Take the jobs no one else wants

"And to be perfectly frank, that's because they're often the jobs that require the biggest investments of time, energy, and critical judgement."

While this is generally true, often people don't want the job because of the perception that it's hard, not that it really is.

There are many jobs like this, while challenging, can also give you a lot of latitude to self manage work effort and be more autonomous than many "regular" jobs.

And there is the danger of "we can get rid of Bob, becaue that component is all fixed now". The trick is to screw up enough to be noticed, but not cause real problems.