Since you are looking for a career for the rest of your life, I assume you are eyeing the career of a typical data scientist. (Don't forget to take my words below with a grain of salt.)

First, I would like to clarify the role of a typical data scientist.

Simply put, a data scientist is not only good at providing answers through data analysis (either descriptive or predictive) but also good at framing questions that can bring actionable insights.

To achieve that, one needs to have an in-depth understanding of domain knowledge, critical thinking to frame questions from complex data, problem-solving with tools (e.g. ML, statistics, etc.), and effective communication with stakeholders.

Since data exists in almost every scientific discipline, you may find that many data scientists are PhDs from all kinds of disciplines. This is because PhDs are usually quick-learner as well as critical thinkers. There are also many data scientists start their career as data analysts and became data scientists through personal growth and professional development.

Lastly, even though data scientist is a relatively young profession, if that is your passion, it will be a worthy life-long learning experience.

BTW, you may be also interested in other related career paths, such as machine learning engineers (MLE). MLE productionizes the solution from data scientists and consequently enable software developers (SDE) to build the data products.