That’s not a role that I’d normally associate with “Chief” anything (which, by definition, means direct reports). More like Principal Engineer, or Architect.

In smaller companies, this is probably fairly normal, but you can’t maintain this, as the company grows.

I had a similar path, in my career. I originally started as a regular engineer, in a two-person team, and eventually ended up managing a small team of up to ten engineers.

Towards the end, I couldn’t write any code (for the company), at all. I still needed to code, but did so, for volunteer/open-source stuff. I think it made me a better technical leader (I had an employment contract without a clause that interfered with outside coding).

I remember wanting to take an iOS training course, but the company wouldn’t support it, so I took vacation, and went on my own dime. I never regretted it, but it was discouraging.