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Coaching for
Senior Managers,
Directors, and Senior ICs
Whether your next step is a bigger org or a bigger scope.
Close Collins Career Consulting is a nationally recognized executive career coaching firm with clients across the United States. Its Leadership Coaching program serves two groups of senior professionals: Senior Managers and Directors moving toward Director, Senior Director, and VP roles, and senior individual contributors — Staff, Senior Staff, Principal, Distinguished, and Architect-level professionals — advancing on the technical track without moving into people management. Both tracks are coached one-on-one by a senior Close Collins coach using the same five-step method, at the same level of engagement. Close Collins has coached hundreds of professionals from Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta, Nvidia, Anthropic, Starbucks, Walmart, Adobe, Roblox, J.P. Morgan Chase, Moody’s Analytics, and Macrobond Financial.
The firm has been recognized as Best Executive Career Coach five consecutive years. Coaching focuses on the specific transition in front of you: defining the target level, closing the blindspots that stall a promotion, building the visible signals decision-makers weigh, and expanding influence across the organization. For people-managers that means scope, executive presence, and leading leaders. For individual contributors it means building influence across teams you don’t manage, getting credited for impact that ships through other teams, and the promotion packet that documents both.
78
Five-star reviews
2,500+
Executives coached
Compensation increases from five-figure to six-figure gains — within the engagement window.
Two tracks, one method
The work is the same caliber. What changes is what we’re building toward.
For Senior Managers and Directors
You’re running a team, or teams of teams, and the next level isn’t coming automatically. Common starting points:
- Passed over for Director or VP despite strong delivery
- Managing managers for the first time and finding it’s a different job
- Scope that hasn’t grown with your tenure
- Strong operator reputation, no strategic reputation
- Executive presence flagged in your review with no specifics attached
What we build: a defined target role, a blindspot map, the visible leadership signals promotion committees actually weigh, and cross-functional influence beyond your own org.
For Staff, Principal, and Senior Individual Contributors
You’re advancing on the technical track by choice, and the ladder above Senior is narrower, slower, and decided differently. Common starting points:
- Influence required across teams you don’t manage, without the authority to direct them
- Impact delivered through other teams, credited to other teams
- Doing Principal-level work without the title or the packet to prove it
- Stuck at Senior or Staff with no clear path to the next level
- Deciding whether to stay IC or move to management — and wanting to choose deliberately rather than by default
What we build: influence upstream of the decisions that affect your work, attribution for impact that ships through other teams, a scope and blast-radius strategy, and a promotion packet that documents all of it.
Outstanding senior-level mock interview training that works.
Erik Rucker
Senior Group Product Manager - Adobe
I always left my sessions thinking I can do this, never defeated.
Charles Eliot
Director of Software Engineering - Institute for Disease Modeling, part of Intellectual Ventures
You’re exactly where you need to be if your goal is to:
- Scale impact through the teams you lead
- Break through to the VP or C-suite level
- Land your next promotion
- Amplify your executive presence and impact
- Banish corporate burnout
- Uplevel your management and leadership development skills
- Expand your influence within your organization
- Deliver winning negotiations
- Build online thought leadership in your area of expertise
Close Collins is headquartered in Seattle and works with clients nationally and internationally. All coaching is delivered one-on-one over video. Clients come from Seattle, the Bay Area, New York, Austin, Chicago, Raleigh-Durham, Washington D.C., and internationally.
How Executive Coaching Works
Close Collins amplifies your impact by empowering you with candid leadership insights, new strategy and breakthrough outcomes.
Define your goals
We want to know your career ambitions. With your coach, you’ll collaborate to define your goals and identify immediate wins.
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Identify your strengths & blind spots
Our strategy leads with where you excel, but we don’t shy away from your weak points either. You’ll work with your coach to identify both early, so you have a clear roadmap to achieve your goals.
Do the right work
Working backwards from your goals, you’ll receive custom field assignments that are embedded in both your work and personal lives. Maximize your time by focusing on steps that will have the impact you desire.
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Claim your influence
At the executive level more than ever, success comes down to influence and executive presence. Whether you’re presenting to the board, setting organizational vision, or building global teams, your coach will work with you to amplify your influence.
Reflect & synthesize
You’ll receive regular, supportive thought partnership to help you master your learnings and get the results you’re after with a seasoned executive coach.
