I found a job as research software engineer (there was a thread about it here on HN yesterday) in a national research institute in New Zealand (NIWA). After some years I was paid by the institute to help maintain an Open Source tool used to run the numerical weather prediction models in UK/Au/NZ.

Now I am working on another workflow engine, CWL, used in life sciences and getting more popular. I find it a lot more enjoyable these types of projects used in research, where anyone can contribute via an open source community. My current work is sponsored by Curii in the USA.

The salary is definitely a lot less than FAANG's, but I stopped worrying about that a long time ago, and decided to focus on what I had fun and felt realized. There are lots of groups and companies looking for RSE's, you can find some in the Who's Hiring thread, some times, but ResearchGate and Google will probably give you a lot more options.

p.s.: if you get a job in a research institute, chances are that it is also related to government, so they might be able to sponsor your visa if you'd like to move somewhere else as well.