Relocate or take a hybrid seat in a high-wage hub for the industry — EV, semiconductors, defense primes, or hyperscaler power-infrastructure teams pay 40-80% above generic manufacturing for the same EE skillset and unlock a national rather than local bidding market.

Build a public technical footprint: conference talks (IEEE, PCIM, APEC), open-design references, or a substack on power-electronics / FPGA / signal-integrity work — moves visibility from 'invisible' toward 'active' and is rare enough in EE that one good artifact reaches recruiters directly.

Convert the IC trajectory into a principal-engineer or EM track within 2-3 years with formal scope ownership (team, budget, multi-program responsibility) — at this experience level it's the cleanest path to crossing the $160-200k band without leaving engineering.