Let's review. You say: * great relationship with the team, some juniors would look up to me * my supervisors would give me good ratings on my perf

Let's review. You say: * great relationship with the team, some juniors would look up to me * my supervisors would give me good ratings on my performance reviews, on both technical skills and team responsibilities * they have commented that I'm already working at the senior level Excellent! You're exhibiting leadership qualities. To continue: * he thinks I'm quiet * not committed to the team (i.e. me not going to the office lunch Based on these criticisms, it seems like your new boss sees you as a potential team leader, and with some work, you could get a promotion. The career question you must answer for yourself is: Do I want to work on smaller software projects that I control directly or do I want to work on larger software projects where I do some of the work but delegate a large portion to other developers? That is the choice you're making if you decide to work toward a leadership role. And just like programming requires excellent technical skills, leadership requires excellent people skills.