Ask HN: Researcher vs. Engineer

After a Ph.D. in CS and three years of postdoc, I realized that academia is not for me. However I love doing research. Now I’ve to choose between begin an industrial researcher or an engineer.

On the one hand, I’d like to be a researcher working on open problems but I’m afraid that industry won’t give me the freedom of publishing/working on interesting problems. On the other hand, engineers deal with well defined concrete problems but I’m afraid that it won’t be as stimulating as doing research.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Any suggestions? Thanks.