This sounds like the ladder used in the pharmaceutical business which is fine except for the "value" attached to having a PhD and acting like a "scientist". If

This sounds like the ladder used in the pharmaceutical business which is fine except for the "value" attached to having a PhD and acting like a "scientist". If you don't want to manage, or do project leadership or do the give-seminar/publish/give talks bit, you top out just where PhD's walk in the door. It's a base requirement to do all those things as a starting-up PhD and then the management/fellow/whatever questions start hitting them after 4-8 years. So you have to deal with people in a positive way that just aren't going to make it to the upper rungs of the ladder. Some, maybe those who read the Peter Principle, won't give you a hard time, but I fear most will resent knowing that they've hit 30 and are basically maxed out. They're SUPPOSED to accept the challenge and move upwards, and some do, but that'll leave a bunch of dissatisfied people I fear. And these are the set of people at most risk of underemployment and job-loss from outsourcing.