  This paper shares a perspective for the research software engineering (RSE)
community to navigate the National Laboratory landscape. The RSE role is a
recent concept that led to organizational challenges to place and evaluate
their impact, costs and benefits. The premise is that RSEs are a natural fit
into the current landscape and can use traditional career growth strategies in
science: publications, community engagements and proposals. Projects funding
RSEs can benefit from this synergy and be inclusive on traditional activities.
Still, a great deal of introspection is needed to close gaps between the
rapidly evolving RSE landscape and the well-established communication patterns
in science. This perspective is built upon interactions in industry, academia
and government in high-performance computing (HPC) environments. The goal is to
contribute to the conversation around RSE career growth and understand their
return on investment for scientific projects and sponsors.
