Some companies have parallel career progressions for individual contributors and managers. For example, Amazon has a distinct career progression for software development engineers (SDE): SDE I, SDE II, Senior SDE, Principal SDE, Senior Principal SDE. Sr Principal is a VP level position, but has no direct reports. Itβs an advisory role.
I've noticed that, while these tracks are still technical, you will still find yourself in more and more meetings and writing less code. I think everyone needs to come to terms with whether or not they want a promotion regardless of the track.
