1. AI Leadership Coaching
  • I help senior AI professionals win Head of AI, VP of AI, Director of AI, and Staff+ roles at frontier labs and AI-first companies.
  • $500K-$1M+ TC. 100+ placements at Anthropic, Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Databricks, Salesforce etc.
  • ​#1 Rated Career Coach for AI (by Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) with glowing client testimonials​
  • Schedule a free discovery call or a Career strategy call
2. Why Senior AI roles are the highest-impact moves of the next 2 years?​
​​​The bottleneck at frontier labs is no longer compute.It is senior AI talent:
people who can set research direction, architect ML systems at scale, and lead lean teams from concept to production.

​McKinsey's 2026 AI Workforce Report shows ​34% of senior managers are planning a move to senior IC roles within the next 5 years. VP of AI TC at frontier labs sits at $500K-$1M+ (base), and Head of AI at top labs frequently clears $1M.

Two things are true at once.
  • The market is the strongest it has ever been for senior AI talent.
  • And the bar for senior AI roles has never been higher. Generic interview prep does not work at this level.

This page is for senior AI professionals who want to make this career move now.
3. Two Career Tracks
Track 1: Senior IC targeting a Leadership role
  • You are a Staff or Principal engineer, a Research Scientist, or a tech lead.
  • You have shipped systems used by millions.
  • You want the next move to be Head of AI, VP of AI, or Director of AI - the role where you set direction and own outcomes.

The challenge is rarely technical. It is narrative.
  • You need to demonstrate executive presence, strong judgment, and ability to translate technical depth into outcomes.
  • Hiring committees at frontier labs evaluate you on dimensions you have rarely been measured on before.

Track 2: Senior leader returning to a senior IC role
  • You are an EM, Director, or VP who wants to go back to the work.
  • The frontier moves too fast to stay 3 layers from the code.
  • Staff and Principal roles at frontier labs now pay $500K-$1M+, and the value of being close to research has never been higher.

The challenge here is the opposite.
  • You need to convince hiring panels you are still technical enough to lead from the front.
  • Your interview loop will test ML system design, recent research depth, and the ability to ship code in the loop itself.
4. How does my 1-1 Coaching program look like?
Every tier covers the same three phases. The depth and number of sessions changes with the tier you pick.

Phase 1 - Positioning
  • I audit your current positioning: LinkedIn, resume, public artifacts, references.
  • I rebuild your leadership narrative around the specific roles you are targeting.
  • We identify the 3-5 stories you will use across every interview - the ones that demonstrate scope, judgment, and ownership.
  • For Track 1 candidates, this is the most important phase. Your technical depth is a given. The narrative is what closes the gap.

Phase 2 - Preparation
  • This is where the bulk of the sessions go. We run mock loops on the rounds that actually decide senior offers: ML system design at scale, research direction-setting, organizational design, hiring philosophy, exec presence rounds.
  • For frontier labs specifically, I prep you on the cultural rounds. Anthropic, OpenAI, and DeepMind have distinct interview philosophies and value systems.
  • Hiring committees can tell within 10 minutes whether you understand the lab you are interviewing at.

Phase 3 - Performance
  • We run a final dress rehearsal before your loops.
  • After offers land, we run the negotiation.
  • At this TC range, the delta between a strong and a weak negotiation is typically $100K-$200K in year one and can be 2-3x that across a 4-year package.
5. Why work with me?
I have spent 18+ years in AI across the USA, UK, India, and France. 

Systematic, Proven Frameworks
  • Every recommendation backed by data from 100+ coaching clients
  • Proprietary positioning strategies optimized for RE recruiter searches
  • Portfolio project specifications that consistently generate interviews
  • Interview preparation techniques with high success rate and 5* reviews​

Neuroscience-Backed Methodologies
  • Spaced repetition schedules for interview preparation (maximizes long-term retention)
  • Memory consolidation techniques for technical concepts (3× faster learning)
  • Stress inoculation training for high-pressure scenarios (reduces interview anxiety)
  • Cognitive load management for complex system design discussions

Academic Foundation:
  • PhD in Neuroscience from University College London (UCL)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Oxford
  • 40+ peer-reviewed publications with 3,300+ citations
  • Published in top AI conferences including INTERSPEECH, COLING, AAAI

AI Industry Leadership:
  • Research Scientist at Amazon Alexa AI (Speech & NLP)
  • Led Conversational AI Applied Research at Swiggy
  • Head of AI at Docsumo (25+ ML engineers; Document AI)
  • 17+ years of AI/ML experience across USA, UK, India, France

Ability to Coach for 4 AI roles (read why and how):
Coaching Track Record:
→ Start your AI leadership journey:​
6. Coaching Fit
  • My coaching programs are not for everyone, and that's by design.
  • I work with experienced professionals who are ready to do the work, not those looking for shortcuts or hand-holding.
  • Think of our relationship as a PhD advisor and candidate:
    • I provide direction, feedback, and accountability. You bring the effort, consistency, and execution.

