A tech lead codes less, but they directly contribute to producing the engineering artifact.
They are an "actual contributor with direct responsibility."
However, all meetings that the tech lead has with people OUTSIDE the team, is communication overhead to be minimized. So a tech lead combines code review, external communication, and direct work on the engineering artifact.
Communication overhead is the problem. Architects, people managers, are all overhead roles. They don't "actually contribute" to the product.
The more strictly define it, it's not actually about the "fulltime role." Maybe the senior engineer doesn't change their job title, but their schedule becomes less about coding, more about communicating.
It's about minimizing the amount of external communication that needs to take place per code deployment.
However, what you've said is exactly right.
A tech lead codes less, but they directly contribute to producing the engineering artifact.
They are an "actual contributor with direct responsibility."
However, all meetings that the tech lead has with people OUTSIDE the team, is communication overhead to be minimized. So a tech lead combines code review, external communication, and direct work on the engineering artifact.
Communication overhead is the problem. Architects, people managers, are all overhead roles. They don't "actually contribute" to the product.
The more strictly define it, it's not actually about the "fulltime role." Maybe the senior engineer doesn't change their job title, but their schedule becomes less about coding, more about communicating.
It's about minimizing the amount of external communication that needs to take place per code deployment.