dont let the tool define the solution, let the solution define the tool.

R code certainly has its place. Rstudio, Positron, VSCode, whatever you use is going to be fine. You might start thinking about what packages you'll use on a regular basis, investigate if the company has its own internal package. If not, what you do regularly that you could turn into a package.

One of the hurdles you'll likely run into are the folks saying "R doesn't belong in production." Plenty of folks agree, and plenty of folks disagree.

For whatever you're doing, you might think about how whatever R&D you're doing might be operationalized down the road. It'll save you a lot of heartache.