"As Software Engineers, we bring chips to life."

I work in the Chipcard Software Development as the product owner of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for data security. I’ve been working on the same product for 16 years, so I guess you could say I’m a specialist. It never gets boring though, as my area of work is constantly evolving.

We start each day with a scrum session followed by actual coding, which makes up about 50% of the work time. Then there are teleconferences with our partners, who are mostly top-notch experts with our customers or at universities. I really enjoy exchanging ideas with them.

The nature of what I do means I’m constantly challenged and I never stop adding to my knowledge. From an intellectual perspective, this job is just perfect, especially if you enjoy being part of operations as well as immersing yourself in theory.

People never really get how incredibly important data security is. Things are changing though, and awareness is growing. I get a lot of recognition for what I do. Personally, I really enjoy my work; I find it serves a real purpose and helps to make the world a little bit safer. 

Infineon is one of the few suppliers worldwide who can provide a completely internally developed software and hardware solution to protect data on a local or networked PC. We definitely want to stay ahead of the competition here, so the pressure is always on to meet the highest quality and security.

To do the job properly, I have to understand hardware as well as software. Also, we use agile development methods such as scrum, which involves breaking up giant tasks into small, more manageable packages and assigning them to teams. In the end, we all get together and see who’s done what and review the different ideas. The packages are then adjusted and arranged into an effective whole. It’s the most efficient way of developing software and it’s important everybody understands the principle behind it.

I love working in teams, so I have no problem with any of this. The constant challenge of working with high-end security keeps me excited. If I want, it is possible to work somewhere else in the world in one of our many offices. Exchanges like this can last for up to a year and are brilliant for learning from international colleagues.

What we do here in Augsburg can only be found in maybe four or five other places worldwide. It makes me very proud to be working in such a cutting-edge environment and on critical projects often involving governments. At times we almost work like a startup – we can try any idea.

Also, I have great fun with my colleagues! We do a lot of sports together, like running, rock climbing and even kayaking – so we are a top team, both at work and play.