Where do you find these jobs? And are they only available at Universities? I'd be happy to take the pay cut to work on something that contributes more to society than getting people to click on ads, but not at a college or university.
in the uk, https://www.jobs.ac.uk/search/?keywords=RSE&location= gets you five hits today and I expect you would find more similar posts that werent currently branded research software engineer if you looked - the term is still quite new for many academic depts. One thing you'll need is patience if you want one of these positions - I remember being offerred an academic post three months after interviewing for the position and when I queried how on earth it could have taken so long to offer the post I was met with incredulity that there was an issue at all.
You might be able to find research institutes or national labs (I'm a research engineer at one of these). If you're in Europe, something like the Max Planck Institute might fit the bill.
Aside, can I ask why you don't want to work at a college or university?
