I agree with microarchitect and gcb. You are focusing more on the means than the ends. What would you enjoy doing? What will it take for you to get into a position doing that? Just speculating, I would imagine that any barrier (if any exists) to you being qualified for your desired position if based on skill level, not academic credentials. Of course, if you are looking to do literally cutting-edge research involving highly advanced algorithms, a PhD might be the way to go. However, first you have to know what you really want to do. Like the earlier posters said, you also need to know people who know when valuable positions open up. Most of these good jobs never get posted because the hiring manager will first ask his/her contacts for leads on candidates, since relationships have credibility at risk and lead to higher quality leads. You need to be the person that gets the e-mail saying, "Hi, my company XYZ Corp. is looking for an excellent developer to do... Know any awesome devs who can do it?"
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I agree with microarchitect and gcb. You are focusing more on the means than the ends. What would you enjoy doing? What will it take for you to get into a position doing that? Just speculating, I would imagine that any barrier (if any exists) to you being qualified for your desired position if based on skill level, not academic credentials. Of course, if you are looking to do literally cutting-edge research involving highly advanced algorithms, a PhD might be the way to go. However, first you have to know what you really want to do. Like the earlier posters said, you also need to know people who know when valuable positions open up. Most of these good jobs never get posted because the hiring manager will first ask his/her contacts for leads on candidates, since relationships have credibility at risk and lead to higher quality leads. You need to be the person that gets the e-mail saying, "Hi, my company XYZ Corp. is looking for an excellent developer to do... Know any awesome devs who can do it?"