Create, host and maintain an online clearinghouse of research software-related job descriptions and connect research software job descriptions with the education necessary for these jobs

[dr-eric-jensen]

Potential Activity Scope This activity could include:

• Create and publish a website with research software job descriptions.
• Create an interactive online resource showing the underpinning educational qualifications required for particular jobs. (20 job descriptions)
• Establish useful metadata categories for the job descriptions.

Potential Objectives

• Develop a publicly accessible repository of research software-related job descriptions.
• Identify categories for different types of research software roles.
• Include criteria for performance assessment linked to these job descriptions.
• Include ranges for salary levels for different job descriptions.

Targeted Impacts Individuals planning to enter or progress in this field can make more informed decisions about their future careers and steps they need to take to prepare for those careers. In the long-term, this repository could be used as a data source for secondary analysis investigating the evaluation of research software-related jobs.

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This potential activity was curated as part of "Charting the Course: Policy and Planning for Sustainable Research Software," a Sloan Foundation-funded project within URSSI dedicated to supporting the future of research software through evidence-informed policy work (Project contacts are: @danielskatz and @dr-eric-jensen). If you are interested in working on this, please add a comment.

[cmaimone]

I've been working on this at a low level - grabbing job postings to the US-RSE job board and a few related email lists. Also putting some example RSE job descriptions in https://zenodo.org/record/8274378. I'd be happy to collaborate with someone on an effort in this area.

[danielskatz]

I chatted about this with @nicole-brewer about this perhaps a year ago and I think she was interested in analyzing this data but didn't have the time to work on it then, if I remember correctly.

[nicole-brewer]

Thanks for mentioning @danielskatz. I am interested in this and particularly in automating the capture of the postings because, while I'm sure it would make for an interesting analysis in the near future, I think it could be much more valuable over time. If I could find some funding to work on it, I don't yet have commitments for winter break or summer 2024. Happy to chat more about this sometime.