I did something similar to this last year. Went from site Engineering manager at a multi-national aerospace company to IC role and don’t regret it.

I did resign, and started in a software architect role at a smaller company. Did that for a bit and then moved to become their lead data scientist.

I was in the eng. management role for nearly 10 years but kept my skills relevant by working on lots of side projects.

Trying to manage a team remotely through lockdown and the never ending dance of aerospace mergers and acquisitions followed by the inevitable reorganisation was largely what prompted the change.