Lots of companies don't have those higher programming roles, though. A year ago I left a department that even refused to hire programmers even in the highest tw

Lots of companies don't have those higher programming roles, though. A year ago I left a department that even refused to hire programmers even in the highest two role levels the company did have available for them, but even that highest level was lower than the highest level for scrum masters and POs. Of course they complained about retention of senior developers. I told them why. They're still not changing. The only way to get promoted to the highest engineer levels is by taking on non-technical responsibilities. Beyond that, you've got to become manager, PO or scrum master.