Corporate exit ops in engineering heavy verticals

I will be joining an EB in a industrials/PUI/M&M/Energy type coverage group next July and, after getting the return offer this summer, have started thinking about what might interest me after my analyst stint.

With that, I feel like I have a decent amount of conviction around finding my way into a leadership/executive role at an operating company, rather than building a career in advisory/investing.

My problem: when I look at the executives leading the industry I hope to build a career in, they all have highly technical chemical/mechanical engineering backgrounds.

My question(s): what can a corporate post banking career in a highly technical vertical look like? Is it unrealistic to think I could reach any other role outside of leading corporate development or CFO? What other roles could I fill?

It might be a generational difference, but I see engineering >> MBA >> executive more so than banking >> PE/MBA >> executive in this industry and am struggling on how I should be thinking about this. Is doing engineering out of undergrad playing the long game?