Executive career coaching for Seattle leaders

What is unusual about the Seattle executive market?

Two very large technology employers set the compensation bands, the leveling vocabulary and the interview conventions that most other employers in the region then measure themselves against.

That gives Seattle an unusually shared language for seniority, which cuts both ways. It makes your level legible quickly, and it makes any mismatch between your self description and your actual scope visible just as quickly.

Which industries does the practice cover here?

Cloud and enterprise software, retail and commerce, aerospace, logistics, health and life sciences, plus the large alumni network that moves between all of them.

The recurring client is a director or VP with deep tenure at one large employer who has never had to run an external search and has no idea how much of their credibility is company-specific.

• Cloud, infrastructure and enterprise software leadership
• Retail, commerce and supply chain executives
• Aerospace and advanced manufacturing
• Health, life sciences and global health organizations
• Leaders moving from a large employer to a smaller company

How do you translate long tenure at one company?

By separating the work from the internal vocabulary. Long tenure inside a large employer produces enormous real capability described entirely in language that means nothing outside the building, including internal program names, internal level codes and internal process shorthand.

The positioning work rewrites that into scope and outcomes any external reader can size, which is usually the single highest-value hour of the engagement for a long-tenured leader.

What happens to compensation expectations when you leave big tech?

They usually need recalibrating, and it is better to do that early than at the offer. Total compensation at the largest employers is weighted heavily toward equity, and a smaller company competing for you will often construct a very different package.

The coaching covers how to compare those honestly, and how to negotiate the structure rather than only the number.

Do you work with clients on the Eastside?

Yes, extensively, including Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Mercer Island and Medina. Coaching is fully virtual with Pacific-time morning and early-evening availability.

A large share of these engagements are confidential, run while the client is still in seat, which is the situation the confidential search playbook was written for.

Is relocation part of the conversation?

Frequently. Seattle leaders are often weighing a local move against a role in the Bay Area, New York or fully remote, and each option carries a different compensation structure and a different risk profile.

That comparison belongs in the campaign design, not at the end. Deciding what you actually want before the offers arrive is what keeps people from taking the first acceptable thing.

Linda Van Valkenburgh holds five career-coaching certifications (MS, CCMC, CJSS, CSMCS, CELDC), is an invited Executive Career Coach Expert for the CEO Trust community of chief executives, and works with senior leaders across the United States. Every engagement starts the same way: a free assessment, then a complimentary thirty-minute consultation. See packages, the C-suite coaching page, or an honest answer on whether a coach is worth it.