Career Development

Managing Research Software Projects

Greg Wilson

2026

Learning Objectives

  • Describe what career growth means for someone on a research software track.
  • Describe what a useful career conversation covers.

Careers That Have No Ladder

  • RSEs occupy institutional space designed for someone else.
    • Academic promotion criteria are built for bench scientists and theoreticians.
    • Industry engineering ladders are built for product companies.
    • Neither fits people who build research software as a primary contribution.
  • The lack of a ladder means RSEs have more freedom but need to be more self-aware.

Dimensions of Growth

  • Technical depth in a specific domain.
  • Technical breadth such as DevOps, data engineering, and visualization.
  • Community presence such as co-authorship and conference talks.
  • Institutional influence through committees, advising, and policy.
  • Anchor growth in artifacts a promotion committee can be shown.

Career Conversations

  • Cover where the person wants to be in two to three years.
  • Cover what the project can offer toward that goal.
    • Be honest: if the project cannot offer authorship, say so.
    • If it can offer a conference talk or software paper, offer it explicitly.
  • Advocating for recognition often matters more than giving advice.

Advocacy Audit (8 min)

  1. List the team members you manage or work closely with.

  2. For each, write one concrete thing you have done in the last six months to make their contributions visible to people outside the project.

  3. For anyone where your list is blank: write one specific thing you could do in the next 30 days.