VP of Engineering & Leadership Mentor

Gil Cohen

Mentorship for Leaders. Scaling R&D. Engineering Excellence.

From first-line managers to VPs - Build and scale high-performing R&D organizations.
My approach bridges strategic execution with human-centric leadership & emotional intelligence - because great technology is ultimately built by empowered people.

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Gil Cohen

Consulting Services

Mentorship for Leaders

Structured, framework-driven mentorship for engineering leaders - going deep on the topics where every new VP and manager struggles, not just "how's it going."

  • Managing upwards - the CEO, Board, and Product
  • Leadership development and succession planning
  • Communication and conflict resolution
  • Budgeting and vendor management - cloud and dev tools

Scaling R&D Organizations

Build the structure, processes, and leadership pipeline to grow R&D without losing velocity or culture, and to prepare for the next stage of growth.

  • Adopting agentic engineering - AI agents across the SDLC
  • Operating model and org structure design
  • Tech debt vs. shipping features - knowing when to invest
  • Delivery processes optimized for speed to market

Team Building & Culture

High-performing teams are built deliberately. I help you hire, align, and grow teams that own outcomes and lead with empathy.

  • Hiring strategy and offshore / distributed teams
  • Culture and values alignment
  • Continuous feedback and performance
  • Internal program development and KPIs

About Me

I'm a seasoned engineering leader and consultant with extensive experience in building high-performing teams, scaling organizations, and driving technical excellence. My expertise spans from hands-on engineering management to strategic advisory work with founders and executives.

My core focus is mentorship for leaders. I believe great organizations are built by empowered leaders at every level, so I invest heavily in developing managers, senior engineers, and new VPs - helping them grow into confident decision-makers who can manage upwards, scale teams, own outcomes, and lead with empathy.

I specialize in offshore site initialization, scaling global hiring, and tailoring software delivery frameworks to match specific stage and team size.

25

Years Experience

200+

Engineers Led

20+

Leaders Grown Internally

Professional Experience

Board of Advisors

Firefly AI

2026 - present

VP of Engineering

Firefly AI

2021 - 2026

  • Led cross-functional engineering teams
  • Initiated and scaled the engineering offshore sites and strategies
  • Managed and mentored engineers and managers
  • Led the org's move to agentic engineering - embedding AI agents across the SDLC and upskilling teams to work with them in production
  • Orchestrated internal and external dependencies, optimizing for speed to market

Director of R&D

ironSource

2020 - 2021

  • Led cross-functional global engineering, data, and analytics teams
  • Architected scalable microservices infrastructure
  • Bridged technical execution with data-driven insights to accelerate product success and business growth
  • Collaborated with product teams to deliver customer-focused solutions

R&D Group Manager

ironSource

2017 - 2020

  • Managed global infrastructure and software engineering teams
  • Developed high-performance data pipelines and ETL systems
  • Leveraged end-to-end data insights to drive core business objectives
  • Managed and mentored junior leaders and senior engineers in team building and technical planning

Get In Touch

Ready to Grow Your Leaders?

Whether you're growing as a leader, scaling R&D, or adopting agentic engineering, let's discuss how I can help your teams, leaders, and organization get there.

Schedule a 30-min Call gil@gilco.dev WhatsApp Me linkedin.com/in/gilcoh