Wild engineer's dream: where can I work on something of the same coolness level? High scientific content, total quality, no compromises whatsoever.
There were absolutely compromises, and the engineers who shipped it knew myriad ways in which it could be better.
To answer the question:
Find something you think is equally cool, learn what you can about the field, be open to the possibility of a pay cut, and start knocking on doors. Sometimes doors open. Work really hard when they do.
Although it could be attached to a weather balloon and still be useful for scientific testing.
https://thenewstack.io/celebrating-nasas-voyager-probes-team...
Ok, the pay isn't silicon valley level but most labs take work life balance and professional development quite seriously and you get to work on cool stuff.
One thing I would caution (from my experience) is that the attitude was very much "get it to work" vs "do it properly". I was writing software and had quite a bit of freedom, but the hardware guys were often tasked with, "We have this problem and there is nothing that we can buy/afford that will solve it. Could you please invent something? You have that mountain of spare parts from previous projects to work with". They would be wandering around the department saying things like, "Do you need that <whatever piece of electronics> any more?", and then would steadfastly break it down to get the parts/components that they needed. Probably less reusable stuff in electronics these days, but I remember being pretty awestruck at the time by what they could scavenge and then build.
I remember in the physics lab, my supervisor/boss had bought a laser printer from Europe. Because it was 240 volt, they built a voltage doubler so that they could use it. One day they accidentally plugged it into 2 voltage doublers and... well, predictably it no longer worked. But my buddy quite happily pounced on the dead carcass and I don't think it lasted more than a couple of hours before the working parts were repurposed for something else.
Like I said, this was a long time ago, but I imagine things still mostly work the same. Awesome place to work.
The tension between "get it to work" and "do it properly" is still there, particularly when there is pressure for results for conference papers. We try to do things properly though, simply due to the more onerous safety regulations now. It is interesting coming across various historical bodges that lurk in dark corners, sort of little engineering time capsules.
Of course, you can work on whatever you want to whatever standard you want if you do it on your own time & dime, if you have the willpower and the budget, or can find a patron, crowdfunding is viable now.