THE RSE HIRING AND CAREER PROGRESSION PIPELINES: TOP TIPS TO NAVIGATE THEM EFFICIENTLY TANIA ALLARD RSE SOUTH LONDON - JULY 2023

THE RSE HIRING AND CAREER PROGRESSION PIPELINES: TOP TIPS TO NAVIGATE THEM EFFICIENTLY TANIA ALLARD RSE SOUTH LONDON - JULY 2023

TANIA ALLARD • Director Quansight Labs • PSF board of directors • DISC (Diversity in Scientific Computing) chair • FOSS, Open Research, Research Software, MLOps, and accessibility

https:/ /xkcd.com/ The mission of Quansight Labs is to sustain and grow community-driven open source projects and ecosystems, with a focus on the core of the PyData stack and on tools and digital infrastructure for data science, ML/AI, and scientific computing. Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

• Not for profit • Build and sustain open source communities and projects • Grants and other funding mechanisms • Consultancy-based operations • Clients across research, industry, government SIMILAR: EMBEDDED RSE SIMILAR: SUPPORT RSE Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

WHO IS THIS TALK FOR? • Hiring managers • Team leaders • Interviewers PEOPLE INVOLVED IN RSX* HIRING • Individual contributors • Team or technical leaders • Across all career levels and disciplines RSX* AND FUTURE RSX *RSX - anyone developing software which plays a significant role in research or research-related activities (RSE, RSDesigner, RSProject Manager…) Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

• Titles, levels, job descriptions… oh my what a mess • Hiring RSXs • Career planning and progression for RSXs WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? *RSX - anyone developing software which plays a significant role in research or research-related activities (RSE, RSDesigner, RSProject Manager…) Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

TITLES, LEVELS, JOB DESCRIPTIONS WHAT A MESS Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

AS ANY CAUTIONARY TALE.. It all started with a simple but brilliant request: We need new career ladders and job descriptions Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

AS ANY CAUTIONARY TALE.. AND A FOOL It all started with a simple but brilliant request: We need new career ladders and job descriptions Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

WHO IS IN OUR TEAM? DEVELOPERS / SOFTWARE ENGINEERS PROJECT MANAGERS DESIGNERS DEVELOPER RELATIONS / EXPERIENCE ENGINEERS Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

WHEN I SAY DEVELOPERS/RSES TEAM THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEAN Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

THIS IS MORE LIKE IT…. DEVOPS PACKAGING & COMPILERS OPEN INFRASTRUCTURE GENERALISTS NUMERICAL AND OPTIMISATION Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

SO WE NEED CAREER LADDERS AND JOB DESCRIPTIONS YOU SAY? Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

BUILDING A CAREER LADDER* 01 - CREATE A LIST OF COMPETENCIES 02 - SET LEVELS 03 - MAP LEVELS TO COMPETENCIES 04 - ROLL OUT AND EVALUATE 05 - ETERNAL HAPPINESS Most advice the world will give you* Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

COMPETENCIES LEADERSHIP COLLABORATION COMMUNICATION & FEEDBACK STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT & IMPACT CRAFT & QUALITY DELIVERY AUTONOMY & OWNERSHIP KNOWLEDGE SHARING RSE I RSE II Sr. RSE I Sr. RSE II Staff RSE Principal RSE LEVELS Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

BUILDING A CAREER LADDER THAT PROMOTES GROWTH 01 - CREATE A LIST OF COMPETENCIES 01 BIS - DEFINE AND PROMOTE GROWTH 03 - MAP LEVELS TO COMPETENCIES 03 BIS - WRITE JOB DESCRIPTIONS 05 - ITERATE Focused on the practice of Engineering at Quansight 0 - ALIGN WITH COMPANY VALUES 02 - SET LEVELS 04 - ROLL OUT AND EVALUATE Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

THE MOMENT YOU REALISE… Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

SCOPE OWNERSHIP Task Feature Domain Organisation Execution Process Solution discovery Problem Discovery Project / team PROGRESSION MINDSET RSE I RSE II Sr. RSE I Sr. RSE II Staff RSE Principal RSE Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

HIRING FOR SCALE AND EXPANSION Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

HIRING NOTES FROM THE FOOL HERSELF: 1. Hiring is hard and you will make mistakes (FACT) 2. Use your career ladders 3. Make sure everyone knows your career ladders Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

HIRE FOR THE OPPOSITE OF THIS • Know your team • Identify: • Gaps (competencies) • Gaps (ownership) • Capacity needs (expand vs scale, new skills vs more of ) USE YOUR CAREER LADDERS Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

IF ANYTHING…. WHEN HIRING COMMUNICATION & FEEDBACK DELIVERY Make sure you get indication of these two at least: • Can they communicate with a set of diverse people? • Can they get things done? And then whatever technical skills you need… Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

PROGRESSION WITHOUT FOMO Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

GROWING & KEEPING YOURSELF IN DEMAND (MYTH) WHAT YOU KNOW FOMO TOPIC WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW SHINY NEW THING YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW

GROWING & KEEPING YOURSELF IN DEMAND (REALITY) YOUR NICHE (WHAT YOU KNOW) WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU KIND OF KNOW WHAT YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW MORE OF WHAT YOU KIND OF NEED TO KNOW ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU USEFUL DIRECTION OF GROWTH Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

SCOPE OWNERSHIP Task Feature Domain Organisation Execution Process Solution discovery Problem Discovery Project / team RSE I RSE II Sr. RSE I Sr. RSE II Staff RSE Principal RSE ONE OR BOTH DIMENSIONS OF GROWTH Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? It keeps you focused on what matters: • Avoid snacking: low effort, low impact • Avoid preening: low impact, high visibility • Stop chasing ghosts and instead spend time on what only you can do Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

• Get to know your team • Signal what matters to your team & organisation • Hire for scale and expansion • Use your career ladders IF ANYTHING TAKE THIS: MANAGERS & TEAM LEADS Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

• Use your career ladders as a compass not as a GPS (i.e. help you set the direction of your growth) • Avoid snacking too much 🍪 • Learn smart: • Know your niche (what only you can do) • Know your team/domain • Broaden your scope or ownership (one at a time) • Focus what matters (technical work, glue work, collaboration) • Finish things! IF ANYTHING TAKE THIS: RSX Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career

Tania Allard - trallard.dev | bit.ly/rsx-career www. quansight-labs.org THANK YOU