Choosing research software engineering as a career path
How does research software engineering differ from traditional software engineering? What does an RSE do beside develop and write code? How does one prepare for this field since few institutions offer it as a career path? What are the opportunities for someone interested in pursuing this as a profession?
These questions and more are addressed in a new document “Research Software Engineers: Creating a Career Path – and a Career,” published by the U.S. Research Software Engineer (US-RSE) Association in collaboration with IEEE Computer Society. Central to the document is input from four community experts in the United States and the U.K. – including Rinku Gupta, a senior research software specialist in the Mathematics and Computer Science division at Argonne National Laboratory.
Gupta has 20 years of experience creating research software on high-performance computing platforms. Her enthusiasm for her career as an RSE is clear. “Being an RSE has given me the opportunity to work on meaningful projects, collaborate with brilliant researchers, and constantly challenge myself to grow and learn,” Gupta says.
In the article, Gupta and her colleagues highlight three ways to build a career as an RSE: prepare, practice and engage. The RSE needs to prepare solid software development skills; but also needed is the ability to work both independently and as part of a team. Honing those skills requires practice – for example by contributing to through open-source projects. And the article lists numerous ways to engage with the RSE community, for example by attending RSE workshops.
Increasingly, researchers are recognizing the value that RSEs bring to a project. RSE groups are becoming common at universities; research labs are supporting RSE roles; and RSEs are participating in diverse projects, from physics to the social sciences. As these trends escalate, the experts agree that the number of RSE job opportunities will increase.
“This recognition and acceptance of the RSE career track can open up new doors and opportunities for the entire RSE community,” says Gupta.
Click here to read “Research Software Engineers: Creating a Career Path—and a Career”