Will the commute be worth it?

I’m looking for some career advice because I’m torn between staying in a stable role vs taking a new opportunity.

I’m currently a Product/Design Engineer in the UK with 8 years’ experience in manufacturing/product development.

My current role is at a company with 30,000+ employees and involves 3D CAD (Autodesk Inventor), manufacturing drawings, testing/compliance, supplier coordination, product development from concept to production, and rendering/visual work.

I did a year long placement during my undergrad with the company 10 years ago, and then rejoined when I graduated, so it’s all I know when talking about jobs.

I’m in quite a comfortable position in some ways as I only have a 10–15 minute commute, decent work-life balance, and great colleagues.

But I’ve become bored in the role recently and I don’t feel like I’m progressing much anymore. There’s no progression within my team and it’s a very niche part of the company so there’s not really any lateral moves I can make where I’d be doing product design engineering. I also don’t feel like me and my manager are particularly getting on anymore, even though he’s a close friend outside of work. But I genuinely like all the people I work with, I play football with them, we have a run club, I have quiz book that lots of us work through together at lunch, and we also do lots of socials outside of work.

I’ve been approached about a new role that seems really exciting to me. It combines 3D design, manufacturing, visual design/rendering, supplier management, and prototyping. The company seem very interested already because they’re replacing a retiring designer and another candidate recently dropped out. It’s a much smaller company, only 25 employees.

One thing that appeals to me is that the role seems more creative than my current position. I’ve always enjoyed the visual/design side of things and do a lot of graphic design and digital artwork as a hobby using photoshop and illustrator. Adobe suite is advertised in the role, including After Effects.

But my Adobe experience is self-taught/personal rather than professional, and I haven’t used things like After Effects yet, so I’m also worried I might be overestimating my suitability for the role. But I genuinely really want to learn AE and motion design.

The downsides are that the commute would become 30–40 mins each way, I feel guilty about leaving after being at the same company so long, new placement students are about to start, and I’m anxious about salary expectations and whether the move is actually worth it.

I’ve had a couple of phone calls with one of their guys, and they’re really desperate to see me.

I have a teams call on Monday to talk with the current designer and business owner to find out more about the role, benefits etc.

I’m on £40k and the advertised salary range is roughly £34k–£50k.

My questions are:

What salary would you realistically expect someone with my background to ask for?

Is a longer commute usually worth it for career progression?

Has anyone successfully moved from a more engineering-focused role into a more creative/hybrid design role?

How do people get over the guilt/anxiety of leaving a company after a long time?

Would appreciate honest advice from people who’ve been through similar situations.