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Leverage Close Collins’s proven framework built specifically for executives and senior-level professionals.
Produces phenomenal results.
Tsitsi Kolawole
Senior Director, Product Design - Roblox
Invaluable Feedback
Patti Chan
Product Advisor / Ex-VP, Product - Imperfect Foods
Through this program you’ll…
Reduce time to impact
You don’t have time to waste. We remove the guesswork and provide your action-oriented project plan custom to your career needs.
Workshop your executive presence
Influence is critical for success at the senior-levels. Close Collins employs a structured framework to deliver candid feedback and amplify your strengths.
Elevate your strategy
Make informed decisions with Close Collins’s customized power mapping and strategic analysis, guiding you with the best path forward.
What is in the Executive Coaching Package?
A proven, tailored approach with a seasoned executive coach to achieve the results you’re after.
- Custom coaching package
- Strategic project plan
- Strengths & blindspot assessment
- Field assessments - relevant exercises that are designed for results
- Mock presentation review & analysis (as needed)
- Curated learning & resources
- Dedicated online space to track all aspects of your career goals
- Live, responsive communication from your coach
Marketing Leaders in Tech, SaaS & Growth Companies
Close Collins works with senior marketing professionals navigating promotion, executive influence, job search and leadership transitions — from Senior Marketing Manager and Director through VP, CMO and senior marketing IC roles.
Our coaching team includes former senior marketing executives with firsthand experience leading brands, teams, growth organizations and complex businesses.
Testimonials
Liza Jane Green
6 months ago
I highly recommend working with Jenna. She is outstanding, and does an exceptional job at balancing genuine encouragement with clear, actionable feedback that actually drives improvement.
For our interview prep session she had reviewed the role, researched the interviewer, and built a highly tailored mock interview. Her insights were sharp, practical, and grounded in experience, helping me focus on the highest impact changes. Most importantly, she helped me show up with clarity and confidence. Thank you, Jenna!
Rochelle Lietke
6 months ago
I hired Close Collins to help update my resume and prepare for looking for new jobs. Jenna did an amazing job spending time with me to go through my skill sets and fine tune my pitch. She also helped me ramp up my interview skills which have been paying off with getting follow up interviews. I’m so happy with their service and have been recommending them to my friends and colleagues.
Cameron Griggs
7 months ago
I’ve had an overall great experience with Close Collins Career Consulting, especially working with Jenna. She is phenomenal! Insightful, supportive, and incredibly easy to work with.
The process was very flexible, which made a huge difference as I was actively job searching and interviewing. I initially came in looking for help with mock interviews, but I walked away with so much more… mainly a clearer understanding of the modern job search process and how to effectively brand myself for the roles I’m targeting.
I’m very grateful for the support and would highly recommend Close Collins to anyone navigating their career or job search!
Lauren Riefflin
9 months ago
I had a great experience working with Nancy. Our sessions were focused, very personalized, and extremely productive. Everything was modern, actionable, and tailored to where I was in my career. I left feeling confident, current, and much clearer on how to position myself. The accountability and structure built into the process was a huge plus for me as well. Highly recommend!
Terri Hendricks
1 year ago
This was my first coaching experience, and working with Nancy since the beginning of the year has been very valuable. She has helped me better understand where I am in my career and how to navigate the early stages with more clarity. She has also helped me build confidence at work and given me the tools to apply more strategic frameworks that open up new ways of thinking. Each session gives me practical advice and clear takeaways I can put into action right away.
Nancy brings empathy, energy, and fun, and she makes it easy to have conversations I hadn’t had or even thought about before.
Maddie Heye
1 year ago
Working with Nancy Poznoff has been truly transformative. At a time when I was feeling stuck and misaligned in my career, she helped me take a powerful step back and reorient everything around my values, purpose, and long-term vision.
Through thoughtful conversation and coaching, listening, and just the right amount of challenge, Nancy guided me through a period of change. I gained clarity, confidence, and a renewed sense of direction.
If you're an executive or professional navigating transition, questioning your next step, or wanting to lead with more authenticity, I can’t recommend Nancy highly enough.
Carlee Price
1 year ago
I have worked with Close Collins for many years, both at junctures in my career and also where I could use support in an existing role, to level up my game or move through a tricky spot. I've found better clarity through my work with them, and some incredibly practical and enduring tools and resources. If you want to invest in yourself & your career, if you want to build understanding of the system operating around you and "make sense" of your professional environment, there's no better place to turn. Highly recommend this talented team.
