How to pivot to Machine Learning and NLP?

Engineering managers shouldn't be writing code anymore, especially if they're a senior engineering manager like yourself who is often managing other managers. The most fluid way would be to transition internally to lead an department within this space.

If you really want to get into the nitty-gritty and earn the respect of engineers, you could switch back to being a very senior IC and do ML and NLP work. From there, follow these resources to learn the new domain:

• "What is the most effective way to onboard yourself to a new team's domain?"
• How To Learn A New Codebase Fast

Here's some good discussions on pivoting into machine learning:

• "Is it worth transitioning to become a Machine Learning Engineer?"
• "Does it make sense for me to choose a specialization like ML? If so, what's the impact?"