I always say "Computer Scientist", I also think the term engineer is alright. I hate any phrasing that uses the word "programmer" because that is generally use

I always say "Computer Scientist", I also think the term engineer is alright. I hate any phrasing that uses the word "programmer" because that is generally used to describe jobs involving wrangling Excel spreadsheets programming Word macros and other low rent IT jobs. Of course I've read before that by time you get around to the topic of what you do for a living you should have so captured your audiences attention that you could say janitor and they wouldn't care.