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The many kinds of Research Engineer

Not one role — 232 real RE job descriptions cluster into eight archetypes, and each expects a different Pareto trade-off and skill set.

buildsettledscience · engineering

Four finch heads drawn in black and white, from a massive seed-cracking beak to a thin warbler-like one, numbered one to four.
Heads of four Galápagos finches, from Journal of Researches (second edition), John Gould, for Charles Darwin, 1845. Biodiversity Heritage Library, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Click an archetype to see what it actually asks for.

The many kinds of Research Engineer: open the explorer

Settled · 13 Jul 2026

If you'd have built it another way, I'd like to know how. Write to mepc3197@columbia.edu · the title goes in the subject line

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