I help CTOs and VPEs navigate growth, build stronger organizations, and become the leaders their companies need.
Let's TalkEvery engagement is tailored, but the core challenges engineering leaders face tend to fall into familiar patterns.
The technical side of the CTO role came naturally. The people side is different: giving hard feedback, holding someone accountable, making calls that affect careers. No one hands you a manual, and most first-time CTOs learn this slowly and expensively.
I help you apply your instincts to decisions that set precedents: identifying who has leadership potential and how to develop it, setting the technical and process foundations that define what great looks like, and learning to measure your own success through what your team produces, not what you do yourself.
The flat structure works. Until it doesn't. You'll know when: communication breaks down, priorities blur, and you're in everyone's calendar. The question is how to add structure without losing the people who built the team with you.
I help you navigate the split: when to introduce reporting lines, how to separate engineering management from technical leadership, and how to distinguish platform work from product work. And the harder skill that comes with it: making the calls that cut through the noise, restore the bar where it has quietly slipped, and refocus the org on what actually matters.
Seasoned VPEs arrive at this role one of two ways, each with its own trap. Promoted from within, exec team pressure can pull you toward protecting your people rather than meeting the business. Coming in from outside, the lack of depth into real problems makes it hard to rally the team around what needs to change.
I help you build the operating model that scales without you in the room: org structures and OKRs that align your engineering leaders around business goals rather than just reporting upward, and the judgment to know when a team's problem needs coaching, structural change, or a harder conversation.
Most VPEs spend more time defending engineering's capacity than shaping the priorities that create the pressure. The real gap isn't execution, it's influence: whether you're part of company-level decisions, or just handed the outcome.
I help you understand the business well enough to offer options in how goals get achieved, not just execute against a plan. That means mutual accountability with your exec peers, and engaging Product, Sales, Customer Support, and Marketing as a driver of company outcomes rather than a downstream dependency. The result is a seat at the executive table earned through contribution, not granted by title.
The business is accelerating to seize a real opportunity, and you need an engine room that matches that pace. You want quality and delivery expectations to land in engineering as something the team owns and drives, not something imposed from above.
I work with your engineering leader to surface what's slowing the org down and build the discipline to communicate it clearly: into the team as a shared challenge, and to the executive table as managed expectations rather than late surprises.
Interviewing well and performing well in the job are different skills. The right hire can level the entire company up; the wrong one costs you a year and leaves the org in a harder place than before. You can't afford to get this wrong.
I bring deep expertise in assessing engineering leadership candidates: where they're stretching down into familiar territory and can execute with confidence, and where they're stretching up and will need peer support to succeed. I'll map where the fit is genuine and where the gaps are, so you go in clear-eyed. I won't choose your hire for you, but I'll help you succeed with whoever you wisely choose.
I've been in Engineering leadership roles for over two decades. The most intense one was Snyk, where I joined as the first hire and scaled Engineering to 150 people over five years. The hard-earned lessons along the way shaped my philosophy on leadership. I now describe myself as a VP of People who happened to build and run an Engineering org.
Leaving Snyk, I realized my motivation is levelling up leaders in Engineering. What looks like work to most feels like play to me, and I wanted to do more of it than any single role would allow. For the past five years, I've mentored over 100 clients across start-ups in the US, Europe and Israel, sharing my lessons, honing my perspective, and building a much wider view of what Engineering leaders are really dealing with.
What I bring to each engagement is pattern recognition earned across dozens of companies, and the willingness to build real familiarity with yours. The advice isn't generic. It's grounded in your specific context and informed by what I've seen work and fail in situations like it. Every company is different, but the leadership challenges are remarkably transferable.
First hire at Snyk, scaled Engineering from 1 to 150 over 5 years.
1:1 mentoring sessions, in person or remote, typically every other week. Hourly, flexible, and tailored to your pace. Engagements last between 3 months and 2 years.
CTOs, VPs of Engineering, Heads of Engineering in Seed stage companies, all the way to Engineering orgs of 100+ people.
From CEOs, CTOs, and the engineering leaders I work with directly.
"Any CEO who wants their engineering leadership to grow as fast as their company should work with Anton."
"Anton didn't try to impose a textbook management framework on a structure that didn't fit one. He understood our organization, worked within its realities, and helped our Head of Engineering become the kind of leader AI21 needed as a VP."
"Any VP of Engineering or R&D leader dealing with complexity that doesn't have a clean answer — fast-moving business, an org that needs to keep evolving, personal growth all at once — will find real value working with Anton."
"What I valued about working with Anton was his ability to operate in ambiguity. We were balancing innovation with enterprise delivery, integrating diverse leaders, and building new functions inside an established R&D culture. Anton was effective across all of it."
"That balance — getting the most out of the current situation while preparing honestly for what comes next — is rare. Most consultants either push too hard for change or avoid the hard conversations entirely. Anton did neither."
"Anton didn't just help us find a good candidate — he saw exactly where that candidate would need support, and then provided it. The hiring and the mentoring aren't separate services; they're one continuous investment in getting the leadership right."
"First-time CTOs building in complex, enterprise-driven domains — especially where the pressure to become a services company is constant — will find Anton's perspective invaluable."
"What I didn't expect when I started working with Anton was that I'd come to enjoy the leadership side of the CTO role as much as the technical side. That shift is probably the most lasting thing he gave me."
"CTOs managing multiple teams with different dynamics, who need to grow as leaders without losing focus on what matters most to the business, will find Anton invaluable."
"Anton focuses on people. He helps me see the full picture — what someone is capable of, what's holding them back, and what I can realistically do about it — and then helps me take action that's bolder than I'd have managed alone, and fully mine to own."
"In any given session we might move from org design to individual coaching to operational process — and he was equally effective across all of it."
"I personally found his guidance valuable in navigating both people-management decisions and broader organizational trade-offs during a period of significant growth."
No long contracts, no rigid frameworks. Just honest, focused work.
We meet for an initial conversation to understand your situation and see if there's a fit. No commitment, no pitch — just a real conversation.
We begin with regular 1:1 sessions, typically every other week. Each session is focused on your most pressing challenges — strategic, organizational, or personal.
Engagements run as long as they're valuable. Some last a few months, many extend well past a year. You set the pace, and we adapt as your needs evolve.
If you believe you can benefit from a conversation, the first coffee is on me.
Get in Touch