At my employer, we have several job families that encompass "software developer"... software engineer, cloud engineer, architect, and technical fellow.
With the two engineering roles, there are levels... software engineer I, II, III, Lead, Principal. Architect starts with more seniority... architect (roughly equivalent to to Lead), principal architect. And technical fellow is "director level" - basically a terminal spot for ICs who are really good at building software but have no desire to manage people - they typically report to a VP or director - they do have lots of meetings, but they're also setting the technical direction of the company for the long haul.
At my employer, we have several job families that encompass "software developer"... software engineer, cloud engineer, architect, and technical fellow.
With the two engineering roles, there are levels... software engineer I, II, III, Lead, Principal. Architect starts with more seniority... architect (roughly equivalent to to Lead), principal architect. And technical fellow is "director level" - basically a terminal spot for ICs who are really good at building software but have no desire to manage people - they typically report to a VP or director - they do have lots of meetings, but they're also setting the technical direction of the company for the long haul.