While I agree in theory with #1 & #2, there's a very real element of danger there. Many places will only provide a reference for start date, end date and title/position.
If you self-grant and put "Lead Architect" on your resume and your reference check comes back with "No, that wasn't his title. His title the whole time was Senior SWE.", how's that going to look?
If you want to choose your own title, and you've been doing good work for your current company, propose a new title/role for yourself.
To the OP: if you want to find ways to have a bigger influence, but you don't want any stink of management to get on your hands, you may have a long road ahead. While you don't necessarily need to formally lead (and review, set comp, etc) as a career manager, you're probably going to have to do things that look a lot like management of one form or another: technical, project, career/people, or a mix. It's hard to have a significantly larger impact without doing something beyond individual contributor work.
If you self-grant and put "Lead Architect" on your resume and your reference check comes back with "No, that wasn't his title. His title the whole time was Senior SWE.", how's that going to look?
If you want to choose your own title, and you've been doing good work for your current company, propose a new title/role for yourself.
To the OP: if you want to find ways to have a bigger influence, but you don't want any stink of management to get on your hands, you may have a long road ahead. While you don't necessarily need to formally lead (and review, set comp, etc) as a career manager, you're probably going to have to do things that look a lot like management of one form or another: technical, project, career/people, or a mix. It's hard to have a significantly larger impact without doing something beyond individual contributor work.