Published 1st August 2025

How did you become an RSE?

Okay, that’s rather a long story. I guess I was an RSE before RSE existed because I started out as a Computer Scientist by background. I was working after a Master’s in Computing as a Software Engineer in the university and doing what I guess is now classed very much as RSE-type work, but at the time, the term RSE had not yet been coined. And I went forward from there and did a part-time PhD in Computing while also working as a Software Engineer and researcher within a research group. And that really led me down this route of doing software work to support multidisciplinary collaborations in computing.

When the RSE community, as it is now, got started, I realised that the work the community was doing was basically the work that I was doing and that I identified with. So, I realised that I was an RSE and I got involved in the community, and I suppose I still am an RSE, although now my work is very much more varied in the sense that it’s not purely software development focused. I’m doing a lot of other work around supporting and managing projects and communities, undertaking research, and so on. But yes, that’s the general background. 

When did you first hear the term “RSE”?

So, actually I was at a Collaborations Workshop, which was run by what is now the Software Sustainability Institute, where there were a lot of discussions around what ultimately became the RSE community. And so, at the time, I suppose I probably didn’t recognise quite where all that was going. But very soon after that, the community started to appear and there were a lot of things happening around software within the research community – and things grew from there. 

What is your favourite thing about your work and being an RSE?

I think that’s quite an easy question to answer. The thing I like most is the variety of work that I get involved with. So, I don’t just write software. I do a lot of things that relate to software and research but I have a lot of variation in that work. That really for me is the bit that I enjoy most –  getting involved with lots of different things, having various projects to work on that are all different but all have common themes involving building and supporting software within the research community. I really enjoy the kind of flexibility that you get from working in a research environment on things where there are a lot of different ideas to work through and different challenges to solve. For me, that is the best thing about the role.

What’s the most unexpected part about being a RSE?

That’s actually a very good question. It’s much more difficult to answer. I suppose, because I’ve sort of grown with the RSE community, I really feel that the things that I do fit with the community and there’s nothing really that I’ve found that doesn’t, perhaps because I’ve been there since the early days of the community.

I find now that my work involves a lot less software development than it did in the past, because I’m doing a lot more project management, administration, writing grants, managing community activities and so on. So maybe being an RSE but realising that you have a lot less time to write software has been a more unexpected thing!

What do you see as your most likely future career path from here? And what would be your ideal career path?

So I see RSE as something that spans quite a wide continuum between something that looks very much like a research role at one end and something that looks very much like a professional software engineer at the other end. I see my role at the moment as being somewhere in the middle but more towards the research end. And so, I think what I would like to find an opportunity for in the future is something that gives me the ability to have a more sustainable role that sits more at that research end of the RSE scale. Which is something that I think perhaps in most academic institutions, doesn’t really exist at the moment. So, whether it’s feasible, I don’t know, but that’s the direction I would like to go in.

In your view, how could RSEs be better supported in their work? What do you need? What is missing?

Personally, I believe that the challenge here is really around institutional structures. This is something that is new for our community and the academic community. Academic institutions still don’t generally have ideal structures in place to support technical professional roles, at least not in a sustainable manner. We’re starting to see a lot of discussions about this at the moment in the community. We’re also starting to see people who now have permanent roles in this space. But this is often a result of how specific structures are managed in individual institutions rather than through there being a common path across institutions that other people can follow to get there. So I think while these kinds of developments are great, it would be really good to see better support for roles that aren’t either traditional research roles or traditional technical and operational roles. And that’s something where I think we are moving in the right direction, but it’s slow progress. I don’t think we’ve found an answer to that one yet? Although I think we’ll get there and I would like to hope that it will be within 2, 3, 4 years rather than 10 or 15 years!

What advice do you have to individuals looking to start a career in Research Software Engineering?

So, I would firstly say that I think a career in research software is a great opportunity. Although I appreciate that as somebody who has been and is an RSE I may be somewhat biased! I also think that now is a really good time to be in this space because there’s so much development happening. We see a lot of RSE groups where there are opportunities to have roles in a central team, but we also see a lot more in the way of recognition that software is really important in the research space more generally, and therefore there are more embedded roles coming up. 

My general advice would be that if this is something you’re interested in, engage with the community, find out more about what RSE is about if you don’t have detailed knowledge of it yet. Talk to people because I think we’re a friendly community, and people are quite willing to engage and chat. If you can’t make it to an event like the RSE conference, where we are actually sitting at the moment, then look out for more local community events, of which there are many, and basically try and connect with people, talk to people, get an idea of the types of roles that are out there and what might be something that would interest you. Also, don’t feel that you don’t have the skills, I think that’s the other thing, because you can always learn the technical skills and there are a lot of opportunities to do that. I think that if you have domain science or research skills from specific domains, that can be hugely beneficial and you can pair those with software skills to give you a really niche set of skills that are very valuable in the space. So definitely don’t feel that it’s something that you can’t aspire to be. Do feel that it’s something you can talk to people about and there’ll be people willing to discuss and also just be aware that the opportunities are out there to get the skills as well.