I would choose a manager role. There were several engineers at my company who would never want to be in management and prefer moving up the ladder as a more senior engineer. This was due to that fact that managers needed to stay longer each day and do more paperwork. I would actually prefer to just stay longer longer and do the paperwork because I thought the benefit of actually having a say in how the place was run on a bigger level out-weighted the bad. I was very frustrated as an engineer and not being able to give feedback or really speak up about hiring practices and raises/benefits. I feel that as a manger you are put in a role that you can actually give feedback and be heard more than an engineer on these practices. Another benefit would be that you yourself would also get paid more as a manager than as an engineer.