[tyroh]

You probably should set your sights more on becoming a lead developer, where your experience as an engineer will be respected but you can transition into management later on. Also focus on discussing your mentoring experience a lot, including the outcomes you've helped achieve (ex. 200% growth in X, 50% fewer bugs in Y, etc.)

As someone who hires for this role, I look for people who can handle teams well and deliver outcomes, not just code. This means I need to be able to trust you with the careers of the team and the project results.

A good transition is actually consulting on tech teams, which is somewhat a leadership role that will give you the management experience needed later on. More often that not, companies absorb good consultants if they jive well with the team.