Don’t push every IC up

A tech lead’s argument against promoting every top engineer into management lands on a real fault line in software careers: many companies still treat manager as the default next rung. (staffeng.com) Large engineering organizations already publish another model. Dropbox’s public framework lists individual-contributor levels through Staff, Principal, and Senior Principal, alongside a separate management ladder from Engineering Manager to Senior Engineering Director. (dropbox.github.io) Monzo’s engineering framework, updated February 13, 2025, says progression should be driven by “impact” and scope rather than a checklist of tasks, and says its tools are used to evaluate and pay staff consistently. (monzo.com) (monzo.progressionapp.com) The split exists because the jobs are different. Camille Fournier’s 2017 book on engineering management describes management as its own discipline, while Will Larson’s 2021 book maps a separate “management track” alternative for staff-plus engineers. (oreilly.com) (staffeng.com) Public career ladders also show that the distinction is not just about titles. Dropbox says its framework is used in hiring, performance reviews, calibration, ratings, and promotions, which means the ladder shapes pay, expectations, and promotion decisions. (dropbox.tech) That is where many companies stumble: they create an individual-contributor track on paper, then reserve prestige or compensation for managers in practice. Carta wrote in 2022 that it offers two paths for engineers, management and technical leadership, and said even its senior individual-contributor role can remain a long-term destination with room to grow “skills and pay.” (medium.com) The staff-plus path also does not look like a smaller version of management. Carta said some staff engineers spend half their day coding, while others spend that time on design documents, meetings, hiring systems, or mentoring programs across the company. (medium.com) Dropbox’s 2023 update shows another reason the debate keeps resurfacing: promotion systems often reward visible, high-profile projects over maintenance and operational work. The company said it revised its framework after concerns that reviews were biased against ownership of code, processes, and “keeping-the-lights-on” work. (dropbox.tech) The practical takeaway is narrower than “never move engineers into management.” Companies that want both strong managers and strong technical leaders need separate ladders, separate expectations, and promotion systems that do not make people management the only way to move up. (dropbox.github.io) (monzo.com)