It seems like you have a few problems: 1. Doing more than your role calls for and not getting recognition 2. Reporting to somebody who you don't trust 3. You wa

It seems like you have a few problems: 1. Doing more than your role calls for and not getting recognition 2. Reporting to somebody who you don't trust 3. You want to keep coding/architecting. The next promotion requires pointy hair I see 2 solutions: 1. Try to work with the company to come up with a solution. Make sure the people higher in the management chain know you're unhappy. Many companies really don't know what to do with senior/lead devs. Often the only way to advance is to stop coding, which of course is the whole reason you were valuable to the company in the first place. If that's the case where you are, consider talking to some decision makers about it. Frame it as "I like it here and want to stay, but my goals are incompatible. I'm producing more and more value for the business but there's currently no way for me to advance my career without setting aside the skills I've spent so long honing. Help me to find a way to meet my goals here." Try to talk them into creating a position for you that formalizes your role as a technical leader and gets you out of this person's reporting chain. Either they've been paying better attention than you think and they'll work with you to get you to stay, or they're clueless and have no idea what you're doing for the org. Either way, at least you tried to do something and you know where you stand. 2. Quit. 3. Deal with it (not recommended)