  Research Software Engineering is the application of professional software
skills to research problems. Those who do this are called Research Software
Engineers or RSEs for short. RSEs work closely with researchers in a
collaborative fashion rather than just offering a standalone function (c.f. the
traditional IT workforce or Librarians working to provide a general set of
services to the University community such as research, teaching or
administrative functions). It is this overlap with academic researchers that
make the RSE and the RSE management a new type of third space professional in
the higher education sector. We explore aspects of knowledge, relationships,
legitimacies and language in relation to the model constructed by Whitchurch in
Reconstructing Identities in Higher Education to explore how these relate to
the RSE role and go on to highlight open problems that need resolving to put
RSEs on a firmer organisational footing.
