Move to a top-tier employer-brand company (frontier-AI, US-listed, or hyperscale-cloud) for one tenure — employer_quality is the single highest-leverage shift; same VP title at top_tier vs well_known is 1.5–2× transfer fee.

Take a CTO or SVP-Eng seat at a 500+ engineer org before 50 — the rung exists but the window closes; staying VP at one company past 50 caps OVR at 80.

Publish 1–2 named technical talks or open-source releases under your own name annually — visibility is 'active' not 'thought_leader', and at this seniority that gap is what separates a recruited candidate from a posted-role applicant.