Not sure if the problem is "being senior", of the kind of companies one works for. If you work at FAANG as senior dev and apply elsewhere similar as senior dev

Not sure if the problem is "being senior", of the kind of companies one works for. If you work at FAANG as senior dev and apply elsewhere similar as senior dev and they are actively hiring, I expect things would go fine. If you worked at FAANG and apply to a way smaller company, then indeed you may look overqualified. My feeling after 12y in industry and 2.5y at FAANG-like company is that senior engs are valued, and staying senior without getting promoted is considered normal/fine (compared to e.g. not getting promoted from mid to senior). Heck, the pyramid shape of org makes it natural that it's impossible for half the org to become staff eng/managers and have cross-team impact; there can be only so many cross-team collab opportunities and large projects; meanwhile someone has to do the work of shipping things on time and keeping lights green.