AE/DE hinderance to AIE?

I am a current Tech/Data Analyst working at a medium-large firm in a downtown city in Automation/LowCode Agentic Generation (Copilot Studio), amongst other tools such as python model building/heavy SQL, with an educational background in Data Science. My goal is to become an AI engineer one day, or help to build and implement AI solutions (Titles and Descriptions are in constant evolution). I am a 27M and know that I am fairly early in my career still, but also know the experience matters. I am being presented with an opportunity as an Analytics Engineer at a small company in my hometown to lea