Obviously you need to have a heart to heart conversation with your boss about the personal toll that this is taking on you and that you need to return to your f

Obviously you need to have a heart to heart conversation with your boss about the personal toll that this is taking on you and that you need to return to your first love, that is R&D. Don't wait until you are so frustrated that you have your resignation letter already written. Start the conversation now if you haven't already. Reassure the boss that this doesn't need to happen overnight but that it does need to happen within X months. Otherwise you might get a combination of praise, bonuses and guilt that just keeps stringing you along in the same position for a couple more years. How to minimize risk for the company while releasing you to do what you really enjoy? My first thought is to groom someone to be the product manager. Ideally, one of the 3 engineers you are already managing. If none of them have desire & ability to PM the software then start the process to hire a replacement from elsewhere in the company or from outside. Start to prepare for a smooth hand-off. Make sure the house is in order: [1]solid documentation [2] version control [3] bug tracking and resolution [4] comprehensive user lists [5] mapping out of business and technical stakeholders [6] dependencies - data, software, systems and operations [7] engineer duties and strengths documented [8] features both committed road map and wish list When you feel like the house is in order start pushing the transition hard from your side to move it along. Because at that point, you can say with good conscience, "everything is ready for a smooth hand-off and I have done everything I can to minimize risk." Finally, your boss and maybe her boss needs to understand how you will continue to contribute to the growth and efficiency of the company. You need to create a narrative that emphasizes how much value was also created by your R&D work and will be created once again when your life is not consumed by this one project that turned into a product. Hope you are able to make the transition that you need without having to quit the company.