I'm in much the same boat - however my SWE pivot was when I attempted to commercialize my PhD research along with my advisor. We had a startup for a few years and then got acquired by a global company. I now manage a team of SWEs and coordinate with SMEs in technical fields to make sure that our scientific software products are great in both areas. These roles exist, but probably not commonly as a straight hybrid - may have to lean into one and use the other as a differentiator/value-add. For me, I think I got here by caring about the customer experience first - which takes "whatever it takes" - software and science both. I have to be an evangelist for both of these things but only as a means to a common end, which is to help the end users expand their understanding and abilities with applied knowledge.