Every engineer should do a stint in consulting
Work for a tech company in a customer-facing technical role: say, as a post-sales engineer or solutions architect. Working as a consultant unlocks career gains that are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve as an in-house engineer or engineering leader. Once you've worked with a few clients, you'll realize that most of them aren't as unique and special as they think they are. Over time, you get the opportunity to build a playbook for success in your discipline that works in, like, 80% of cases. Most people probably won't fully buy into your ideas, but you'll know they work. If you can work with a consultancy that engages at the executive level, you may find that you're able to get more done in a few weeks than your in-house counterparts could ever do on their own. Be careful if you choose to work with a firm, though; plenty of them have richly-deserved reputations as "Body shops" that burn up people in the service of horrible clients.