1:1 Coaching · Solutions Architects · Sales Engineers · Customer Deployed Engineers

The best-paid engineers in tech don't write code all day.

Solutions Architects, Sales Engineers, and Customer Deployed Engineers earn $250–450K/yr, and the path keeps going, to Principal and Senior Principal. Almost nobody teaches engineers how to land the role or climb it. I do. Private, practical, 1:1 coaching from a practitioner with 15+ years across enterprise pre-sales, cloud architecture, security, and go-to-market.

$250–450K
Senior → Principal SA / SE / CDE comp
1:1
Private sessions, no cohorts
48 hrs
Written feedback after every call
Who this is for

Two kinds of engineers walk in the door.

If you can explain a system and hold a room, pre-sales is the highest-leverage career move you're not making. If you're already in the seat, craft is what separates quota from misery.

The engineer breaking in

You're a developer, SRE, or architect who's realized the person demoing the product out-earns the person building it and still goes home at 5. You're targeting your first Solutions Architect, Sales Engineer, or Customer Deployed Engineer role, and you need positioning, a story, and someone to run you through the interview loop before a real panel does.

The SA/SE climbing the ladder

You're already in the seat and eyeing the next level: senior, principal, senior principal. That jump is a different job: wider scope, an executive audience, and a promotion case your leadership can't ignore. We build the craft and the case together.

The sessions

Pick the call that matches the moment you're in.

Every session is private, recorded if you want it, and followed by written feedback within 48 hours. No curriculum fluff. We work on your actual interview, your actual demo, your actual offer.

Flagship · Most booked

Mock SA/SE Interview

The full loop under real conditions, tuned to SA, SE, or Customer Deployed Engineer panels: discovery role-play, a mock demo round with interruptions and pushback, and behavioral questions the way hiring managers actually ask them. You leave with a scored rubric and a punch list of exactly what to fix.

$22575 min + written rubric
Craft

Demo Teardown

You present your demo or technical pitch exactly as you'd give it. I stop you where a buyer would tune out. Then we rebuild: tighten the narrative, drill say-it-show-it-say-it, script the objection points, and run it again until it lands.

$17560 min
Strategy

Career Strategy: Break In or Level Up

Two versions of the same session. Breaking in: reposition your resume and LinkedIn for SE screens and build your 90-day plan to the first interview. Climbing: map the gap to principal or senior principal, then start the promotion case with the scope, artifacts, and story your leadership needs to see.

$15060 min + written plan
Urgent

Offer & Comp Negotiation

You have an offer (or one's coming) and days to respond. We build your counter, script the conversation, and pressure-test it live. This session routinely pays for itself a hundred times over.

$25060 min, same-week booking

The Full Loop: four sessions

Strategy → mock interview → demo teardown → negotiation, scheduled around your actual job hunt. Priority booking and async review of materials between calls.

$800 save $65
How it works

Booked to briefed in under a week.

Book

Pick a session and a time. Payment is handled at booking. No invoices, no back-and-forth.

Intake

A short form so the call starts warm: your background, target roles, and what you want out of the hour.

Work

Live over video. Role-play, teardown, or strategy, practical the entire time. Recordings available on request.

Debrief

Written feedback and next steps within 48 hours, so the session keeps paying off after we hang up.

Your coach

Fifteen years on the other side of the table.

I've spent my career in enterprise technology, across pre-sales, cloud architecture, information security, and go-to-market strategy. I've carried the bag, run the demos, and sat on hiring panels for the exact roles you're chasing.

I know what the interviewer is scoring you on because I've held the scorecard. And I know what separates a senior SE from a principal: the scope you take on, the rooms you can hold, and a promotion case that writes itself. I've watched both get built (and stall) from inside the building.

This is coaching from a practitioner, not a content creator. No course funnel, no hype. An hour of honest, specific work on your career, and a written plan you can run the next morning.

  • 15+ yrs enterprise tech & pre-sales
  • Professional-level cloud & security certifications
  • Hiring-panel experience for SA / SE / CDE roles
  • Cloud, infosec, AI & GTM strategy background
  • Vendor-agnostic: craft over product pitch
Questions

Asked and answered.

I've never done sales. Can I really move into one of these roles?

Yes, it's the most common path. Solutions Architects, Sales Engineers, and Customer Deployed Engineers are engineers first; companies hire the technical credibility and teach the sales motion. What they screen for is communication, structure, and presence under pressure. That's exactly what we train.

Which vendors and products do you cover?

None specifically, and that's deliberate. Discovery, demo craft, whiteboarding, and interview loops are the same skills at every company. Vendor-agnostic coaching means everything we work on transfers wherever you land.

How is this different from a course or YouTube?

Content tells you what good looks like. It can't watch you demo, interrupt you like a skeptical CTO, or tell you the specific sentence that lost the room. The entire value here is reps with feedback, the one thing you can't get from a video.

I'm already an SA/SE. Can you help me get promoted to principal?

Yes, that's half the practice. Principal and senior principal promotions are won on expanded scope, executive visibility, and a documented case, not on doing your current job harder. We identify the gap, build the artifacts, and rehearse the conversations with your leadership.

What if I have an interview (or an offer) this week?

Book the Mock SE Interview or the Negotiation session and mention the date in the intake form. Urgent bookings get priority slots, usually within a couple of days.

Do you offer refunds?

If a session isn't useful, say so within 48 hours and I'll refund it. That's the whole policy.

Next step

One hour of practice beats a month of reading.

Book a session, fill out the intake, and show up ready to work. The feedback is honest and the hour is yours.

Book your session