Elizabeth Hawkins
1 year ago
I’ve been working with Close Collins on and off for 12+ years now and after a session the other day I realized I should update my review to reflect the multiple career transitions they’ve supported me with since I was a law firm founder seeking leadership development support for myself and my team. I reached out because after taking somewhat of a career break to raise my two young children abroad, I’m trying to figure out my next steps and needed some wisdom and guidance. Even after a multi-year hiatus, within minutes we had gotten to the heart of the matter and I came away with renewed confidence and optimism about the next phase of my career, multiple concrete action steps and a framework for making the decisions that loom on the horizon. Having a team this dedicated in my corner makes me feel like anything is possible. Thank you!
Flavio D
1 year ago
I've worked with Close Collins for executive coaching for almost three years and it has been a great professional investment. My sessions with Alisa Cohen helped me understand how to tell my professional story, how to present to peers and leaders. They know their stuff at Close Collins.
The coaching was practical and focused on real leadership challenges I was facing. Alisa helped me think through situations in ways I hadn't considered before, and it definitely improved both my presentation skills and how I work with my teams. Worth considering for anyone looking to level up their leadership and executive skills.
David Kellis
1 year ago
I chose CloseCollins based on a personal recommendation. They stand out for delivering actionable coaching that elevates my performance. And I value the accountability. The two coaches I worked with brought exceptional expertise and a clear results focus. I'd recommend them to anyone.
Andy T
1 year ago
Close Collins has been an exceptional partner in sharpening my leadership approach. The coaching is thoughtful and immediately applicable to high-stakes work. Both coaches I’ve worked with combine expertise with a collaborative style that makes the process both effective and enjoyable. They helped me land my last two jobs, significantly elevating my scope. Recommended
Libby Postovoit
2 years ago
Daria is a fantastic career coach -- smart, empathetic, and strategic. She was an invaluable thought partner during my most recent career transition, helping me understand what mattered most to me in a company and role, and the areas where I was competitive as a candidate. She also provided excellent guidance on how to optimize stakeholder relationships and impact. Working with Daria was a great investment for me during my transition into a more visible and senior role. I can't thank Daria and the team at Close Collins enough.
John Fulton
2 years ago
In the Spring of 2024, I reached out to Alisa Cohen feeling stuck, unprepared, and lacking confidence after a long, challenging tenure at a toxic company. From our very first meeting, I felt a renewed sense of hope and excitement about the future of my career. Alisa’s comprehensive and thoughtfully designed program pushed me to truly reflect on my work history and skills, and helped me define what I genuinely wanted to pursue next.
Her guidance was transformative. We overhauled my resume, revamped my LinkedIn profile, refined my portfolio, and prepared strategically for interviews. Yet, beyond these tangible changes, Alisa provided a steady stream of encouragement, focusing on my strengths and reigniting my self-belief.
The results were almost immediate. My applications began getting more attention, and I found myself going through multiple interview loops for executive-level positions. After 5.5 months of hard work and dedication, I received two incredible offers on the same day. Alisa then helped me carefully evaluate the options and provided invaluable advice on negotiations, ultimately helping me secure a role that will allow me to leave behind a toxic environment.
Alisa’s work may feel magical, but the results are real—and so worth the effort. She makes you dig deep, and she empowers you to find the answers within yourself, all while building you up every step of the way.
I often refer to Alisa as my career therapist. Her warmth, empathy, and practical approach to career growth not only rebuilt my confidence but truly changed my life.
Colleen McArdle
2 years ago
I reached out to Close Collins Consulting when I was at a crossroads in my career and needed help in focusing on future goals and how to tactically get there. Alisa Cohen is such a great coach and mentor! She listened and provided the feedback that helped guide me to new decisions and reshape my approach about my career and what I really wanted and needed out of it. I cannot recommend her and Close Collins enough!
Danielle Allsop
2 years ago
I happily recommend Alisa to anyone seeking executive coaching. She's a fantastic coach, supporter, and partner during the journey -- highly organized, insightful, top notch listener, supreme writer/editor, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Working with Alisa was essential for building my confidence, launching my candidacy, and landing my next role. Five Stars and then some!
