No.
The coaching scholarship covers the full cost of a coaching programme with us and so the programme will be free to you.
Engineering Leadership Coaching Scholarships
15 coaching scholarships for engineering leaders from groups that are underrepresented in technology
Coaching is a powerful way to develop your skills, and advance in your career. Our clients typically find that coaching brings them greater clarity, confidence and control in their professional lives.
We — Joel Chippindale, Alex Martynov, Amy Rich, Eric Nehrlich, Fiona Siseman, Francis Lacoste and Tobi Tonner — are a group of professional coaches who are committed to offering free coaching programmes each year to engineering leaders who identify as being from a group that is underrepresented in technology and may not be able to afford coaching yet.
The coaching programmes that we offer are designed to help you achieve your goals. They will support you to better understand yourself and your situation, challenge self limiting beliefs that you may be holding, explore the possibilities that you have for change and commit to making changes.
If you want to learn more about what coaching is and how it can be valuable then the following articles may be useful:
- How does a CTO know when they need a coach?
- 10 ways to know that you are getting great value from your coach
- How is coaching different from similar disciplines?
- The power of coaching
Applications for coaching scholarships are currently closed
Applications are now closed.
Thank you to everyone who applied. We will be in touch soon to let you know the outcome of your application.
If you missed out on applying this time, then applications are likely to open again on 28th December 2024 when, we will be offering a new set of coaching scholarships.
About the coaches
Joel Chippindale (me)
Joel is a coach who specialises in supporting start-up and scale-up CTOs to successfully navigate the changes in their roles as their companies evolve.
He has over 20 years experience building, scaling and leading software development teams, mainly in start-ups, including CTO and COO roles at FutureLearn and CTO roles at Econsultancy and Unmade.
Joel is offering 2 coaching scholarships.
Alex Martynov
Alex is a leadership coach who helps leaders experience their work in a profoundly satisfying and fulfilling way. Among the themes that he can be most helpful with are emotional intelligence, navigating difficult conversations, dealing with uncertainty, building more trust with your colleagues, developing authentic leadership style.
Alex is offering 2 coaching scholarships.
Amy Rich
Amy focusses on helping seasoned and emerging Engineering leaders, especially those operating in environments of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), improve outcomes for themselves and their organizations.
Amy is offering 1 coaching scholarship.
Eric Nehrlich
Eric is an executive coach who loves to identify and challenge mindsets and habits that hold people back from their next level of leadership, especially as they reach the executive level. Before becoming a coach, Eric spent ten years as an engineer and product manager across several startups before joining Google, eventually leading business strategy and operations for the Google Search Ads team for six years as Chief of Staff.
Eric is offering 2 coaching scholarships.
Fiona Siseman
Fiona works with established and emerging tech leaders who are looking to feel more comfortable in their role. She helps overthinkers and doubters develop the confidence to get out of their own way so they can find their own authentic leadership style.
Fiona has spent 20 years building software development orgs. A generalist, she has been a project manager, engineering manager, agile coach, operations lead. She is known for her curiosity, pragmatism, empathy and frankness.
Fiona is offering 2 coaching scholarships.
Francis Lacoste
Francis coaches CTOs and VPEs to become leaders who nurture amazing engineering cultures. He helps his clients transition from “building the product” into “building the org that builds the product”.
Before coaching, he spent over twenty-five years in the open-source and cloud developer tools industry. First, as a software engineer, then as an engineering leader at Canonical, Heroku, and Salesforce where he built successful high-performance remote engineering teams. With long history of contemplative practice, he’s also a meditation teacher with Buddhist Geeks since 2020.
Francis is offering 2 coaching scholarships.
Tobi Tonner
Tobi supports leaders to reach their full potential by developing their curiosity, mental fitness and healthy leadership habits.
He has a particular interest in product engineering from discovery to delivery and was able to hone his skills working in startups and scaleups over the last 15 years.
As a member of the International Coaching Federation, Tobi is committed to practicing their gold standard of coaching.
Tobi is offering 4 coaching scholarships.
The impact for you
We share these quotes from some alumni of this coaching scholarship programme to offer you a tangible sense of the experiences and benefits of our coaching.
I took this free coaching program with Joel and it was amazing!
Camila de Andrade Scatolini, CTO, Sanar 
Joel’s coaching sessions were nothing short of exceptional. I felt heard and empowered during these sessions. They were also action driven and I’ve experienced an immense amount of growth as a result of these coaching sessions. I highly recommend coaching with Joel.
Riyanat Shittu, Engineering Team Lead 
[Joel’s] coaching goes beyond professional development; it is a world-class partnership that offers a transformative experience, equipping you to navigate both current and future challenges.
Valerie Dryden, VP of Engineering 
Throughout the journey, Joel encouraged me to reflect and introspect deeply. He would challenge me where I needed to be challenged and he would support me where I needed to be supported - while continuously sharing relevant experiences and insights along the way.
I’ll always look back at this period of my life as a significant turning point in my career and I have Joel to thank for that.
Ben Mmari, Founding Engineer
Frequently asked questions about coaching scholarships
We want to increase the diversity of senior leaders within technology. This is
one way that we support this.
It is very hard to choose between applications.
Once we have checked that applications meet the criteria for the scholarship
then each coach will select from the applications based on their own judgement
about where they can have most impact.
It is very hard to choose between applications.
Once we have checked that applications meet the criteria for the scholarship then each coach will select from the applications based on their own judgement about where they can have most impact.
Each coaching programme included in the scholarship will consist of a series of
coaching sessions designed to support you to work towards your goals.
The duration, frequency and number of sessions will vary by coach.
Each coaching programme included in the scholarship will consist of a series of coaching sessions designed to support you to work towards your goals.
The duration, frequency and number of sessions will vary by coach.
When you apply you can share any preferences that you may have for which coach
you would like to be assigned. This will be taken into account as part of
choosing which coach you might be assigned.
If you are offered a scholarship then you will be assigned a coach who will set
up a coaching chemistry call with you. This call will be a chance for you to
get to know one another and decide whether you want to work with them.
When you apply you can share any preferences that you may have for which coach you would like to be assigned. This will be taken into account as part of choosing which coach you might be assigned.
If you are offered a scholarship then you will be assigned a coach who will set up a coaching chemistry call with you. This call will be a chance for you to get to know one another and decide whether you want to work with them.
No.
The coaching programme is entirely for your benefit. However good your coach
is, it may not work between you. You can stop your coaching programme at any
time.
No.
The coaching programme is entirely for your benefit. However good your coach is, it may not work between you. You can stop your coaching programme at any time.