Manager vs Technical Role

In my opinion, you will need to do stuffs which you are very good at. I mean, if you are passionate about tools and technology then stick to the BI Architect role, which is going to give you satisfaction too. But you may have to report to a manager who is actually junior to you in terms of yrs of experience.

I think the BI model or for that matter the whole IT world has to be more mature in terms of the operating model and in its Technical roles. IT is young profession as compared to Manufacturing or Banking profession. Actually it inheriting what the managers in the other profession used to do. I think right now people are just reaping the benefits of this young profession without giving a thought to mature the whole operating model in this field.

See, what I believe is, if tech-passionate people like us start feeling that we are not going with the conventional thinking of being a Manager and then progress, we are not only doing injustice to ourselves but also to the organisation we work for. We need to create a career progression path being in the technical area and excelling in that. We need to set a trend for the generations to come in this field.
I may sound too philosophical but I guess this is the reality. :-)

Datawarehouse Career Progression Path

In My opinion, actually, you can think of going ahead with your datawarehouse career in 3 Directions

1 - Technical BI Solution Architect Role --> Requires you to be totally focuced on the Technical Side. Doesnt matter about the business domain (though sticking to a specific Business Domain will be an added advangte.)

2 - Techno functional Business Analyst Role --> Here you will be more inclined towards a Business Domain, a specific functional area. It will be a mixture of technical and functional role.

3 - Corporate Performance Manager Role --> It is a total functional area, where in your role will require to look at the corporate from a 50000-feet level and analysis how can you measaure the performance and improve on a continual basis. It requires a great level of expertise in terms of # of years in technical and Business Area.

Also, it depends upon your interest.
What kind of thinking you have ... A pure Technical or Techno Functional or just functional. I have witnessed the thinking changing as the time progresses.