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An individual contributor is just someone who doesn't directly manage other people.

I think you're supposed to use it to refer to people who are evaluated by their own work output as opposed to measuring the output of a team (even though I think for senior engineers it's totally valid to evaluate whether they're boosting the team and nudging them towards better solutions).

Isn't that just a 'regular employee'? Maybe I'm missing something here (or differences in work culture from US to AUS) but since when isn't everyone evaluated by their own work output?

It roughly means 'not a manager'

an individual Contributor is an employee who doesn't have any direct reports.

A manager-level employee.

the opposite. No one reports to that employee. (my previous message was confusing sorry).

No. An associate-level employee without any direct reports is just an employee. A manager- or director-level employee without any direct reports is an individual contributor. I wanted to clarify the distinction. If that's still confusing (for whomever), s/level/pay grade/g. Source: Former IC and Senior Manager at a Fortune 100-ish corp.