Risk Model Developer to buy side career path

Hi guys, I am currently working as a software developer in a financial software firm, my current job is to work with the quants in my firm and develop multi-asset class risk model.

I want to switch my career from software developer to hedge fund quant analyst/researcher, I have heard from other people that I should probably start as a quant developer in an algo-trading firm like Two Sigma/AQR/etc, then try to switch role within the firm. But I feel like this plan would build up my "tag" as a developer and make it harder to switch role later.

How hard would it be for me to get a job as a quant analyst/researcher now? And what steps do I have to take to achieve this? I also heard that getting CFA doesn't help this, is it true?

Thank you in advance for your help and advice!

My background:
- Master's degree in engineering, focused on coding, machine learning, signal processing.
- Passed CFA level III exam
- My current role is qualified for CFA Charterholder (my managers all have CFA)