I'm going on 10 years of management with another 6-7 years of IC experience. I'm starting to see directors at big tech companies that are not only younger than me, but with far less management experience. Granted, I did get a few unlucky breaks - first startup got acquired and the parent company brought their own execs in, second startup promised me a director role but wasn't a good fit, and my current role is in a bigger tech org and they're not promoting from within and all recent hires are from the C-suite's previous company.
I could probably go to a smaller company and be a director, but that would be a step back in terms of scale and money.
A lot of companies aren't hiring in the US like they were, so growing organically seems like a poor strategy.
Is there a secret I'm missing?
For you that means focusing on a growing area of the company, and finding new areas to grow your team in. You also need to have a team of managers, who are growing their scope as well.