Individual contributor (technical path as opposed to a managerial path)

Individual Contributor. Basically means no direct reports.

The fact that this term exists implies bloat and a focus on process not productivity. You may as well call them "leaf nodes".

There are programmers and senior programmers, data designers and senior etc. There are also team leads and program managers. There's basically two tracks, you either create stuff or you manage the creation of it.

They have different titles now, and there's a lot of Agile fluff (how is a scrum master not just a secretarial service and the function of a team leader not to keep their meetings focused?)

Thank you! That makes sense, I will try to remember it :)