Twelve sessions over six months with Elena Voss — former VP Engineering at three places you have heard of, mentor since 2018 to ninety-four senior engineers and managers. No group, no syllabus. Your work, slowly.
Twelve sessions, structured loosely as four frames. The frames are a starting place; every engagement deviates by month two, on purpose.
Frame IMonth 01
What you actually want from this work
Ten questions, asked slowly. By the end of month one we will have written down the three things you are trying to build a career around — and the four you should stop apologising for.
2 sessions · 90m each
Frame IIMonth 02–03
The room you walk into on Tuesday
Bring the meeting that went sideways. We rebuild it on the page — who was in the room, what they needed, where the air left. By session four you are walking in differently.
4 sessions · prep & debrief
Frame IIIMonth 04–05
Writing the thing you keep not writing
The promotion document, the team narrative, the 18-month plan. Mentees ship the artefact during these weeks; Elena reads draft three closely.
4 sessions · drafts reviewed
Frame IVMonth 06
What you carry into the next six months
A written letter to yourself for month nine. A short list of bridges to keep open. Two mentee referrals, if you want them, to people Elena trusts.
Began the engagement two months after a missed promotion. Closed it as VP Engineering at Mercury. Soraya cites Frame III as the work that built the document she eventually walked into the executive offsite with.
02
Kohei Tanaka — Mentee 09 — Staff Engineer, Stripe
Came in to figure out a managerial path. Left clearer that the work he wanted was deeper IC. The transition took six months; the engagement was a quiet companion through it.
03
Inés Lourenço — Mentee 18 — Head of Platform, Plover
Worked on a single artefact across four months — the platform charter she had been not writing for two years. Elena read the eleventh draft. The twelfth shipped.
The engagement vs going alone
You can sit with these questions alone. Most senior engineers avoid them.
Capability
This engagement
Going it alone
12 sessions, 90 minutes each, fortnightly
Included
—
Voice memo replies between sessions
Included
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Document review with written notes
Included
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One emergency call when something cracks
Included
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Promotion or transition within 12 months
78%of mentees
23%of solo workers
From three mentees
Elena does not give advice. She asks one question and waits while you find the answer for yourself. After six months I had answers I had been avoiding for three years.
Soraya Mehta
Mentee 14 — VP Eng, Mercury
94
Mentees since 2018
47
Long essays published
78%
Promote within a year
12
Sessions per engagement
Spring intake — May 26, 2026
3 mentees · 1 seat remaining
Three ways to work together
Engagements for the spring intake. No tier hides the work.