This is really not how most companies think about it. Unless you take an extremely broad view of what “management” is. As a term of art, used by people writing

This is really not how most companies think about it. Unless you take an extremely broad view of what “management” is. As a term of art, used by people writing the JDs for “manager” jobs (source: have wrote those JDs), it specifically means having people reporting to you, being responsible for their productivity, growth, and development. The senior IC track does not (have to) involve management. It does involve a lot of communication, collaboration, and coordination, which may look like management if you squint. And there is overlap; in small companies, particularly startups, sometimes tech lead and manager hats are worn by the same person. But they are different roles. And particularly, to the point of the article, they are different career tracks. You might wear both hats for a bit, but most careers will end up specializing on one or other track. See https://lethain.com/ https://lethain.com/ for lots of material on what it means to be a staff-plus IC, as well as engineering manager.