I focused on IC vs MGMT track a lot but with my PhD another question appears:
At companies like FAANG what are the differences between Research Scientist and SE?
More freedom? Worse TC? Different onboarding?
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Most "Research Scientists" at Facebook are actually SWEs but with a fancier title. They like to give it to SWEs with a PhD.
Other Research Scientists have a job that's half exploration and half sales. They explore new stuff and then need to convince product teams to productionize it. It's harder to show impact because they usually don't own products themselves.
There's also a small number of people who actually publish papers, but most PhDs who are seriously considering SWE as an option would not have CVs strong enough for that type of role.
Engineering is more about building and maintaining large systems with high accuracy and availability requirements.
Comp can be better on either side; it depends on your ability to achieve business objectives and get promoted. So I would base the decision on how much you enjoy research, not comp concerns.