I’m an executive leadership coach and technical advisor who specializes in helping engineering leaders and founders develop greater self-awareness and build high-performing teams. I combine deep technical expertise with practical leadership development, making me particularly valuable for technical leaders scaling their organizations.
As both a founder and engineering leader, I have more than 20 years of experience leading teams at companies ranging from early-stage startups to Amazon, where my current role is Technical Advisor to the VP of Amazon Delivery Routing and Planning. I founded N I C E R, a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) creating premium natural bodycare, and Actuate Partners, my executive coaching and technical advisory practice.
I also held VP of Engineering roles at companies including Caffeine (backed by Greylock and a16z), SmugMug (where my team acquired Flickr), and IMVU, the first Lean Startup.
At IMVU, I worked directly with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, to develop and implement the methodologies that would become the Lean Startup framework. My team helped pioneer the DevOps movement by building infrastructure to ship code to production 50 times per day and coining the term “continuous deployment.” This experience in systematic experimentation and continuous improvement now informs my coaching approach through frameworks like CAMS (Coaching, Advising, Mentoring, Supporting) and the Think-Do-Learn Loop.
I completed my executive coaching certification at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Executive Coaching Institute. My coaching practice focuses on self-awareness, integrity, accountability, and fostering growth mindsets that support continuous learning and high performance. I write the Continuous Growth newsletter and offer both individual executive coaching and peer learning circles for technical leaders.
Through my advisory work with growth-stage startups in the US and Europe, I help leaders navigate common scaling challenges including hiring and interviewing, implementing development methodologies, establishing operational cadences, and developing other leaders. My approach treats leadership development like product development—with systematic feedback loops, measurable outcomes, and continuous improvement.
You can find more about my professional experience here.
James Birchler 