Lead Software Engineer (Semiconductor Verification & Tooling)
We're Tropic Square, a Prague-based company designing open-source secure-element chips.
We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our hybrid team and help drive a long-term, open-source project at the intersection of software and hardware in the semiconductor world. You'll own core infrastructure decisions, shape architecture, and grow into a technical leadership role.
If you're excited by deep technical problems with real-world impact, this might be the role for you.
👉 What You'll Work On
Developing and expanding our automated flows and hardware modelling framework
Building internal tooling and infrastructure that serves both the company and the wider open-source community
Driving architectural decisions and the long-term technical direction of the codebase
Exploring adjacent technical areas (verification, cybersecurity, EDA) as the work demands, with room to go deep where you're curious
Collaborating with internal teams and external contributors in a public, technically demanding setting
✍️ Our Stack
Mostly Python, Bash, C, and whatever else the job calls for
Check out our Github
💪 Who You Are
Senior software engineer with a track record of designing and maintaining complex systems
Either you've led a small team and want to keep doing it, or you're a senior IC with the instincts to mentor and steer without formal reports
Background or genuine interest in hardware, EDA, or embedded development
Experience or interest in security. We build in a domain where it's not optional
Comfortable thinking in terms of trade-offs and second-order effects, not just shipping the next feature
At home in a Unix/Linux environment and in open-source workflows (public reviews, issue trackers, async collaboration)
🤝 Why Join Us
A rare role where software architecture and hardware reality meet
Direct, visible impact on an open-source project used in real semiconductor development
Hybrid by default: work from the Prague office, remotely, or mix the two, whichever fits your life. We optimize for autonomy and deep focus
In-person team meetups in Prague are held a few times a year for planning and architecture work
👋 Interested? We want to hear from you! Just submit your CV, a brief cover letter, and links to your work. After the initial screening, you'll be directly in touch with your future team.