People and Culture

Individual contributors: what they are and how career growth works

Intrigued about what an individual contributor does? You’re not alone. It's a working model that’s increasing a point of interest for both professionals and organisations. 

That’s partly because it breaks tried-and-tested career ladder conventions. Unlike the classic trajectory, an individual contributor track doesn't involve managing other people – though can involve helping develop others through mentorship or coaching. 

7 minutes to read

In this piece, we explore in detail what individual contributor career paths involve, including:

To ensure you get all the firsthand info you need, we’ve included the insight of Group Learning and Development specialist and individual contributor, Gabriella Hersche. Gabriella knows the ins and outs of what individual contributor career paths look like at Zühlke – you can jump to her advice here.  

What is an individual contributor role?

The short answer? Individual contributor roles are based on independent tasks and projects, without managing a team. What might that look like in the software industry?
Picture this: you’re talking to a DevOps specialist with a senior title. They tell you they’ve forged their career path as an individual contributor. 
“What is an individual contributor?” you ask them. Like any junior DevOps engineer, they started out by developing their skills – gaining strong foundations in DevOps best practices, working on smaller scale projects and learning on the job from senior colleagues. 

You ask them to define individual contributor at the mid-level. By this point, they had found they held a particular passion for designing and implementing scalable infrastructure solutions. Instead of achieving promotions by the ‘normal’ route – line managing others – they’d done it by constantly pursuing their love for this speciality, as well as other, adjacent, topics.

Today, departments across the firm look to them as a key subject matter expert. They advise on company strategy for scalable infrastructure best practices, pilot new tools and frameworks to evaluate adoption potential, and contribute to influential industry research. 
Put individual contributor definitions under the microscope and you’ll likely see some minor differences. But this is a pretty helpful yardstick for what an individual contributor role looks like.

What are common individual contributor competencies?

Though there are a lot of attributes that make a great individual contributor, the four main individual contributor skills that employers look for are: skill acquisition, proactivity, collaboration, and influence.

The individual contributor competencies in detail:

Skill acquisition

Your career growth is based on development of new expertise, and your contributions to (and performance in) project work. As such, individual contributors are often adept at deepening their technical skills and gaining new specialised knowledge.

Proactivity

Your ability to work autonomously, actively seek out new development opportunities, and stay up to date with industry trends is also fundamental.

Collaboration

Working collaboratively with your teams, peers, and managers is also extremely important as you’ll often serve as a subject matter expert or consultant within the organisation.

Influence

While you’re not managing others, you might well be leading projects which means your ability to influence decisions via your expertise will be very important.

What are some common examples of individual contributors?

Back-end developer. UX designer. Data analyst. When it comes to individual contributor examples, the beauty is in the breadth.
That’s because you can develop your expertise and skills in a wide range of fields. Here are a few typical options, based on the kind of roles you’d find at Zühlke.

  • Data engineer

    Individual contributor data engineers are responsible for designing, building and maintaining data pipelines that transform raw data into valuable insights.
    These efficient, scalable pipelines can power everything from real-time analytics to machine learning and generative AI. Their collaborative work with wider teams ultimately helps organisations: make data-driven decisions, fuel innovation, and connect with other organisations in data ecosystems.

  • Project (delivery) managers

    Individual contributor project or delivery managers are a driving force that helps cross-functional teams achieve project milestones. They use agile methodologies to adapt to changing project demands, ensuring timely delivery and continuous improvement.
    By fostering ‘team health’ and cultivating high-performing teams overall, project or delivery managers mitigate risks, dependencies, and blockers. At the same time as skillfully managing stakeholder expectations, budgets, and enhancing collaboration across the board.

  • User experience designer

    Individual contributor UX designers are a vital link between user needs and product requirements. UX designers work closely with user researchers and business analysts to write user stories and build out these requirements. They then use this information to create wireframes and user flows to document the user tasks and actions.
    They’re also responsible for facilitating co-design workshops with the delivery team to ideate and prioritise the features that will provide the best experience for users.

  • User interface designers

    Individual contributor UI designers work closely with user researchers and UX designers to create visual style patterns that reduce cognitive load on users. They’re responsible for creating visual interface templates, components, and motion states and ensuring that they align with native device patterns.

What does an individual contributor career path look like?

An individual contributor career path might be based on specific focuses of expertise. But the shape that path takes partly depends on the organisation, and how willing it is to help employees with the appetite to be one. 

Gabriella Hersche, a Group Learning and Development specialist, holds a unique perspective of what individual contributor career paths look like at Zühlke. After several years as a Senior Customer Training Specialist focused on the setup, organisation, and delivery of customer training – she recognized an opportunity to align her career with a focus on more technical expertise while transitioning to the Group Learning & Development team.

“I always considered myself to be a typical individual contributor,” she says. “A big part of that is due to my strong drive for continuous learning. However, my interest focuses not necessarily on one specific topic, as I am very curious to learn new things.” 

When Gabriella had the opportunity to collaborate on the design and implementation of a new enterprise learning management system, she didn’t have to think twice.  

Gabriella Hersche portrait
' As I became truly passionate about the system, I asked to delve even deeper, and my enthusiasm was welcomed as the company also supported me to get additional training. To sum it up: Zühlke really encourages us to explore and nurture our strengths. I had only tangential experience with this new topic, but I seized the chance to develop subject matter expertise. '
Gabriella Hersche
Global Learning Operations Specialist

What makes a great individual contributor?

Individual contributor roles and responsibilities may change depending on the role type. But working out what makes a great individual contributor is not always as clear cut as you might like – a fact often compounded by unhelpful stereotypes. Gabriella explains: 

“I believe it’s often a person’s opposing traits that can make someone a brilliant individual contributor. For example, people might see you as an ‘individualist’ because you value personal independence and self-reliance, but you are also very realistic and work well in a team. Or because of your creative mind, you might resemble the chaotic inventor type, while in fact being extremely well organised!”

Gabriella offers an analogy to explain the relationship between an individual contributor, their goals, and the environment needed to best support them.

' The work of an individual contributor is a bit like a big tree. As you grow, all of your branches stretch out to find and solve the challenges and needs of your customers, stakeholders and colleagues. You can only grow optimally when you’ve got a company that makes an effort to cultivate your roots. That was my experience. Zühlke provided – and continues to provide —the right ‘plant food’! '
Gabriella Hersche
Global Learning Operations Specialist

One thing is for sure. If you’re considering an individual contributor path, it’s worth having a strategy for how you do it. That starts with reflecting on how closely your personal strengths align with that of an individual contributor.  

“Beyond technical expertise, you also need to be self-disciplined with your time, be able to think analytically, and – importantly – have strong communication skills. It’s vital you can listen carefully to others and understand their needs.” 

Connect with existing individual contributors and seek mentors in your desired field. 

Finally, be upfront about your needs and aspirations to be an individual contributor with your current manager or potential employer. The best working cultures should make this easy – because they’ll want to support you.

Moving from an individual contributor to a leader: Is it for everyone?

In some ways, leaning into your field of expertise and using it to underscore your career growth feels more straightforward than following a traditional management path. But that doesn’t mean you can’t switch things up along. So, should you make the move from individual contributor to leader? 

To find out more, check out our article on:
Individual contributor vs manager role: Which path is right for you?

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