A perspective to navigate the National Laboratory environment for RSE career growth

Abstract: This paper shares a perspective for the research software engineering (RSE) community to navigate the National Laboratory landscape. The RSE role is a recent concept that led to organizational challenges to place and evaluate their impact, costs and benefits. The premise is that RSEs are a natural fit into the current landscape and can use traditional career growth strategies in science: publications, community engagements and proposals. Projects funding RSEs can benefit from this synergy and be inclusive on traditional activities. Still, a great deal of introspection is needed to close gaps between the rapidly evolving RSE landscape and the well-established communication patterns in science. This perspective is built upon interactions in industry, academia and government in high-performance computing (HPC) environments. The goal is to contribute to the conversation around RSE career growth and understand their return on investment for scientific projects and sponsors.