Are the numbers of higher level engineers artificially limited at Companies?

Google has the Distinguished Engineer and Google Fellow, Microsoft and Facebook have similar if I understand correctly. I'm guessing other tech companies do as well.

My question is: If I'm an engineer that would be considered qualified as a "Distinguished Engineer" (or similar), would I be promoted to that position, or would I have to wait until someone with that position left/retired or the company created a new opening for that position?