You're a good fit if you:
  • 10+ years in tech, at least 5 in AI/ML/Data. Targeting roles at $500K+ TC.
  • Think big. You're targeting roles at top AI companies and startups - and you're not interested in settling.
  • Dive deep. You enjoy mastering complex topics. Surface-level understanding isn't enough for you.
  • Execute consistently. You show up every day, put in the reps, and trust the process even when progress feels slow.
  • Take ownership. You don't wait to be told what to do. You come to sessions with questions, updates, and work to review.
  • Stay resilient. Rejections don't stop you. Difficult feedback doesn't break you. You adjust, adapt, and keep moving.
  • Act with urgency. You have a bias toward action. When you learn something, you implement it immediately, not "someday."
  • Value honesty over comfort. You want direct feedback, even when it stings. You'd rather hear the hard truth now.

You're probably not a good fit if you:
  • Want someone to do the work for you
  • Are "exploring options" without clear intent
  • Need extensive hand-holding or daily check-ins
  • Expect guarantees or shortcuts
  • Aren't ready to invest seriously in your career

I keep my client roster small and exclusive so I can go deep with each person.
If this resonates, I'd enjoy working with you.
7. Testimonials
My coaching services are substantiated by a strong track record of tangible successes as illustrated below. I have coached over 100 candidates, guiding them to successfully secure coveted AI roles in a highly competitive markets in the US, UK, Europe and India. 

My clients have consistently achieved placements at some of the world's leading technology companies and research institutions including Anthropic, Prime Intellect, Liquid AI, Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Databricks.  

-> ​See all my testimonials
8. Investment
1. AI Leadership Career Strategy Session ($699)
One focused hour to pressure-test your senior-AI positioning and the round that decides your offer.

What You Get:
✓ 60-minute 1:1 strategy call with Dr. Teki
✓ Positioning audit across LinkedIn, resume, public profile
✓ Leadership narrative framing for your target role (Head of AI / VP / Director / Staff+ / Principal)
✓ Targeted prep for one upcoming round - exec, ML system design at scale, or research strategy
✓ Frontier-lab read: how OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepMind actually evaluate senior candidates
✓ Session recording - meeting notes

Payment:
Single payment of $699

Best For:
Senior professionals who already know their target and want a sharp second opinion on positioning or a specific upcoming loop. A  single exec-round shift can move an offer $100K+.
2. AI Leadership Interview Sprint ($2999)
3 focused sessions for an active senior-AI interview loop.

What You Get:
✓ 3 × 1-hour 1:1 sessions across critical leadership rounds
   – Leadership positioning + your 3–5 core stories (scope, judgment, outcome ownership)
   – Technical leadership round: ML system design at scale, research direction-setting, or technical retrospective
   – Exec-round + offer-negotiation strategy
✓ Written feedback and an action plan after each session
✓ Frontier-lab cultural-round prep (Anthropic, OpenAI, or DeepMind)
✓ Executive LinkedIn + resume repositioning 
✓ 2 weeks of unlimited async support

Payment:
Single payment of $2999

Best For:
Candidates already in a process with offers expected within ~30 days who need fast, high-stakes, senior-level prep
3. AI Leadership Interview Intensive ($5999)
The full senior-loop preparation: positioning, technical leadership, and exec rounds.

What You Get
✓ 6 × 60-minute sessions over 6 weeks of coaching + mocks
  ✓ Leadership narrative and positioning rebuild
  ✓ ML system design at scale + research strategy rounds
  ✓ Organizational design, hiring philosophy, exec-presence 
✓ Frontier-lab cultural-round prep (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind)
✓ Executive LinkedIn + resume + public-artifact transformation
✓ A dedicated offer-negotiation session 
✓ 6 weeks of unlimited async support

Payment:
Single payment of $5999 OR 2 instalments of $3299

Best For:
Candidates 4–8 weeks out from active interviews, or preparing for a tier-1 frontier-lab cycle. The most common tier for the EM-to-Staff/Principal and Director-to-Head-of-AI transitions.
4. AI Leadership Accelerator ($9999)
 The complete 3-month career architecture for a senior AI move - multi-company campaign, offer stacking, negotiation.

What You Get
✓ 9 × 60-minute sessions over 3 months — coaching + mocks
  ✓ Complete leadership-positioning rebuild and narrative
  ✓ Tech depth: ML system design at scale + research strategy
  ✓ Org design, hiring philosophy, executive-presence mastery
✓ Frontier-lab cultural-round prep for OpenAI, Anthropic, GDM
✓ Executive LinkedIn + resume + public-artifact transformation
✓ Multi-company campaign management across 2–4 loops
✓ Offer stacking + negotiation across every offer 
✓ 12 weeks of unlimited async support

Payment:
Single payment of $9999 OR 3 instalments of $3669

Best For:
Senior professionals doing a complete repositioning or running a multi-company campaign e.g., a VP of AI moving to Head of AI at a frontier lab,   or a Director pivoting to a senior IC role.
9. Getting Started
Step 1: Discovery call or Career Strategy call
A 15-minute call to understand your background, target roles, timeline, and constraints.
I will tell you which tier is the right fit and what realistic outcomes look like for your profile.

