ever been poached?

Yeah, I have a former coworker who is trying to poach me but I keep playing it off because I know he is within his one year non-solicitation agreement and I don’t want his fuckup to cost me whatever job I have there.

If you’re in the clear from something like from your former coworker and there’s little/no chance that they will tattle to your current employer then you should at least consider it. I have never gotten a major raise at any job that I’ve stayed it; my biggest salary and benefit gains came from switching jobs, and now is the best time to switch jobs.

What could it hurt to sit down (virtually or IRL) with a coffee and talk though it, maybe put in an application?

Relatedly, if he’s telling you the salary is +$40k per year then that means you’re worth at least that much, and it’s very likely you that you’re worth more on the open market. If you’re entertaining this offer it means you’re looking for a change, so it might not hurt to put in a few applications or feelers to your network to see if you can find something even better.

Is the role your former coworker offering full remote?

That makes a lot of sense.

I agree that some level of research is necessary here - if you interview (as opposed to your former co-worker hiring you without an interview) then it would be helpful to ask questions about your areas of concern, and you probably also want to check former employee ratings for red flags on Glassdoor if they’re big enough for that sort of thing, but if all of that checks out then it sounds like this might be the full remote foot in the door you were looking for.