- Maybe consider doing a Masters?
- Switch internally to a team that does ML? They may not be doing ML research, but you might get introduced to some interesting problems which you can pursue later.
- There are ML residency programs run by big tech, although they are extremely hard to get into.
- Maybe try working as a Research Assistant with a professor. Checkout Post-Bacc/Pre-Doc research fellow program at IITM and IITB
- Try to implement research papers, start with the popular ones, eventually you might identify some gap.