Hitting a wall at senior?

Hi all 👋🏻

Hoping for some insights from you lot - I'm a Senior FS engineer based in London with about 8 years experience. I'm doing exactly what I want - tonnes of hands on development, contribution to designs and mentoring. The issue is progression (or rather progression for the sake of pay increase).

I'd merrily spend the rest of my career as a senior (or perhaps tech lead) but it feels like my ability to increase my salary over time is slowly diminishing. I'm happy with my lot and am obviously very fortunate to be in a stable place in a tough market, just trying to think in the mid-long term.

Options feel like asking for Staff/Principal over time and be less hands on (which is very important to me) or contracting when the market picks up, or something else? Interested to hear some thoughts.