The dictionary definition seems to answer this clearly for me. Engineer - A person who, given a problem and a specific set of goals and constraints, finds a te

The dictionary definition seems to answer this clearly for me. Engineer - A person who, given a problem and a specific set of goals and constraints, finds a technical solution to the problem that satisfies those goals within those constraints. The goals and constraints may be technical, social, or business related. The distinction between "computer scientist" and "software engineer" is a much more interesting one, that between developer/programmer and "software engineer" (which feels like a variation of degrees).