My 10-year path at a 4->400-person startup has been Lead Software Engineer -> Director of Infrastructure -> Principal Software Engineer. I’m making more total compensation today than ever, with no reports.
I lead complicated initiatives and advise a lot of feature work. This means a lot of meetings, document-based collaboration, and process-oriented thinking. But I still program, and I don’t feel accountable for others’ work output or behavior or morale the way I did when I was a manager.
