updates with more details

Author: adrn

finance/proposal-calls/cycle3/user-dev-support-rse.md

@@ -4,26 +4,79 @@ Research Software Engineer: User and Developer Support
 
 ### Project Team
 
-TBD
+- Adrian Price-Whelan
+- TBD (please add your name if you would be interested in helping manage or coordinate
+  this role!)
 
 ### Project Description
 
-A research software engineer (RSE) position with an equivalent ~50% FTE appointment to tackle both user-facing and developer-facing support issues.
+A research software engineer (RSE) position with an equivalent ~50% FTE appointment to
+tackle both user-facing and developer-facing support issues, as identified and
+prioritized by the Astropy community and infrastructure teams. The RSE would have a
+"manager" who is an existing Astropy contributor with existing knowledge of the Astropy
+core package, ecosystem, infrastructure packages, and community. The RSE is expected to
+eventually work independently, but with feedback from the Manager and Astropy community.
 
 ### Project / Work
 
+The broad scope of work for the RSE includes any efforts to support both Astropy users
+and contributors, including, for a few general examples, update the Astropy core
+documentation theme, automate release procedures for infrastructure packages, or
+implement more specific projects related to Astropy core subpackages (some examples
+given below).
+
+The RSE position is distinct from the Software Operational Support Specialist (SOSS)
+position in that the RSE is expected to take on and complete discrete *projects*, rather
+than provide continuous support (e.g., monitoring issues, helping new contributors,
+etc., as was included in the SOSS scope of work).
+
+The exact projects that the RSE tackles and detailed implementation plans should be
+discussed, prioritized, and fleshed out by the Astropy community and RSE together if
+this funding request is accepted. A few possible projects are included below as
+examples, some drawn from the [Astropy
+Roadmap](https://github.com/astropy/astropy-project/blob/main/roadmap/roadmap.md), but
+these should not be considered as the exact plan of work for the RSE — the RSE will work
+independently, so some aspects of project priority will stem from their expertise and
+interest.
+
 Example projects:
-* Overhaul the Astropy developer documentation to include entry points for contributors with different skill levels.
-* Review the full Astropy documentation; research best practices in software documentation and implement changes to the structure of the docs, or propose a path toward overhauling the docs layout and structure to match best practices.
-* Support maintenance of Astropy coordinated (and other affiliated) packages and project infrastructure.
-* TBD
+* *Restructure the Astropy developer documentation*: The current developer documentation
+  pages have a wealth of content aimed at both new contributors and expert technical
+  engineers, but it is mixed and hard for contributors with different skill levels to
+  easily find the content most appropriate for them. The goal of this project is to
+  restructure the documentation pages to provide easier pathways for potential or
+  existing contributors with different skill levels to find relevant developer
+  documentation they need to make a contribution. Relevant issues:
+  [#11620](https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/11620),
+  [#11621](https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/11621)
+* *Explore switching the Astropy documentation theme to the Pydata theme*: Many other
+  software packages that work with NumFOCUS have switched to using the [Pydata sphinx
+  theme](https://pydata-sphinx-theme.readthedocs.io/en/stable/). This project would pick
+  up where Madison Bray left off in exploring whether it makes sense to switch the
+  Astropy documentation to this theme as well, as a way of reducing custom
+  infrastructure and sharing infrastructure with other projects. Relevant issues:
+  [#11520](https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/11520)
+* *Implement robust benchmark reporting for pull requests*: This project would enable a
+  way of evaluating the performance impact of pull requests by tracking and benchmarking
+  existing performance of common tasks (see, for example, the old
+  [astropy-benchmarks](https://github.com/astropy/astropy-benchmarks)).
+* *Implement integration testing for core, coordinated, and infrastructure packages*:
+  Ensure that coordinated and infrastructure packages have integration tests that check
+  the joint usage of Astropy and these other packages together, rather than individually
+  (as is often the case now).
+
 
 ### Approximate Budget
 Currency: US $84,000
 
-salary (50% appointment) + $8000 travel allotment
+**Position**: Research Software Engineer
 
+Budget breakdown:
 - Travel: $8000
 - Conference Registrations: $1000
-- Salary / contractor fees etc.: $75000 
+- Salary / contractor fees etc.: $75000
 - TOTAL = $84000
+
+**Position**: Manager of Research Software Engineer
+
+Unfunded, but could be a funded position.