Your training is a sunk cost.

It is also the source of soft skills.

A big part of the problem is that you were spending time with tech stacks and frameworks. These have almost no practical utility value aside from attaining employment in a low skill area of software. I am saying that as a former 15 year JavaScript developer. Instead use your research background to solve real problems faced by businesses and users that you can measure.

Chances are, there are a handful of labs, somewhere that could benefit from the overlap, but finding them is like finding the needle in the haystack.

In either case, you're primarily either a developer or a scientist/researcher. Unless you're at an early stage startup or in a principal/managerial role, chances are your time is better spent deeply focusing on one area rather than both. Either putting the system to production or doing research. A lot of the time, these tasks can be carried out in parallel -- while one person is carrying out research, the other can be improving the system.

I don't think it's at all as rare as I see other commenters say. I don't know earth sciences specifically but I'd be surprised if there is a STEM field where a strong SWE expertise isn't an asset you can put to regular use in research.

I was a studio recording engineer for about 7 years. I switched to software, and now I work in industrial global logistics. Job attributes I optimized for over the years: insulated from manufactured stress, autonomy, control over working hours, good relationships with my boss and coworkers.

As for how to market yourself: first you should convert your academic CV to one that is suited for the type of companies you are applying for. Unless you wrote something that ended up in Nature or some other super high profile journal, companies typically don't care about your publications. What they do care about is things like: can you communicate well? How well can you organize things on your own? Do you handle stress well? You did a PhD, so the answer to those things is yes, you just need to write that in your CV in a way a company recruiter/interviewer understands, even if they themselves are not from academia. So you don't have two halves that belong to different resumes, you are just one person and you just translate your resume to the "language" that your prospective job provider speaks.

Finally, your list of skills does not need to be a perfect match for what a company is looking for. Of course, there needs to be some overlap, but as long as it means you can pick up new things quickly, it will be fine. That and being a good fit for the company's culture are the most important things.

I did not start out with a unicorn role, but in I found ways to apply my physics background in my current job.

It may be harder if you want to do only earth sciences, but if you're open to many areas of research, then the FAANGs will probably take you.

Cold call or get introductions to their R&D leaders (principal researcher /director / VP). While connecting to something they or their company did, ask for a coffee meeting or phone call to learn more about their company and how it works.

Use this to Network network network. At some point a job will appear with interviews. Chances are good it’s with a good manager as they’re the ones taking time to build good teams and talent.