A military contractor I worked for had three different ladders employees could climb: One was the usual engineer/developer-to-manager route. Another was becom

A military contractor I worked for had three different ladders employees could climb: One was the usual engineer/developer-to-manager route. Another was becoming a consultant and later a primary engineer who remained an engineer, but instead of working on one project, consulted across the company (not outside it) and was rewarded with a salary similar to top managers. The third was to do a startup within the company, form or become part of a team, write grant proposals, get money, do the R&D, then start a product line if it worked out. Going into management was not what some engineers/developers wanted and the other two routes were extremely beneficial to the company. Unfortunately the company got bought out by Lockheed Martin and the management route became the only allowed path. I left not long after feeling betrayed and they lost someone they had been educating for many years in a highly specialized knowledge domain.