Right, he needs to sell his interest in the new job one way or another. I was saying they might not believe that he just wants to code, because they might have heard that line before, when it wasn't true. If he can make the case for it, sure. If he still runs into skepticism, that's another option to try. When I applied for an individual contributor job while managing a team of analysts, I got the same questions. Why did I want to take a step down? I told them I didn't enjoy managing, it was too stressful, and I liked the analyst part of my job better. I got the job.
But it seems unlikely that someone that prominent in the tech community would have a problem finding a gig, whether FT, PT, or consulting.