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 [email protected] if you're interested.
I tried to use this but once I start entering tasks I don't see how to proceed. There's no way forward from neither there nor the project list page. Am I missing something?