There’s a familiar story across engineering teams everywhere:
You’re brilliant at solving problems, delivering clean solutions, and diving deep into the kind of technical challenges that make other people’s heads hurt. You’re the one who can untangle a messy drawing, debug a critical issue on site, or optimize something everyone else claimed was “already as good as it gets”.

And then one day…you’re rewarded by being asked to stop doing all that and instead level up into management.

“You’re so good at this thing that we’re now going to pay you more to not do it. Instead, please go chase after people who aren’t as good at doing the thing, while they struggle through it worse than you would.”

For many engineers, this “promotion” isn’t a victory, it’s a loss of identity. Not everyone wants to manage people. Not everyone wants the meetings, the politics, the performance evaluations, and the emotional labour. Some of us simply want to build, design, fix, calculate, improve, and…engineer.

Yet in many companies, the only way to “advance” is to climb into management. Whether you want to or not.

Why this happens

Most organizations still reward technical excellence with a management title because they don’t have a proper dual career ladder. If you perform strongly, you’re assumed to be leadership material, even if leadership has nothing to do with your strengths or interests.

The result? Engineers who would thrive by going deeper are pushed sideways into a role requiring entirely different muscles and skillsets.

If you want to stay on the technical path

You can avoid the “forced promotion” trap, but it requires active effort:

1. Signal early and clearly that your goal is technical mastery, not people management.

Managers usually default to promoting the top performer. If you don’t speak up, they assume you want the next level.

2. Ask about (or help create) a dual-track career ladder.

Titles like Senior Specialist, Principal Engineer, Technical Lead, Expert Reviewer allow you to grow without managing people. Many companies will consider this once they see the risk of losing top technical talent.

3. Keep building a reputation as someone with unique, indispensable technical depth.

The deeper your expertise, the more leverage you have to define your own growth path.

4. Continue learning and documenting your value.

A portfolio of audits, optimizations, site solutions, simulations, or other technical achievements makes your case stronger.

If management becomes inevitable (or actually interesting)

Sometimes you have to make the transition, because the company requires it, the project demands it, or you’re curious whether you can grow into it.

Here are ways to make the jump smoother:

1. Practise the soft skills needed for management.

Management success relies heavily on skills that traditional engineering roles rarely develop. Strengthening these early makes the transition smoother:

• Communication: explaining clearly, listening actively, resolving misunderstandings.
• Empathy and patience: understanding how others think and why they struggle.
• Delegation: trusting others to do work you could do faster, but shouldn’t.
• Feedback and conflict handling: giving constructive criticism and navigating tension without escalating it.
• Stakeholder management: dealing with clients, contractors, suppliers, and leadership calmly and professionally.

These are muscles you can train before you’re ever handed a team.

2. Start small: mentor juniors or lead a small work package.

Facilitate meetings, present solutions, mentor juniors, or take ownership of a small workstream. It lets you practise without instantly carrying the weight of a whole team.

3. Learn the business side – budgets, scheduling, contracts.

These become your new “technical skills,” even if they feel less gratifying.

4. Keep at least some technical involvement.

Set boundaries with your manager:
“I want to lead this team, but I also want to stay involved in critical technical decisions.”
Hybrid roles exist, but you need to ask for them.

5. Build a network of other reluctant managers.

They’re the only ones who’ll truly understand the reality of your new situation.

The bottom line

Not every promotion is a reward.
Not every engineer wants (or should be forced) to become a manager.
Some people create extraordinary value by going deeper, not higher.

If you’re an engineer who loves the craft, protect that path early. And if circumstances push you into management, prepare intentionally so the transition doesn’t feel like abandoning the work you care about the most.

The industry needs both – those who build, and those who lead. Just make sure you get to choose which one you want to be.