock is running and people are watching.

SwissRe

• Senior Developer, Natural Catastrophe Rating & Pricing at SwissRe (2009-01-01 to 2012-12-31).
• [SwissRe] Core architecture design and development of natcat pricing engine
• [SwissRe] Natcat kernel implementation from Matlab to Java - replicated to 12 decimal places
• [SwissRe] Compute Grid Java caching (ehcache) design and development
• [SwissRe] System-wide persistence design and development using Hibernate
• [SwissRe] Proof of concept work: IBM XS, Terracotta, Oracle InMemoryDB
• [SwissRe] Project structure and release procedure setup
• [SwissRe] Scale-out and speed-up of Natcat portfolio simulation/pricing engine
• [SwissRe] TIBCO grid compute GridServer service custom grid partitioning design
• [SwissRe] Regression test framework design/development to verify Matlab model
• [SwissRe] Achieved very high throughput of model simulations (TB of data)
• [SwissRe] Established TDD culture for team and followed up in practice
• [SwissRe] Built and maintained Git and Jenkins pipelines
• [SwissRe] Key contribution: Built a custom test and verification framework that validated Matlab results against Java results on very large runs, requiring 12 decimal place precision. Partnered with statistics departments and actuarial teams from both ETH Zurich and Oxford University to verify modelling was sound and used industry-accepted calculation methods - a two-way validation process. The replicated Matlab model became a DAG with depth-first traversal, persisting data as it traversed up the tree to the root with hundreds of thousands of leaves. Built a policy translator that read thousands of property policies, converted them to DAGs based on rules, and created sized packages dispatched by TIBCO grid in a shared-nothing architecture.
• [SwissRe] Proudest achievement: The natcat pricing technology directly contributed to SwissRe securing a 35% jump in market share for the natcat reinsurance sector. The simulation engine that powered the pricing was code that I wrote and owned.
• [SwissRe] Lessons learned: How to think at scale. Working with TB-scale data and 1000-VM compute grids fundamentally changed how I approach system design and architecture.

Credit Suisse

• Project Lead / Senior Developer, Funds & Alternative Solutions at Credit Suisse (2007-01-01 to 2008-12-31).
• [Credit Suisse] Project lead role, project planning and liaising with stakeholders
• [Credit Suisse] Java development of Spring 2.x/Struts JSP application
• [Credit Suisse] UI AJAX design, implementation, unit and system testing
• [Credit Suisse] SOAP service design and development
• [Credit Suisse] Introduced Quartz for scheduled notification of all trading counterparties
• [Credit Suisse] Led UI design, implementation, unit and system testing
• [Credit Suisse] Replaced legacy Fund of Funds (FOF) trading application
• [Credit Suisse] Designed and developed STP bulk trade import with traders
• [Credit Suisse] Go-live saw a substantial increase in monthly trade volumes
• [Credit Suisse] Maintained existing time-sensitive trading window (end of month)
• [Credit Suisse] Key contribution: Designed and built the straight-through processing (STP) bulk trade import system working directly with traders. This was the key feature that enabled the substantial increase in trade volumes at go-live.
• [Credit Suisse] Proudest achievement: The STP bulk trade import design and implementation. Working directly with traders to build a system that handled their workflow and enabled a significant jump in monthly trade volumes.
• [Credit Suisse] Lessons learned: How to work with traders. A specific type of stakeholder management with demanding, fast-moving users who have zero tolerance for systems that slow them down.