Scott Merlino
2 years ago
I worked with Alisa Cohen and she was fantastic. I highly recommend her if you're looking for career consulting/coaching advice and support.
Erica Paoli
3 years ago
Alisa is an amazing coach – smart, kind, and encouraging. I learned so much from her during our time together, and she helped me build confidence in myself; especially with interviewing and asking for what I’m worth. She was always available to answer questions, offer support and feedback along my journey and beyond. The best part is – I landed a fantastic new role a mere 4 months after working with her, and I could not have done it without her!
Amy Persell
3 years ago
Alisa is a terrific coach. Her thoughtful and organized approach was appreciated. I really liked how I was kept accountable. In addition, I found her coaching to be a great mix of informal counseling and specific job search tasks. Unlike lots of couches that you will find on Google-Close Collins is all about finding the right fit for YOU, not about filling roles at specific companies where you may or not be a good fit.
Andrew Cardillo
3 years ago
I am writing to leave a 5-star review of Close Collins Career Consulting, LLC based on my experience with their Senior Level Career Coaching package. I wholeheartedly endorse the services and attention I received throughout the entirety of my time.
Alisa Cohen gave me practical, results-oriented advice right from the start of our sessions. This advice has materialized as increased views of my LinkedIn profile, a suite of new tools to aid in my career progression, and strategies to help me network, apply, and negotiate through every phase of the process.
I have gained genuine confidence from defining and owning the value proposition I offer to an organization. If you are looking to enhance your own career progression, I assure you that for me the results speak for themselves.
Thank you Close Collins Career Consulting!
Alina Perez-Campos
4 years ago
Alisa Cohen acts as a beacon, guiding you through your career journey. With her exceptional ability to identify and highlight your key strengths, you'll stand out amongst the competition and secure the job of your dreams. Her guidance is both insightful and compassionate, consistently encouraging you to stay true to yourself. Investing in her coaching services is a wise decision that will yield long-lasting benefits for years to come.
Vivian Ramos
4 years ago
I worked with Laura back in 2018 when I was looking for a new role and in general a new outlook in my career. My experience was life changing to say the least. She was empathetic and warm, and she came up with an action plan that I still reference to this day.
Fast forward to 2022, and I started working with Alisa for interview coaching. I seriously couldn’t have gotten my new role without her. Her coaching and feedback was crucial to my lengthy interview process, and I owe her for helping me land my dream job.
Laura and Alisa are incredible and I’m so grateful to have them as lifelong allies.
Lindsay Burke
5 years ago
The team at Close/Collins career consulting was fabulous. They helped me through every step of my career move. From building my self-confidence and building my resume to making my social profile interesting to making me interesting for interviews, Alisa was the mastermind. I felt completely comfortable and supported through the process. I always knew Alisa was in my corner. She helped me negotiate when I was given an offer.
I plan to stay in contact and hope to utilize their services throughout my career.
Have questions?
What is executive career coaching?
Executive career coaching is a structured, one-on-one engagement where a senior-level coach works with you to clarify your goals, strengthen your leadership presence, and build a concrete strategy for your next career milestone. At Close Collins, coaching is not therapy or generic advice. It is a goal-driven project with defined milestones, field assignments, and measurable outcomes. Each engagement follows our proprietary five-phase framework: intake and blindspot assessment, strategic project plan, field assignments, executive presence development, and synthesis.
Is Close Collins the right fit for me?
Close Collins works with Senior Managers, Directors, VPs, senior individual contributors, and C-suite leaders with at least five to seven years of career experience. You are likely a fit if you have been passed over for a promotion, are preparing for a senior-level job search, have recently stepped into a new leadership role, or feel stuck despite strong performance. Close Collins coaches individual contributors at Staff, Principal, and equivalent levels alongside people managers. Managing a team is not a requirement. Close Collins is likely not the right fit for professionals in the first few years of their career.
How much does executive career coaching cost?
Close Collins offers a complimentary 20-minute intake consultation to understand your goals and recommend the right program. Pricing is discussed during that call based on the scope and duration of your engagement. We offer custom coaching packages tailored to each client’s specific career objectives.
How long does executive career coaching take?
Most clients engage with Close Collins for three to six months, depending on the scope of their project. Common project areas include promotion campaigns, job transitions, executive presence development, and team leadership coaching. Some clients return at multiple career inflection points over many years.