Step 2: Proposal
Within 24 hours of the discovery call, I send a written proposal with the recommended tier, session cadence, and scope.
No pressure to commit on the call itself.

Step 3: Launch
Once we agree on the proposal and process the fees, we schedule the first session within 5 business days.
You get a pre-session questionnaire, and I review your LinkedIn, resume, and any public artifacts before we meet.
10. FAQs
Q: How is AI Leadership Coaching different from your standard IC coaching tiers?
A: The standard IC coaching tiers (AI Engineer, FDE, RE, RS) target $200K-$400K TC roles and focus primarily on technical depth, coding, and ML fundamentals.

AI Leadership Coaching targets $500K-$1M+ TC roles such as Head of AI, VP of AI, Director of AI, and Staff+ at frontier labs.

The work shifts from technical fundamentals to leadership narrative, organizational judgment, ML system design at scale, executive presence, and offer negotiation at much higher stakes. I coach senior professionals with 10+ years of experience who need a coach who has both built the systems and led the org
Q: Which tier should I pick?
A: It depends on your timeline and how much repositioning is needed.
  • Pick the Career Strategy Session if you have a single round or specific positioning question and you are already in motion.
  • Pick the Interview Sprint if you have an active process with offers expected in 2-4 weeks.
  • Pick the Interview Intensive if you are 4-8 weeks out from active interviews or preparing for a tier-1 frontier lab cycle.
  • Pick the Accelerator if you are doing a multi-company campaign across 2-4 simultaneous processes or a significant repositioning move.

The discovery call is the fastest way to know.
Q: Do you coach for specific labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, or DeepMind?
A: Yes. Each frontier lab has a distinct interview philosophy, value system, and technical evaluation style.

OpenAI weighs research velocity and execution heavily.
Anthropic evaluates alignment thinking and safety judgment as a first-class signal.
DeepMind tests research depth and long-horizon thinking.

​I prep clients on the technical rounds, the cultural rounds, and the specific framings that hiring committees at each lab respond to. Hiring committees can tell within 10 minutes whether a candidate understands the lab they are interviewing at, and that understanding is a coachable skill.
Q: Can you help me transition from management back to a senior IC role?
A: Yes. This is one of the two primary tracks I coach.
​
​Senior IC roles at frontier labs (Staff, Principal, Distinguished) now pay $500K-$1M+, and the value of being close to research has never been higher. The challenge for EM-to-IC candidates is convincing hiring panels you are still technical enough to lead from the front. The interview loop will test ML system design, recent research depth, and often live coding.

I help you rebuild the technical narrative, refresh on current ML system design patterns, and prep for the rounds that decide these offers. Several of my placed clients have done exactly this move in the last 12 months.
Q: Why is AI Leadership Coaching priced above the standard IC tiers?
A: Three reasons.

First, the work is fundamentally different: leadership narrative, organisational judgment, and executive-round preparation require deeper, more bespoke session work than technical interview prep.

Second, the outcome value is much higher: typical TC deltas are $200K-$400K+ versus $50K-$100K for standard IC moves, so the coaching ROI ratio holds.

Third, the coach pool capable of doing this work credibly is small. You need someone who has both built production AI systems and led a senior AI organisation. I have done both.
Q: How quickly can we start?
A: Once you book a discovery call, we usually meet within 3-5 business days.

After the call, I send a proposal within 24 hours. If you accept, the first working session is typically scheduled within 5 business days of agreement and fee payment.

​For urgent timelines (offers expected in under 30 days), I can usually accommodate a faster start. The discovery call is the bottleneck, not the program start.
11. Confidentiality Policy
Your Privacy is Protected
All coaching engagements are conducted under strict confidentiality.
​This policy ensures you can discuss your career goals, challenges, and strategies openly and safely.

What We Keep Confidential
Everything shared during our coaching relationship remains private, including:
  • Your current employment status and job search activities
  • Companies you're interviewing with or considering
  • Salary discussions, negotiations, and compensation details
  • Technical information, projects, or intellectual property you discuss
  • Career strategies, transition plans, and timelines
  • Personal challenges, concerns, or circumstances affecting your career
  • All session notes, materials, and communications

My Commitment
  • No sharing without permission: I will not disclose any information about our coaching relationship or conversations to third parties without your explicit consent
  • Discretion in all communications: All emails, messages, and scheduling are handled with complete discretion
  • Secure handling: Session notes and materials are stored securely and not shared with anyone
  • Professional boundaries: I maintain clear separation between different clients and never discuss one client with another
  • Anonymised testimonials: I post coaching testimonials on my website only with prior consent from the client and remove any personally identifiable information.

Your Control
You decide what to share and when. Many clients work with me while currently employed, exploring sensitive career transitions, or negotiating high-stakes opportunities. This policy exists to give you complete confidence that your coaching journey remains private.

Questions about confidentiality?
Feel free to discuss any concerns before or during our engagement.
12. Next Steps
If this fits where you are, book a Discovery call or Career Strategy call
​15 minutes, no pressure, I will tell you directly whether the work is a good fit and which tier makes sense for your situation.
Any questions?
Email or Call
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