American PE VP who needs to move to London for personal reasons - how should I go about it?

Hi all. 

My wife is English so visa's won't be an issue. She has had a family issue pop up, so we are going to have to move to the UK for ~3 years. I'm trying to figure out what that means for my career, and how to make the best of it. It doesn't need to be immediate-we're thinking of doing the move next summer. 

I'm 30, currently a VP at a small buyout fund with around ~$500M AUM. I've been here my whole career, my biggest wins have been on the origination front (I've originated 3 of our last 5 acquisitions). But it's just too small for me to try to set up a London office, and I'm ready for a change anyway, either a larger buyout  fund or doing more growth equity/VC. 

I've scanned all the WSO and Reddit forums, but it feels like they're mostly for people just starting in their career looking to find a place to settle down. I've got 8 years of experience, and the plan would be go to London for 3 years and then come back. 

I effectively have 2 questions: 

1. What's the best way to go about this while minimizing negative impacts to my career? I'm still young enough carry isn't a huge consideration. But I want to make sure I don't just step out for a few years, leave behind my NYC contacts and career, and then have to come back and start all over when I'm 35. I recognize I'm going to take a pay cut, but will it be that bad at my seniority level? The obvious answer to me seems to be try to get a job at a big international fund with NYC and London offices like Battery or TCV and transfer back, but not sure just how much I'd be able to crack that given my typical deal size is $30-50M. 

2. Anything London specific vs NYC I should consider? I'm trying to really get up to speed on London and the EU, but I'm coming from being very, very good at one thing: identifying and executing on ~$50M EV US buyout opportunities in TMT. I could probably lateral into a growth equity or VC job here, but not sure if it's more insular in the UK or not. I know I'll need to brush up on IFRS and the like. 

If it matters, I've got a BS and an MSF in finance from very well respected international universities. That said, my skill sets have been more on the origination side-I'm a decent spreadsheet jockey, but there are plenty of 23 year old analysts who blow me away. No kids yet, but given timing it's likely we'll have them while we're in the UK.