Are there senior positions where you get to focus purely on programming?

Question

Senior Engineers usually have many duties like hiring, mentoring, discussing the product and communicating with clients. Once that is done, you might get to do some programming.Are there companies and positions where you get to focus almost fully on programming and mentoring? I assume I'd need to specialize in low-level stuff, where programming expertise is more highly valued and where the product roadmap is less important?I got into programming because I like programming. Not a fan of all the other stuff.

jleyank · Accepted Answer

I would think if your "other knowledge", what you know aside from programming, is important there's "fellow" kinds of positions. Somebody has to grok the technical underpinnings in a niche market - how to do finite-element analysis, fluid dynamics, chemical modeling, stereotactic image processing, ... None of these are what you read about on HN, really, but they exist and the companies in these segments make their bucks. Small, flat companies don't have hierarchies to promote. Small private companies don't have a stock market to satisfy, merely customers.