Fix the comp anomaly first: interview aggressively for full-time roles in your field's normal salary band — earnings several multiples below field median suggests a mispriced seat, and simply changing seats is worth more than any upskilling this year.

Ship 2-3 public, verifiable projects tied to your five years of experience — with no outputs and comp this low, hiring managers have nothing to price you on except the anomaly.

Convert the partially relevant degree into a directly relevant signal with one focused certification in a shortage area (cloud, data engineering, security) to justify the mid-level title in screening.