I am being incredibly reductive in terms of how much effort is needed to position yourself for this successfully and sustainably, but: your friend can get that

I am being incredibly reductive in terms of how much effort is needed to position yourself for this successfully and sustainably, but: your friend can get that schedule by going freelance and moving towards a consultancy model. Consulting clients don’t have to worry about the same overhead per employee as a proper employment arrangement entails (onboarding, legal, benefits, etc.) and tend to be more focused on what will be done and by when. DevOps has some nice potential niches for this sort of arrangement, like one-time projects to move between platforms.