Have you considered doing "enterprise architecture" work? I think that might appeal to you. You can make decisions about technology and not necessarily manage people. Now that I'm back in the technology world, I notice that a lot of my customers (larger companies) have a very bright, technically savvy, big-picture, systems-thinking person on staff, usually reporting directly to the CIO and who is a thought leader rather than a people manager. I think this would be perfect and interesting work for you. It's basically a staff learning and problem-solving position.

Similar work would be a "solution architect" role on a large project team that is implementing (or planning to implement) complex technology with which you are familiar.

I also think there is a need in the world for a UNIX uber-admin working as a very highly paid consultant (actually, I think we have one on this board in Mark Lord). You would establish yourself as the dude to call when your admins can't figure out a problem and have screwed it up beyond their ability to fix it. It would be necessary to charge a king's ransom because there could be long periods between jobs. Kind of an "I'm Bitt and I solve problems (in UNIX!)", Winston Wolf sort of guy.

A bright, hard working, critical thinker is always in demand.

Jim