Is there a structured meritocracy outside of academia?
What is a top job?

The "top" of the profession isn't always clear outside of academia. In addition, your premise is arguable; while tenured professors are the highest ranked producers, you will often find that deans and other leadership roles have more authority within the organization and higher pay.

Promotional potential

This somewhat mirrors industry. Most firms have several levels of seniority or expertise in their engineering ranks, and many projects or departments have a chief engineer. Ultimately, however, there will be executives with authority over the engineers who are typically both non-technical and highly paid. On top of that, in my industry, it's about 50/50 between project managers with technical backgrounds vs MBAs.

Career paths

Often, there will be hints or outright questions from your managers about your career goals. You seem like you'd prefer the technical path (vs the managerial path) when opportunities arise for development or promotion.

Engineers can typically find employment in a variety of industries, but you would expect to start in a better position if you work for a company where your research is somewhat relevant.

Your industry will influence which certifications, skills, and experience are most valuable; there are no universal metrics comparable to the traditional academic metrics such as publication/citation count, H-index, or impact factor.