Engineering Director, Tribe Lead, Chapter Lead

Engineering Director Mentor. For the director who opens PRs out of habit.

Your calendar is 6 hours of meetings a day and Sunday-evening org design. The roadmap ships 55%. Two of your EMs are struggling and you have been avoiding both conversations. The CTO wants a scale-up plan by end of quarter.

You do not need another framework. You need one person to pressure-test the specific director-level call on your plate this week, and help you sequence the next three.

Book the intro →

Situations you are likely in, and how we tackle them

You got promoted from EM. Now you lead managers, not engineers.

I opened a PR review this morning out of habit. Nobody asked me to. My EMs did not need me to. And it cost me the 45 minutes I was supposed to use on the org-design proposal my VPE is expecting by end of week. The instincts that got me this job are the ones I have to unlearn, and I do not have a manual for that.

You have probably tried

  • Reading The Manager's Path (again)
  • Blocking mornings for "leader work" that got eaten
  • Copying your VPE's calendar structure (yours is different)
  • Telling yourself "one more week of dive-in" (six weeks running)

How we tackle it

We work the specific leadership calls of the week. Which EM to trust with a hard conversation, which to shadow, which is a retention risk. We build your delegation muscle by naming the 3 things you must stop doing this quarter.

Target: By week 12: 3 named "stop doing" behaviors, a written delegation ladder, and no more Sunday-night org-design panic.

Related reads

You translate strategy into weekly delivery. Every dropped ball is yours.

CTO gives me direction on Monday. My EMs need it broken into sprint work by Wednesday. Half the org tension lives in that translation, and it all lands on my desk. Nobody notices when I translate well. Everybody notices when a team ships the wrong thing because I paraphrased poorly.

You have probably tried

  • Writing longer strategy docs (EMs skimmed them)
  • Standing up an "alignment forum" that became a meeting
  • Copying your CTO's language word-for-word (out of context)
  • Assuming the EMs would ask if they were confused (they did not)

How we tackle it

We build your OKR-to-sprint pipeline. Company objective, tribe outcome, team KPI, sprint commitment. Traceable in one page. We rehearse the message you send up (to the CTO) and down (to your EMs) so the same story lands both ways.

Target: By week 8: one-page cascade chart, weekly cadence to update it, and both directions telling the same story.

Related reads

Roadmap slips every quarter. Everyone has a good reason.

Q3 shipped 55%. Q2 shipped 60%. My CTO is losing patience and I am losing sleep. Every EM has a defensible explanation and each one is true. Add them up and I still cannot answer "when will we hit 80%" in a way that survives the exec-team room.

You have probably tried

  • Adding a "quality" week between sprints (moved the problem)
  • Cutting scope every sprint (PM lost trust)
  • Introducing DORA metrics (dashboard nobody looks at)
  • Blaming ad-hoc requests in the retro (true, unresolved)

How we tackle it

We diagnose whether you have a planning-input problem (garbage in) or a delivery problem (garbage out). Different fixes. Then we install the 3-metric weekly review that catches slip 4 weeks earlier than sprint review.

Target: By week 12: 80%+ sprint completion, and a defensible "when we will hit 80%" answer for your CTO.

Related reads

Two of your EMs are struggling. You cannot fire both.

One was my best senior engineer, promoted 8 months ago. Now the team is coasting because he cannot make the hard calls. The other inherited a broken team from the last director. HR wants a paper trail on the first one. I have been avoiding both conversations for two months and I can feel the team quietly noticing.

You have probably tried

  • Softer feedback in 1:1s (both nodded, nothing changed)
  • Assigning them mentorship "growth opportunities"
  • Waiting for perf cycle to force the conversation
  • Asking your VPE for advice (he told you to decide)

How we tackle it

We sequence the two conversations by risk (team impact, retention, timing). We draft the specific feedback for each EM. We rehearse the PIP if PIP is right. We design the coaching cadence for the one who is fixable.

Target: By week 8: two specific conversations delivered, one written plan per EM, and a clear escalation criterion.

