Otherwise he/she/it is in charge of memes due to extreme lack of things to do outside of the 30 seconds of combat. On standard main guns you can maximize damage by waiting for the two moving circles to align. The Weapons Officer fires the main turret and missiles. Before the fight starts he should disable aux systems you do not need for the fight ahead. Apart from that he also manages reactor heat but that can usually be reduced to regulating coolant flow to save coolent, otherwise just leave it on high. The Engineer could also be called the loader because that is his main job: load fuel cells if the Science Officer calls for it.

The Pilot has the most important job in a fight since he/she/it needs to keep the enemies in your firing arcs or even alternate between them while keeping the ship mobile enough to avoid incoming fire without providing an unstable firing platform. 'Charge 3' for three fuel cells that need to be loaded. He needs to find a simple way to let the Engineer know when to load more fuel cells, e.g. The Science Officers primary role is to run programs, his secondary role is to feed information to the Captain if needed. Also set the target in your Tab menu to 'No Target' so you don't start fights accidently. Let everyone know if you intend to fight or flee, call out priority targets, prep for fights, organize damage control and boarding parties. The Captain needs to make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to do. Everyone should know their role and what to do:

The first thing to do to succeed in space combat is to get yourself organized.

Pulsar lost colony captain guide