I feel similarly. What I've found is that the way companies are structured the software engineers are usually in some sort of software department. I try to aim

I feel similarly. What I've found is that the way companies are structured the software engineers are usually in some sort of software department. I try to aim for roles outside of that department, like a software engineer embedded in some group that's more directly tied to the application. I've found that if I'm in the software department, the performance review and metrics and overall culture lean towards "how good of a software developer/engineer are you?" as opposed to "how good are you at solving the business's problem." That said, it's tough to make progress outside of the software org. Personally I'm doing a masters in math right now and thinking about a PhD in it as well, because I need skills outside of software in order to be able to make programming part of my job but not my career.