UBS Investment Bank

• Senior Developer/Analyst, FX Prime Brokerage Services at UBS Investment Bank (2004-01-01 to 2005-12-31).
• [UBS Investment Bank] Performed major upgrade to existing Struts web application
• [UBS Investment Bank] Designed and coded bulk trade uploading feature
• [UBS Investment Bank] Refactored base deal entry system with iBATIS
• [UBS Investment Bank] Extended core deal matching and processing framework
• [UBS Investment Bank] Authored strategic system architecture proposals
• [UBS Investment Bank] Performed Apache upgrades and Tomcat installations
• [UBS Investment Bank] UBS won the 2005 EuroMoney awards: Best at E-FX Prime Brokerage
• [UBS Investment Bank] Transactions for all 70,000 UBS employees completed on time
• [UBS Investment Bank] Key contribution: Part of the team effort that contributed to UBS winning the 2005 EuroMoney Best at E-FX Prime Brokerage award. Built the bulk trade uploading feature and extended the deal matching framework.
• [UBS Investment Bank] Proudest achievement: Contributing to the platform that won UBS the 2005 EuroMoney Best at E-FX Prime Brokerage award, even though it was a team effort.
• [UBS Investment Bank] Lessons learned: How to navigate internal politics in large banks. Sometimes the technical quality of your work doesn't matter if the political dynamics are against you.

Early Career (1990-2004)

• Various - Analyst/Programmer to Project Lead at Early Career (1990-2004) (1990-01-01 to 2004-04-30). Analyst/Programmer (1990) -> Senior Analyst/Programmer (1994) -> Technical Lead (1996) -> Project Lead (1997)
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] HP/Raiffeisen, Zurich (2003-2004) - Senior Developer/Consultant, e-banking system. Resolved serious production memory issues during Weblogic 8.1 and JVM 1.4.2 upgrade. JDBC performance tuning. Java/J2EE/EJB, BEA Weblogic, Oracle 9i.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] Sabbatical in Australia (Jan-Jul 2003) - Returned to deal with personal matters before permanent move back to Switzerland.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] UBS Warburg, Sydney (2002) - Online support and handover of Partner Shared System.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] UBS AG, Zurich (1997-2002) - Project Lead across multiple roles: Group Structure Data System (team lead during UBS merger Jan 1998), Group Reference Data System, Partner Shared credit risk system. Java/J2EE, XML, WebSphere, DB2, MQ-Series.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] Commonwealth Bank, Sydney (1996-1997) - Technical Lead, Credit Code mortgage schedule production. 5000 loan contracts/week throughput. VB, MS-Access.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] Guardian Royal Exchange Asia, Hong Kong (1994-1995) - Senior Analyst/Programmer, retail insurance system. Win32 caching middleware for mobile insurance workers. VB, C, ODBC, SQL Server.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] Queensland Dept of Housing, Brisbane (1990-1994) - Analyst/Programmer, SQL Server DBA. C, Ingres, UNIX, SQL Server.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] Key contribution: Career arc from Brisbane to Hong Kong to Sydney to Zurich. First UBS stint was 1997-2002 where he was selected as team leader for the Group Structure Data project right during the UBS merger (Jan 1998) - an immediate high-pressure situation requiring knowledge of all credit risk relevant bank clients by July 1998. At HP/Raiffeisen resolved serious production performance and memory issues, a pattern that would repeat throughout career (Johannesburg at ThomsonReuters, various firefighting roles).
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] Proudest achievement: Being selected as team leader during the UBS merger in 1998 and delivering the credit risk client data system under extreme time pressure. Also the Commonwealth Bank mortgage system handling 5000 contracts/week.
• [Early Career (1990-2004)] Lessons learned: Built the foundational skills in Java, enterprise architecture, and project leadership that would define the rest of the career. International experience across 4 countries (Australia, Hong Kong, Switzerland, South Africa) before 2004.

