Thanks for reading! That's a good question. I'm a big fan of Camille Fournier's book, The Manager's Path, and I agree with how she views the tech lead role. Being a tech lead is a temporary assignment and not necessarily a step up or down the career ladder.

Being a tech lead is often a stepping stone to management if that's the path you'd like to take. But even if you stay on an individual contributor's path, being a tech lead is also a good step before becoming a Staff Engineer or Principal Engineer, since in those roles you also have to be good at influencing without direct authority.