Comp-Physics Professor with a past FAANG exit looking to pivot to industry. Stuck in a weird "seniority" middle ground. What can I do to escape the rat race?
Long post incoming, looking for some career advice or insights.
Who I am
I’m 40 and currently an Associate Professor in theoretical/computational physics at a major university in Northern Europe. For a mix of internal reasons (scarce resources, low pay for the level of responsibility and workload) and external ones (I need more geographic flexibility), I’m starting to look around.
My research is highly computational; I’ve been heavily using compute clusters for 15+ years and I genuinely enjoy it. Thanks to this background, about 10 years ago I joined a startup that ended up having a very successful exit to a FAANG-like company around 2020.
Aside from the tech side, I also handle the standard "Professor package": team management, budget allocation, grant writing, communication, teaching, hiring, strategy with chairs in some committees, representative/board roles at university and national level.
What I am looking for
Ideally, a combination of these four ingredients:
- Technical interest & highly competent colleagues: I absolutely despise office politics and dealing with people who spend more time posturing than actually building stuff.
- Geographic flexibility: Remote work (EU) or a highly transferable skill set. For family reasons, I might need to move to another EU country in 2-3 years, and eventually back to Southern Europe (Northern Italy) in 5-10 years. Mobility in academia is complicated and impossible to plan for.
- Positive impact: I want to look back in 10 years and not regret my choices.
- Pay & Upward mobility: Currently making around €65k-70k gross. I'm looking for growth, as upward mobility in my current academic position is practically non-existent.
Note on compromises: I am willing to sacrifice some points if the pay multiplies, just as I’d happily take a significant pay cut for a role in an NGO or institution where I see a clear, non-profit purpose. I don't want to be exploited or undersell my skills, but I don't strictly need a big salary (maybe not even a salary) if the mission is right. My backup plan is high school teaching which is Italy is around half my current salary, but where I see a clear positive value. But I would not go into trading for less than 100k+ obviously.
The Catch / Why I'm asking for help
Honestly, I don't quite know where to look. I’ve explored several options, but there’s often a huge mismatch between my profile and the job market:
Entry-level/Mid roles don't satisfy my needs and ignore my background.
Senior corporate roles often require heavy "stakeholder management" and traditional corporate experience, which I lack. During my startup days, we weren't playing the corporate game I was the happy-go autistic in chief. I was basically pulling and writing algorithms out of a magic hat until we got bought out.
I’ve looked into quantitative finance and energy markets. While there’s some overlap with my computational background, the trade-offs (especially regarding work-life balance and impact) don't always seem worth it. Pure CS/Dev play seem suicide at this point, and I would need to seriously grind leet code. Everyone and his uncle are doing AI right now, I already did plenty of relevant linear algebra, tensors, statistics and learning theory, but few people seem to understand it.
CV I sent occasionally in the last couple of years for technical roles have fallen in deaf ears.
What do you think of this situation? Do you have any suggestions on specific industries, niches, or exact job titles that might fit my weird hybrid background? Has anyone made a similar jump?
TL;DR: 40yo Physics Professor with heavy computational experience and a past tech startup exit. Want to leave academia for better flexibility and upward mobility (EU/Remote). Finding it hard to match my unconventional senior profile with standard corporate roles. Looking for industry/title suggestions