Skills

References

• Reference from Dr. Nick Willis (Director, Group Risk Systems, UBS AG): In order to give some perspective to this appraisal, I would describe myself as a seasoned, commercial IT manager of some 25 years experience with an academic background that included mathematical and IT research interests. I now work as a senior business analyst within the BTC (business technology centre) of the corporate centre of a large Swiss bank. It is within this sphere that I met Steve and worked with him at close quarters for more than 2 years (2000-2002) providing system solutions to a global credit risk business from a multi-layered, service based system architecture. From a relatively privileged position in the organisation I was able to observe the interactions between and within IT groups and between IT groups and the Business. I believe that this makes me both able and qualified to comment on Steve's ability. I shall not comment on the details of Steve's technical qualifications. His portfolio of skills is second to none and is continually being added to. I was able to observe that IT professionals enjoyed working in Steve's team - they were inspired by his hands-on, lead from the front style, and by his considerable knowledge, expertise and experience. They also learnt from him that, in addition to innovation and elegance, graft is also a factor in the building and maintenance of applications - he is not afraid of the hard work and puts in long hours when it is called for. Most of all, they came to learn that Steve is open, even-handed and fair when dealing with people. Steve was also held in high esteem by peer professionals who came to see him as a centre of excellence, the epitome of good practice and a fearless and willing sharer of knowledge. From an IT management point of view, Steve's organisational skills and innate understanding of the system development process and life-cycle allowed him to deliver solutions on time in very demanding circumstances. Most importantly, in my view, Steve was able to come up with system solutions that not only satisfied our business requirements but also "suited" our business. This ability to know what is "likely to succeed and to be well received" and to have the skill to deliver it without compromising stringent technical standards is uncommon and Steve has it in spades. Our business also benefited from Steve's belief in prototyping. We always had early indications of what to expect from the application's appearance and behaviour. Steve's firm but non-confrontational, co-operative negotiating style, his accurate, objective but easy-going communication style and his personable nature allow him to adjust to new surroundings quickly and allows others to adjust to his arrival equally quickly. He is very much a team man. Personally, I admire Steve greatly and I have no hesitation in recommending him for any leadership or technical management role for which he is a candidate and wish him every success in the future.
• Reference from Stanley Yarmolowitz (Director, FX Prime Brokerage Team, UBS Investment Bank): I have known Steve since he joined our team in (April 2004 - October 2005) during a period in which FX experienced accelerated growth and as such, required substantial development efforts due to an increase in trading and customer base. Throughout this time, Steve worked as a Java developer for the FX Prime Brokerage Team, responsible for application maintenance to our existing Swing GUI application, as well as extensions to our deal matching and processing framework. Steve also played a key role (along side the lead developer) in the re-write of our legacy cgi-based web client trade and accept/amendments application to a new Java struts-based web client. During this time Steve also built a new struts-based bulk deal uploading and processing feature that greatly increased the volume of trade give-up, which our service teams utilized. Apart from the daily strategic and tactical Java development, Steve also worked directly with the business team accepting and translating requirements into solutions. Taking into account that FX trading is inherently fast paced and intensive, it required that Steve frequently had to provide solutions in the absence of specifications and manoeuvre in a playing field of rapidly changing requirements. In this environment of time critical applications, Steve handled himself extremely well and always managed to achieve the target ship dates. Steve was also involved in apache upgrades, tomcat configurations, FX portal configurations, support team issues as well as our period involving strategic system architecture proposals. The technical environment was UNIX (Sun) Java, C++, Corba, MQ, Apache, Tomcat and Sybase. Steve's communication skills were exceptional and from a technical perspective, he demonstrated outstanding performance and was always quality focused. From a personal point of view, he was well liked in the FX IT area and really was a team player. He was fun to work with. I would happily re-employ Steve as I considered him a valuable member of the team.
• Reference from Martin Sporri (Head UW P&C & Costing Solutions, Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd): Mr Greensill was proficient in his field and well acquainted with the processes and terms of reference required for his role. He applied his sound expertise in a result-oriented manner and was adept at imparting his knowledge to others. He identified with his work and demonstrated a great level of engagement. Mr Greensill carried out his tasks reliably and independently, even when working under considerable pressure. He welcomed innovation and had good, creative ideas, which he implemented successfully. In his work, Mr Greensill prioritised well and demonstrated a great sense of responsibility. He acted entrepreneurially in the interests of the company. Thanks to his agile mind, Mr Greensill was also able to interpret complex matters. He planned his projects thoroughly and followed them through to completion. Mr Greensill delivered good work, in terms of both quality and quantity.

Looking For

Leadership growth in an agentic, AI-native environment - setting the technical direction for how engineering builds with AI agents, with more strategic influence and real organizational impact.

Contact

• LinkedIn
• GitHub

Visit stevegreensill.com for the interactive AI-powered version where you can ask questions about Steve's experience.