Ask HN: Faamng-type IC vs. generic BigCo Director

[BayAreaSmayArea]

I've got a good dilemma going. Background: I was first employee turned CTO at a startup that exited. We did ok. Not great, but not bad either. I left the acquirer after a year or so, making sure my team and our tech was taken care of and since then I've done some contract work while I looked for something permanent. COVID extended the contract work a bit but happily I'm now looking at two competing offers.

One is from a FAAMNG type company for a high level IC developer position. The total comp is good, and I can probably negotiate it up a little higher.

Two is from a Fortune 50 company that is trying to get part of their tech in order. Its for a 2nd level engineering manager supporting several teams and few dozen people. The total comp is in the same ballpark as the FAAMNG-type, but its less, and the RSU component is unlikely to have as much upside since its not directly tech.

I still have the chops to be an IC, and have cranked out a lot of good code while doing contract work, but I'm wary of taking on a full-time IC role and having to break the management barrier again (which feels like it could be especially difficult in our new remote-everything world).

"leadership" roles are definitely where I want to be going forward, and it is something I think I'm fairly good at. But I've found in my current search that FAAMNG-types don't seem to care much for startup experience in management roles. Maybe heading up larger teams at Fortune 50's look a little better and can demand better comp'd positions in the future because of it? It seems like promoted from IC to a 2nd level manager anywhere is a big challenge.

Have any of you been in a similar situation and care to share your thought process?