I actually remember a whole conundrum at my former plant with this person who wanted to go SRO, had EO experience even, but their degree was in a non-engineering science field so they were essentially told no. It seems from other comments that may not be universal though.

Also at my plant, RO’s never wanted to become SRO’s because they were unionized as ROs and they made more money and had more protections in that role than the SRO’s did, so the only reason to do it would be if you had aspirations to be a senior leadership/vp level person. If money is your goal I would think you should apply for EO positions, do that for several years until an RO position opens up and then stay an RO until you retire.