Your next step is management or a career change. It's a wise move to review your options now. You won't retire an engineer. The days were you could work at one

Your next step is management or a career change. It's a wise move to review your options now. You won't retire an engineer. The days were you could work at one company in the same position are mostly gone. Do yourself a favor and go into management. If you don't like it then move on to a different career. A job I've noticed getting more popular is a director of IT at medium to large companies whose job is to maintain an IT department using outside IT contractors and temp workers. At most they have an assistant and a few helpdesk positions that are full time at the company. This way companies can run an IT department that costs a fraction of what it used to cost a few years ago. But even that position is being superseded by companies outsourcing all of IT and hiring apps as needed - no director needed. IT is mostly a cost center for companies so the logical thing to do is to reduce the cost as much as possible and as fast as possible. That's what's happening and will continue to happen. It's not favorable to a long career in IT. Look into careers that bring in money to the company and you get very good at it. Companies will kiss your butt if they know you can bring in more than what it costs to keep you employed.