Take a job in an early stage startup doing something that leverages your background (e.g. computer vision). You'll take a pay cut for now but if you become someone that early stage startups want to hire you can hop around until you hit the unicorn jackpot while still drawing a good salary. Also there's a better chance you'll find the work meaningful. If nothing else, you'll have more say/agency

Seems like equal or better EV both in terms of $ and QOL over next 10-20 years