How do I get promoted from Senior Manager to Director?
Promotion at this level is decided on demonstrated scope, executive presence, and organizational influence, not tenure. Close Collins’s Executive Career Coaching works one-on-one to define the target role, close the specific blindspots holding the promotion back, and build the visible leadership signals decision-makers look for.
How do I build influence without formal authority?
Influence without authority comes from being in decisions early rather than reacting to them late. The most common failure at Staff and Principal level is technical credibility that arrives after a direction is already set — being asked to review instead of to decide. Close Collins coaching maps who actually holds influence over the decisions that affect your work, and builds a plan to enter those conversations upstream.
Other teams get credit for work I did. How do I fix that?
This is structural, not personal. Senior IC work is often enabling work — the platform, the architecture, the design that unblocks someone else’s launch. The shipping team gets the announcement; you get a line in a doc nobody reads. The fix is attribution at the time of the work, not at review time: named artifacts, written acknowledgment from the receiving team, and a record built as the work happens. Close Collins coaching covers exactly how to do this without appearing to campaign for yourself.
How do I prove impact when my work ships through other teams?
Document the counterfactual: what would not have happened, or would have happened slower or worse, without your contribution. Promotion committees can see shipped features; they cannot see the architecture decision that made three of them possible. Close Collins coaching works on identifying that evidence while it’s still visible, and framing it in language a committee that has never worked with you will recognize.
Is it self-promotion to make sure my work is credited?
No — and the discomfort with it is one of the most common blockers at senior IC level. There is a real difference between claiming credit after the fact, which reads as territorial, and establishing attribution as the work happens, which reads as clarity. Close Collins coaching works on the specific language and timing that make this land as professional rather than political.
Does Close Collins coach individual contributors, or only managers?
Close Collins coaches senior individual contributors alongside people-managers. That includes Staff, Senior Staff, Principal, Distinguished, and Architect-level professionals on the technical track. Managing a team is not a requirement. IC engagements focus on scope, cross-organizational influence, and promotion packets rather than headcount and org design.
How do I get promoted from Senior Engineer to Staff Engineer?
Promotion to Staff is decided on scope and blast radius, not on individual output. The step change is impact that extends beyond your immediate team — work that other teams depend on, technical direction others follow, and problems you identify before they are assigned. Close Collins coaching focuses on building that evidence and documenting it in a form promotion committees recognize.
What is a promotion packet, and how do I build one?
A promotion packet is the written case for your advancement, typically assembled by you and your manager and reviewed by a committee that has never worked with you directly. It documents scope, cross-team impact, technical influence, and peer testimony. Close Collins coaching covers what evidence to gather, how to frame ambiguous contributions, and how to close gaps before submission rather than after a rejection.
Should I stay an individual contributor or move into management?
Both tracks reach senior levels, and neither is a demotion. The choice usually comes down to whether your leverage comes from depth or from multiplying others, and whether you want your impact tied to systems or to people. Close Collins coaching works through the decision deliberately, including what each path looks like at your specific company, rather than defaulting into management because the offer appeared.
Is executive coaching worth it if I'm not an executive?
Yes, if you are at a senior level and advancement has become the constraint. Close Collins coaches Senior Managers, Directors, and senior individual contributors — the levels where promotion shifts from performance to scope, visibility, and influence, and where the criteria stop being written down. It is not a fit for professionals in the first few years of their career.
Do you coach senior ICs in tech specifically?
Yes. Close Collins has coached senior professionals at Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, Anthropic, Adobe, and Roblox, across engineering, product, design, and data. Coaches are former senior leaders from Amazon, Google, Zillow, Starbucks, Moody’s Analytics, Motorola, SC Johnson, and Expedia, and have sat on the hiring and promotion side of the table at that level.
What's the difference between coaching for a Director job search and a VP job search?
Both use the same Close Collins method, but the emphasis differs: Director-level searches weight scope-of-impact and cross-functional influence, while VP and C-suite searches weight enterprise strategy and board-facing presence. Coaching is tailored to the altitude you’re targeting.
Still have questions? Send us a note
Get all your questions answered in your complimentary 15-minute consultation.
Reviewed by Laura Close, Founder — Close Collins Career Consulting.
Last updated:
12 Oct 2026