[arketyp]

You can make the transition, there's demand for all kinds of roles along the spectrum, likely in different companies though. Start working closely with the ML team as a SWE would be a start, then take over some of the pipelining stuff, and so on. Just be realistic with it being precisely that, a transition, and that you will have to apply yourself and take initiative. No, probably you won't become a Google AI researcher, but probably that's not your genuine desire anyway.