You can progress to highest IC levels as someone who wants to work with their hands directly on code/issues (saw that myself at 2 different big tech). But it’s

You can progress to highest IC levels as someone who wants to work with their hands directly on code/issues (saw that myself at 2 different big tech). But it’s harder and more one off. Reason for that is simple - in most areas you can achieve more, if you can properly guide dozens of engineers than lock yourself in the basement. Main exceptions are crazy specialized perf gurus.