Most companies of 30 or 40 people discover the same problem in the same way. A strong specialist asks what comes after "senior", and the only answer anyone can give is "leading a team". Some take that path, miss the work and leave within a year. Others refuse it and leave anyway.
A dual career ladder fixes this by giving each department two ways up: an individual-contributor track and a management track, with levels that mean the same thing on both. This article covers how to set one up in a company of 20 to 200 people, how to keep the two tracks equal in practice and not just on paper, and how to handle people moving between them.
What a dual career ladder is
A dual career ladder is two career ladders side by side in one department:
- The individual-contributor (IC) track is for people who grow by going deeper in their craft and widening the impact of their work: solving harder problems, setting direction for others, raising the quality bar across teams. They do not manage people.
- The management track is for people who grow by building and leading a team: hiring, coaching, setting priorities, handling performance and making the team more than the sum of its people.
The two tracks share one numbering of levels. A level 4 individual contributor and a level 4 manager carry comparable scope, influence and seniority — and usually a comparable pay range. That shared scale is what turns two lists of job titles into a real alternative.
The idea started in engineering, with titles like "Staff Engineer", but it works in any department where expertise compounds.
Why it matters at 20–200 people
Large companies need a second track because they have hundreds of senior specialists. Small and mid-sized companies need it for a different reason: they cannot afford to lose the few they have.
In a company of 60, the person who knows the billing system inside out, or the salesperson who closes every enterprise deal, is hard to replace. Pushing them into management to give them a promotion has three costs at once. You lose their best work while they learn to manage. You gain a manager who may not want the job. And their team gets a lead who would rather be doing something else.
A second track also makes management a choice rather than the price of progress. When nobody has to manage to grow, the people who choose it are the ones who want to lead — and they tend to be better at it.
How to line up the two tracks
The hard part is not drawing two columns; it is making sure the same level means the same thing on both. Three decisions do most of the work.
Where the management track starts. Most companies start it at the level of a solid senior individual contributor — level 3 on a five-level ladder. A first-time manager needs to understand the work well enough to coach others in it. Starting the management track at level 1 or 2 usually produces leads who are learning both jobs at once. (For how many levels to have in the first place, see how many levels a career ladder needs.)
What makes a level equal across tracks. Define each level by the scope of impact, not by the kind of work. A practical test:
| Level | Scope of impact | Individual contributor (engineering) | Manager (engineering) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | One team's work | Senior Engineer | Engineering Manager |
| 4 | Several teams or a product area | Staff Engineer | Senior Engineering Manager |
| 5 | The whole department | Principal Engineer | Head of Engineering |
A Staff Engineer whose decisions shape the work of three teams is at the same level as a manager who leads those three teams. If you cannot describe the IC role at a level in terms of that scope, the level probably does not exist yet on that track — and that is fine. Many companies of 50 people have no level 5 individual contributor, and should not invent one just to make the table symmetrical.
Pay. If levels are equal, pay ranges should be too. It is tempting to give managers a premium "for the extra responsibility", but the extra responsibility is already in the level. A permanent premium signals that management is the senior path, and people will read it that way.
What separates the two tracks
Both tracks share core competencies such as communication and ownership; they diverge in where the weight lies.
| Competency area | Individual-contributor track | Management track |
|---|---|---|
| Craft | Grows throughout; the main source of impact | Grows more slowly; stays solid enough to judge good work |
| Direction setting | Through technical or professional decisions | Through priorities, goals and staffing |
| Helping others grow | Mentoring, reviews, writing standards | Coaching, feedback, career conversations, hiring |
| Performance and people | Not responsible | Fully responsible |
Some examples outside engineering:
- Sales. The IC track runs from Account Executive to Senior and then Strategic or Principal Account Executive, who owns the largest, most complex deals and shapes how the team sells to that segment. The management track runs from Sales Team Lead to Head of Sales. The account executive template shows how the IC side can be described.
- Customer support. A senior specialist who owns the hardest product area, trains new colleagues and works with the product team on recurring problems is on the IC track. The Support Lead who schedules the team, runs one-to-ones and handles escalations is on the management track. See the customer support template for levels on both.
A warning about "lead" titles: a "Tech Lead" often coordinates work without managing people. Decide which track such a role belongs to and write it down, or it becomes an unofficial third track.
Moving between tracks
People will switch, in both directions, and the ladder should make that normal.
From individual contributor to manager. Treat the first months as a trial. Agree on a review point — three to six months is common — at which the person and their manager decide together whether to continue. Before the move, check that the person actually wants to manage, not just to be promoted. A good question is: "If this paid exactly the same as staying where you are, would you still want it?"
From manager back to individual contributor. Make this a move at the same level, not a demotion. A level 3 manager who returns to the IC track becomes a level 3 individual contributor. If going back means a step down, nobody will try management in the first place, and those who try and dislike it will leave instead of returning.
Is the move a promotion? Moving to the same level on the other track is a lateral move, not a promotion. Moving to a higher level on the other track — a level 3 senior specialist becoming a level 4 manager — is a promotion, and should go through the same promotion process as any other.
In LadderKit, a career ladder can hold an individual-contributor track and a management track side by side in one department, and a promotion can target any published role — the next level on the same track, a role on the other track, or a lateral move to a role in another department.
A worked example: a 120-person company
Consider a company of 120 people: 45 in engineering, 20 in sales, 15 in customer support, and the rest across product, design, marketing and operations.
Engineering gets the full dual ladder: five IC levels from Junior Engineer to Principal Engineer, and a management track starting at level 3 with Engineering Manager. Two people are placed at level 4 on the IC track — both had been informally leading architecture decisions. One of them had been offered an engineering manager role a year earlier, turned it down, and nearly left over it. Starting from the software engineer and engineering manager templates, the department's first version is ready in three weeks.
Sales gets four IC levels and two management levels (Sales Team Lead at level 3, Head of Sales at level 4). Pay ranges for level 3 are identical on both tracks.
Customer support starts with a single track. The Support Lead is the only manager, and nobody yet works at a scope that would justify a level 4 individual contributor. The department agrees to add the second track when a second lead is needed, and writes that decision down.
Switching. Within the first year, one senior engineer moves to the management track on a four-month trial and stays. One support specialist tries leading the weekend shift for a quarter and returns to the IC track at the same level, by agreement and without any change in pay.
Common mistakes
- An IC track that stops early. If the IC track ends at level 3 while management goes to level 5, the message is clear: real seniority means managing. Extend the IC track as far as your company genuinely has scope for it.
- Equal on paper, unequal in pay. People compare pay ranges before they read the level descriptions.
- Managers who are also the best individual contributors. A level 4 manager who still does most of the team's hardest work is doing two jobs. Pick one track for them and staff the other job.
- Moving into management as a reward. Offering a management role as recognition for great individual work is how companies end up with reluctant managers. Recognise great individual work with an IC promotion.
- One-way doors. If returning to the IC track is treated as a demotion, people stop trying management.
Where to go from here
If you are building the ladder from scratch, start with how to build a career ladder: tracks are step two of seven. If you already have a single-track ladder, add the second track one department at a time, starting with the one where the "what comes after senior?" question is loudest. And when the levels are agreed, describe what each role on both tracks requires in a skills matrix, so that the two tracks are measured as carefully as they are drawn.