[tschottdorf]

I'm close to a 35+ yo engineer and have been with my current employer for over six years, mostly based in Europe. There are multiple ICs, myself included, in positions like the ones you seem to be looking for, and we are hiring. I know you're asking for advice and not for leads, but maybe the data point that I consider these reasonable goals is advice enough and perhaps you'd like to chat about the company behind it. Reach out at [e-mail] if you're interested.

[playing_colours]

Good point! I suggest the topic starter to apply at the companies that build products for us techies to use. I live in Germany and we have many more remote options nowadays - New Relic, Elastic, Snowflake, Aiven, etc. It will be fun and you can master some specialisation that can make you more valuable and be a meaningful progression.