That's been my role as a senior staff scientist. And at first glance, you'd wonder, well who in their right mind would want that? But it actually has its merits.

With authority comes a chain of authority. The manager is just projecting the authority of the manager above them, and so forth. That can translate into being a manager without being a leader or an authority. Also, if you rise to the expectation of being a leader, you might have a chance to actually get good at it, something that many good administrators never experience.

I've also been a manager. It was dull, and I knew that I would never be competitive at it, so I went back to the technical track.