A day in the life of Jasper Nguyen, Lead Software Engineer for Digibank

The rise of fintech has opened a wide range of business opportunities for metropolitan cities to grow and thrive. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of cashless transactions and social distancing has increased tremendously.

In Singapore, we’ve formed a consortium with Singtel in December 2019 to apply for the digital bank (digibank) license. Since being granted the license, we’ve been eagerly searching for inspiring individuals who are passionate about driving Fintech forward to join our growing team.

We’re excited to speak with Jasper Nguyen, Lead Software Engineer for Mobile (iOS). No stranger to the Fintech industry, Jasper has a wealth (pardon the pun) of experience for over seven years, and has joined the Digibank team to help build Singapore’s first fully-digital bank.

Read on below to find out a day in the life of a Lead Software Engineer at Grab, his goals for the Digibank product, and why now is the best time now to join the Grab x Singtel Digibank team.

Hi Jasper, welcome onboard the Digibank team! What are you most excited about for the new Digibank?

Digibank is a brand new team with a mission to redefine banking by building a sustainable business focused on out-serving Singapore with personalised, accessible and trusted financial products. To me, Digibank represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where we are entrusted to build a digital bank from scratch.

Can you share with us what are some of your short-term and long-term goals for the Digibank?

My short term goal for Digibank is to launch the Digibank app to the market on time, and concurrently, to build a strong mobile team with a great culture!

As for the long term goal, I would love to see Digibank become the number one banking platform in the market. We aim to bring a secure and seamless banking experience to our users wherever they are in our ecosystem across Grab, Singtel and the Digibank apps. Our team will grow across regions, and together, we will build a secure, stable and innovative platform which people will love to use.

Certainly sounds like a team to watch! What do you think it takes to succeed in your team, and in Fintech?

The Digibank team is super agile, and works just like a start-up in the Fintech industry. In order to succeed, you have to be a real problem-solver to find and design solutions to overcome challenges. Because of the fast-moving industry, you should have an open mind to accept changes for constant improvement to satisfy our customers through innovation.

As our mobile team is building the app for end users, we make things simpler but with purpose, we build the system that scales well with growth. And most importantly, we put the user’s data safety on top.

Can you describe how a typical work day is like for you?

Typically, my day starts at 8am. I dedicate the first hour to myself by doing 20 minutes of meditation, another 20 to reflect and plan the day, and the last 20 minutes for a quick workout. I freshen up after, and start working at 10am.

I usually do deep intensive work for one and a half hours, just to focus on the important tasks. It could be architecting the Digibank iOS App, implementing a new feature, or writing some UI/Unit tests. Before lunch, I spend 30 minutes catching up with teammates to have discussions and see if there is anything I can help with.

After lunch, the team gathers again to have a virtual standup meeting. We update each other on our progress and call out any blockers so that we can resolve them together as a team.

Besides that, I divide my afternoon into hourly blocks to either focus on my tasks or collaborate with teammates to build the Digibank iOS App.

I finish work at around 7pm and end the working day by hitting the gym for an hour.

Before joining the Digibank team, what previous professional experience have you had to prepare yourself for the work you are currently doing?

Prior to Digibank, I worked at the Visa Innovation Center which involved the FinTech industry. I became familiar with the payment field, the experiences that satisfy customers, and the security controls that we must implement for our application in the banking world.

Currently, as the first iOS Lead Software Engineer in the Digibank team, I am establishing the foundation of the iOS project with the strong background that I have built up throughout my last seven years in the iOS Development field and from a dozen applications.

Great to hear about experienced and passionate people in the Digibank team! Share with our readers why now is the best time to join you and the Digibank team.

We are in the very early stages of building up the team and shaping its culture. There are lots of interesting challenges that will require talented people, and we will address them together as a team. You will be a very important part of our agile team, working on interesting projects with huge impact and bringing real value to life.

Jasper & Digibank team

Thank you for sharing with us. Lastly, tell us one less-known fact about you that you wish more people knew about.

Before relocating to Singapore, I was in the Top 10 ‘Outstanding Young Citizens of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’ and in Top 30 ‘Young Engineers and Scientists in Vietnam (awarded by HONDA Y-E-S)’ in 2016.

I used to be a Microsoft fan and was a Microsoft Student Partner that spoke on Windows Phone programming topics. After that, I switched to becoming a Google fan and taught Android programming using MIT AppInventor for students and freshmen. Seven years ago, I finally switched to being an Apple fan, and today, I am an iOS Engineer.

FYI, I am a huge fan of Grab and Singtel, so Digibank is like a dream job to me!

If you’re keen on joining the Digibank team, take part in our exclusive Digibank Hiring Drive happening on 6th March, and fast-track through your interviews to land a role with us. Find out more here.

Check out all our Digibank open roles here.