However, for extremely large organizations, despite my personal desires to see an equivalent to a VP/exec level for an IC, I just don’t see anyone being interested in that.
The rationale I’ll probably hear for why it will never happen is something like “execs are responsible for so many staff’s eventual success or failure, that there is no way an IC can compare to that level of impact”.
If I don my tinfoil hat though, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that these sorts of changes to an IC’s career path are ultimately made possible by execs themselves, and that they would not be able to compete with someone of equal stature who has spent 99% of their time thinking about hard engineering problems. A certain fear of appearing mediocre or protecting your rank perhaps.
I’d also say that my assumptions above are probably meaningless in a startup or company less than 100; I’ve seen plenty of postings looking for a magical “co-founder/CTO/principle engineer” hybrid. Which I take to mean a really good engineer who is also responsible for some part of executive leadership. It’s not an exact comparison /shrug.
There's still a cap, of course; you can't remain an IC and have the level equivalent of a VP or C-level. The theory there is that the higher you climb the IC ladder, the more difficult it is to have increasing levels of impact without leading groups of people larger than just yourself. (And indeed, our higher-level IC positions often involve some amount of non-management leadership outside of heads-down coding all day.)
I'm not 100% sure I agree with the reasoning behind the IC ceiling, but things can be awesome for you outside of management, with plenty of career and salary growth opportunities, if you find a company that understands and values individual contribution. I wouldn't say this is a lot of companies, likely not even a majority, but it's a number that seems to be growing, at least in technical fields.