Related reads

You are in 6 hours of meetings a day and still behind.

My calendar is other people managing their uncertainty by adding me to a meeting. Strategy time is Sunday evening because that is the only quiet window. I know this is not sustainable and I know it is why the roadmap is slipping and I know I am the only one who can fix it and I do not know where to start.

You have probably tried

  • Declining meetings without an owner (they came back)
  • Batching 1:1s on one day (that day is now hell)
  • Blocking "no-meeting" mornings (someone always breaks in)
  • Convincing yourself "next week will be quieter"

How we tackle it

Calendar audit against the 4 buckets a director must own: strategy, direct reports, cross-functional, delivery firefighting. We cut 30% of the meetings by naming which uncertainty they are managing and giving it back to the owner.

Target: By week 6: 30%+ meeting reduction, strategy time back in your calendar, and Sunday evenings back to being Sundays.

Related reads

The org needs to scale from 40 to 80 engineers in 18 months.

CEO announced the plan at the all-hands. Board is expecting me to execute. I have Team Topologies bookmarked, Conway's Law printed, and no clear answer to which of them matters most for our specific stage. Every scale-up story I read is somebody else's org that already made the choices.

You have probably tried

  • Reading Team Topologies (again)
  • Copying Spotify's tribe model (does not fit)
  • Asking a peer at a bigger scale-up (they said "it depends")
  • Drafting an org chart, deleting it, drafting it again

How we tackle it

We run the Mews scale-up playbook (10 to 80+ R&D through Series C) against your specific starting point. Which pattern imports cleanly, which one breaks, and the exact 90-day sequence that avoids the 3 most common mistakes.

Target: By month 3: signed-off org design, sequenced hiring plan, and one specific communication for the team.

Related reads

The questions I hear most from Engineering Director, Tribe Lead, Chapter Lead

These are the exact asks from mentees in the last 12 months. Bring one to the intro call and we start there.

How mentoring with me works

  1. Step 1

    Intro session (free, 30 min)

    We understand your situation, background, and the two KPIs we would target. If we are not a fit, we stop here. If we are, we agree the cadence and the first homework.

  2. Step 2

    Session 1 and beyond

    We pick 2 specific KPIs to move over 3-6 months. Small written homework after every session. Everything we discuss stays between us.

  3. Step 3

    Reviews and cadence

    Regular progress reviews with you (optionally with your manager). Weekly or bi-weekly. Onsite in Prague or remote, both work.

Frequently asked

What if the real block is my VPE or CTO, not my team?+

Then we work on that. Half of the director-level asks I get are actually influence-up problems. We design the specific play for your boss.

What if I only have 6 weeks before a specific event (board meeting, reorg, launch)?+

Then we compress. Sessions cadence weekly. Every session ends with an artifact you can send or an action you can take. Some of the highest-impact engagements are 4-6 sessions.

Will you tell me straight if my org design is wrong?+

Yes. If your org design has a hole, I will name it, and I will help you fix it. Direct advice when it matters. Coaching-style questions come later.

What if my problem is one specific person, not a general "director skills" thing?+

Bring the specific person. Bring the specific 1:1. Bring the feedback conversation you are avoiding. That is exactly the texture of a session.

Are you available in US timezones?+

Yes. Prague-based, so European AM to early US morning works best. I run 1-2 US-late slots per week for West Coast timezones.

Explore other roles

Why me

Marian Kamenistak

Marian Kamenistak. Ex-VPE at Mews (Series C, R&D scaled 10 to 80+ eng teams). Ex-Manta (acquired by IBM). Ex-Databricks Bay Area. Founder of Engineering Leaders Community (2,000+ members).

3,000+ mentoring sessions since 2019. Prague-based, serving EU + North America.

Ready to start?

Free 30-min intro. No pricing conversation on the first call. We figure out if we can move your specific problem forward. That is it.

Book the intro →Or emailmarian@marian.coach

From the blog

All posts →