Research, Develop, Deploy: Building a Full Spectrum Software Engineering and Research Department
This addresses organizational and career development problems for research software engineers in scientific computing centers, but it is incremental as it builds on existing interdisciplinary models.
The paper tackles the challenge of creating sustainable career pathways for research software engineers by proposing a Research, Develop, Deploy (RDD) workflow pattern at Sandia National Laboratories, resulting in an interdisciplinary model that acts as an incubator and accelerator for impactful ideas in scientific computing.
At Sandia National Laboratories, the Software Engineering and Research Department seeks to provide sustainable career pathways for research software engineers (RSEs). The conceptual model for our organization follows what we call a Research, Develop, and Deploy (RDD) workflow pattern, enabling RSEs to partner with research and deployment specialists. We argue that this interdisciplinary model allows our department to act as an incubator and an accelerator for impactful ideas. We describe these tactics and our experiences as a RSE team in a scientific computing center.