%0 Generic %1 goth2023foundational %A Goth, Florian %A Alves, Renato %A Braun, Matthias %A Castro, Leyla Jael %A Chourdakis, Gerasimos %A Christ, Simon %A Cohen, Jeremy %A Erxleben, Fredo %A Grad, Jean-Noël %A Hagdorn, Magnus %A Hodges, Toby %A Juckeland, Guido %A Kempf, Dominic %A Lamprecht, Anna-Lena %A Linxweiler, Jan %A Schwarzmeier, Moritz %A Seibold, Heidi %A Thiele, Jan Philipp %A von Waldow, Harald %A Wittke, Samantha %D 2023 %K myown rse %P 28 %R 10.48550/arXiv.2311.1145 %T Foundational Competencies and Responsibilities of a Research Software Engineer %U https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.1145 %X The term Research Software Engineer, or RSE, emerged a little over 10 years ago as a way to represent individuals working in the research community but focusing on software development. The term has been widely adopted and there are a number of high-level definitions of what an RSE is. However, the roles of RSEs vary depending on the institutional context they work in. At one end of the spectrum, RSE roles may look similar to a traditional research role. At the other extreme, they resemble that of a software engineer in industry. Most RSE roles inhabit the space between these two extremes. Therefore, providing a straightforward, comprehensive definition of what an RSE does and what experience, skills and competencies are required to become one is challenging. In this community paper we define the broad notion of what an RSE is, explore the different types of work they undertake, and define a list of fundamental competencies as well as values that define the general profile of an RSE. On this basis, we elaborate on the progression of these skills along different dimensions, looking at specific types of RSE roles, proposing recommendations for organisations, and giving examples of future specialisations. An appendix details how existing curricula fit into this framework.

@misc{goth2023foundational, abstract = {The term Research Software Engineer, or RSE, emerged a little over 10 years ago as a way to represent individuals working in the research community but focusing on software development. The term has been widely adopted and there are a number of high-level definitions of what an RSE is. However, the roles of RSEs vary depending on the institutional context they work in. At one end of the spectrum, RSE roles may look similar to a traditional research role. At the other extreme, they resemble that of a software engineer in industry. Most RSE roles inhabit the space between these two extremes. Therefore, providing a straightforward, comprehensive definition of what an RSE does and what experience, skills and competencies are required to become one is challenging. In this community paper we define the broad notion of what an RSE is, explore the different types of work they undertake, and define a list of fundamental competencies as well as values that define the general profile of an RSE. On this basis, we elaborate on the progression of these skills along different dimensions, looking at specific types of RSE roles, proposing recommendations for organisations, and giving examples of future specialisations. An appendix details how existing curricula fit into this framework.}, added-at = {2023-11-21T10:58:41.000+0100}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, author = {Goth, Florian and Alves, Renato and Braun, Matthias and Castro, Leyla Jael and Chourdakis, Gerasimos and Christ, Simon and Cohen, Jeremy and Erxleben, Fredo and Grad, Jean-Noël and Hagdorn, Magnus and Hodges, Toby and Juckeland, Guido and Kempf, Dominic and Lamprecht, Anna-Lena and Linxweiler, Jan and Schwarzmeier, Moritz and Seibold, Heidi and Thiele, Jan Philipp and von Waldow, Harald and Wittke, Samantha}, biburl = {https://puma.ub.uni-stuttgart.de/bibtex/2414a70ba0dfa07e6b35bee0af2251056/matthiasbraun}, doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2311.1145}, eprint = {2311.11457}, interhash = {202cce8a806d0d2f28a2749ebb62aeac}, intrahash = {414a70ba0dfa07e6b35bee0af2251056}, keywords = {myown rse}, month = {November}, pages = 28, primaryclass = {cs.SE}, timestamp = {2024-04-15T17:16:11.000+0200}, title = {Foundational Competencies and Responsibilities of a Research Software Engineer}, url = {https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.1145}, year = 2023 }