[taion]

Assuming your leveling matches standard bigtech leveling, it's generally expected at level 7+ that you are doing lots of cross-org work anyway, and have responsibilities at quite a high level. Unless you're one of those rare engineers at this level who is a deep specialist (in which case this team move scenario sounds unlikely), the value you add above someone at level 6 is just that you have breadth of experience and can lead cross-org and/or cross-functional initiatives.

No, nobody is ever fully in charge of his or her own destiny, but the entire point of senior staff engineers is that you have the autonomy to exercise protagonism separate from your org structure, in ways that managers and directors do not. So... do the cross-org collaboration thing – and not because it's what you feel like, but because as a L7, it's literally your job to do that!

[golly_ned]

Good point -- while now, since I'm new working on this team and having to re-establish myself, I feel a big loss in scope, influence, and visibility, I think over time I'll be working on more and more cross-cutting projects. I'm starting to see the seeds of that already.

[taion]

Good luck! Those were the behaviors that got you promoted to senior staff in the first place – so I would imagine that your org is actively expecting that you will continue them!