Mid-career technical professionals trapped in roles misaligned with their actual strengths, unable to find career paths that leverage their supporting/enabling skills

Experienced engineers and technical leaders (9+ years) who excel at supporting, enabling, and coordinating but struggle in hands-on creation and design roles feel trapped and underperforming. They lack clear career frameworks that value their strengths, forcing them to either stay in misaligned positions or retreat to individual contributor roles they've already proven aren't their fit. Current career guidance treats technical careers as a linear ladder (IC → Lead → Manager) without acknowledging the distinct skill set of technical enablers/coordinators.