Most developer jobs quickly become monotonous as well, especially at the entry level. You say you have 3 years experience with CFD, yet not much programming ex

Most developer jobs quickly become monotonous as well, especially at the entry level. You say you have 3 years experience with CFD, yet not much programming experience -- that doesn't exactly make sense to me. Have you looked at how CFD is similar to the flow of money, goods, music, video, etc? Making career changes based on what you already know, but in a different field is far more effective than restarting at the bottom on a new profession. Perhaps you could look at what areas of application appeal to you more than automotive and then look at how you could apply at least part of your existing expertise to that area. Once you have that sorted, you could focus your programming learning within that domain and thus start looking for work in that new area.