It means someone who is not a people-manager. That is, someone who _contributes_ to the team/company by actually doing things, rather than by supporting/direct

It means someone who is not a people-manager. That is, someone who _contributes_ to the team/company by actually doing things, rather than by supporting/directing the work of others. Trying to think of other words for this... programmer, software developer, software engineer. But those words are all role-specific. IC has the advantage of conveying that the person is not managing, but is generic with regards to role. Non-manager works, but that emphasizes the negative. Hmm.....