I mean, in that case it sounds like you have enough understanding of business needs then to be a valuable Staff or Principal Engineer, and enough engineering ex

I mean, in that case it sounds like you have enough understanding of business needs then to be a valuable Staff or Principal Engineer, and enough engineering experience to back your decisions up. Assuming you are located in a major tech hub, I don't see a reason that you should be too worried about chronic underemployment - especially in an AI-driven world which has made domain experience even more critical. Honestly, just working on your side projects like you mentioned, and finding companies that are aligned with what your side projects aim to do puts you ahead of 95-97% of candidates. The job hunt has been hard for people, but most candidates (especially the noisiest ones) don't really have your profile or background, but demand principal or staff level salaries and roles. > thinking of something that combines left/right brain Staff/Sr Staff/Principal Engineer or Architect type roles might fit the bill for you. And with your YoE, I think if you were to job hunt you could leverage your network to land that kind of role with ease. Honestly, you are not the type of persona that has difficulty landing jobs (holding for geography ofc). An AI/Vibe Coding market only makes domain experience more critical because hallucinations can cause significant monetary damage, so people who can act as the voice of reason for both the technical and business needs are extremely valuable.