Coaching for CTOs and Senior Engineering Leaders
Supporting CTOs and senior engineering leaders to lead with more confidence, clarity, and impact.
The leaders I work with are talented, ambitious, and care deeply about their teams and organisations. What brings them here — whether a new role, a period of rapid growth, or simply wanting to lead better — is a recognition that the right thinking partner makes a real difference.
1-1 Coaching for CTOs
Get greater clarity about your role, build genuine confidence in yourself as a leader, and develop the skills and self-awareness that you continue to build on long after our work together.
Group Coaching for Engineering Leaders
Connect with a peer group of talented engineering leaders facing similar challenges. Build resilience, broaden your perspective, and leave each session with fresh ideas to bring back to your team.
Workshops for leaders and teams
Interactive workshops on leadership and team effectiveness, grounded in the real challenges engineering leaders face — and customisable to your team’s specific context and needs.
Contact
Not sure where to start? A short call is a good way to find out.
Book a callOr you can email me at joel@monkeysthumb.co.uk.
What people say about working with me
Over eight months with Joel, I went from a CTO buried in day-to-day engineering details to an operator who actually belongs in the room at C-suite level. That shift happened during the most demanding period in my company’s history: a Series B raise and a scale-up from under 40 to over 120 people. Joel didn’t hand me playbooks; he helped me find a way of leading that fits who I am. I’d recommend him to any technical leader stepping into real scale
When I started working with Joel, I was a reactive CTO - pulled into engineering details, surviving the week rather than shaping the company. Eight months later, I am able to operate at C-suite level: contributing in strategic conversations rather than reporting into them, leading through reorgs, and handling the harder conversations with preparation and care rather than dread.
This shift happened during the most intense period in my company’s history so far. We closed a Series B, grew from under 40 people to over 120 with another 80 hires in flight, ran more than 1,000 interviews in a single quarter, and closed as much revenue volume in four months as we had in the prior year. Joel was the steady thinking partner I needed to operate well through all of it.
What sets Joel apart is that he doesn’t impose a model. He helped me adapt my communication style, moving to something that brings people along the journey, without losing the directness that makes me effective. My relationships with my EMs, my partners, and my C-suite team are all measurably better because of the work we did together.
If you’re a technical leader scaling into real complexity, like a Series B, a reorg, your first VP hire, Joel is the coach I’d send you to.
Bartłomiej Szostek, co-founder & CTO at tem-energy Joel has an impressive ability to create a safe space and calmly discuss a range of topics and to provide useful input. His coaching would benefit anyone who is going through a difficult and stressful challenge in engineering leadership.
Klaus Thorup, CTO, ClearScore Joel was the founding CTO and subsequently COO of FutureLearn from launch and laid the foundations for its successful fundraise at a valuation of £100m in 2019. He is not only a clear expert in his technical field but also one of the best managers and leaders I have had the privilege of working with.
The high-performance, supportive culture that we built at FutureLearn was heavily influenced by Joel’s leadership instincts and expertise. I strongly endorse Joel as an outstanding CTO and extremely valuable all-rounder in a start-up/scale-up company.
Simon Nelson, Chief Executive Officer, FutureLearn
