[JJMcJ]

In the military the E9/O1 issue is at least understood. Not so much in corporate life.

The parity between the two ladders is something of a myth. At most companies, you can see that clearly if you count heads.

A director might oversee 150 to 250 people. There will likely be five second level managers reporting to the director, and maybe twenty first level managers reporting to those second level managers. So 30 manager level people.

And there will be maybe four or five Staff and one Principal engineer in the same organization. Sometimes even fewer.

So the parity really isn't there.

[samhw]

Parity is not identity (nor equivalent to it, lol). The two jobs are importantly equal in their difficulty and (more directly) their value, and not - among the many other differences - the number of people they manage. This thinking is why valuable individual contributors move to companies where progression isn't defined in terms of the number of reports you have (respectfully).

[JJMcJ]

Late reply.

My point is not number of reports, but number of people.

A directorate might have 25 managers, and maybe 200 developers. Of those developers 4 or 5 might be staff/principal, and it might be as small as 1 or 2, or even zero.

So far fewer people move up the technical ladder than up the management ladder.