HR consulting & leadership coaching

Strong HR foundations. Confident leaders. A business ready to grow.

Sea Change partners with leaders to build the people practices a growing business needs, and the leadership to carry it through change. Senior-level experience, scaled to where you are today.

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Sarah Kaehn, founder of Sea Change Leadership
Where are you now?

Support for every stage of growth

  1. 1

    Building the foundation

    Your first employees, or your first real HR needs. Get compliant and set up right from the start.

    • HR compliance assessment
    • Small business HR starter package
    • Handbook & policies
    • EOR/PEO selection & setup
  2. 2

    Scaling the team

    Headcount is climbing and what worked at 15 people is breaking. Add senior HR leadership without a full-time hire.

    • Fractional & interim HR leadership
    • Compensation & career frameworks
    • Performance management
    • Org design & restructuring
  3. 3

    Leading through change

    The business is growing faster than its leaders. Build the skills and working relationships to keep up.

    • Leadership coaching
    • Cofounder relationships
    • Leadership transitions
    • Partner dynamics & conflict
Explore HR consulting →Explore leadership coaching →
sea change
/ˈsē ˌchānj/
noun
a profound or notable transformation.
What we do

The people side of the business, built to scale.

Transformation happens on two levels, and Sea Change works on both. Some challenges call for stronger HR strategy, structure and systems underneath your team. Others call for a closer look at how you lead.

Services

HR consulting and leadership coaching

Twenty years of HR leadership, applied to where your business is today.

From small businesses to scaling startups

HR Consulting

Senior HR expertise when you need it, without a full-time hire. Sea Change builds the people processes, programs and systems a growing business runs on, with deep California labor law expertise.

  • Fractional
  • Interim
  • Advisory
  • Project-based

HR leadership

  • Fractional senior HR leadership for growing companies
  • Advisory and coaching for HR leaders stepping into bigger roles
  • Interim coverage during a leave or executive search
  • Expert guidance to get it right the first time

People operations

  • HR compliance assessment
  • Small business HR starter package
  • Handbook & policies
  • EOR/PEO selection & onboarding
  • International expansion
  • Employee relations

People programs

  • Career frameworks & job architecture
  • Compensation structure & reviews
  • Performance management & goals
  • Engagement surveys & action plans
  • Culture building & feedback systems

Change management

  • Org design & restructuring
  • Reductions in force
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For leaders & teams

Leadership Coaching

An experienced, trusted partner to build awareness of your strengths and patterns, remove what’s in the way and hold you accountable to the goals that matter.

  • Executives
  • Founders & cofounders
  • Business partners
  • New leaders
  • Leadership developmentBuild leadership and management capability faster.
  • Navigating conflictHandle difficult people and tough situations well.
  • Leading changeLead through personal and organizational change.
  • High performanceBuild engaged, high-performing teams.
  • ConnectionStrengthen self-awareness, communication and relationships.
  • OnboardingStep into a new leadership role with confidence.
  • DiscoveryClarify your values, purpose and next chapter.
  • BalanceRecover from burnout and find a sustainable pace.
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Sarah Kaehn seated in a sunlit chair
Cofounder & partner relationships

When the hardest part of the business is the relationship

Cofounders and business partners rarely stall on strategy alone. More often it’s trust that has worn thin, conflict that goes unspoken or communication that breaks down under pressure. Sarah works with the two people at the center of it, bringing a counselor’s training, a certified coach’s toolkit and two decades of HR leadership so they can work through it together.

  • Cofounder alignment & roles
  • Rebuilding trust
  • Working through conflict
  • Hard conversations
  • CEO & second-in-command partnerships
  • Communicating under pressure
Meet Sarah

Sarah Kaehn, Founder

Before founding Sea Change Leadership in 2020, Sarah led HR at some of the fastest-growing companies in tech and gaming. At Aurora Solar, a Series D unicorn, she led a 20-plus person People team while the company scaled from 175 to 500 employees. At FabFitFun, she built the first HRBP and compensation teams through growth from 200 to 550. She also led HR for Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch franchise. Earlier, she was HRBP lead to the CTO at Riot Games and held HR roles at BCG Digital Ventures and Allergan. She began her career at Lockheed Martin, including an international HR assignment in Djibouti.

Sarah grounds her coaching in neuroscience and emotional intelligence and keeps it practical, so insight turns into action. She is now completing an M.A. in Counseling at George Fox University, bringing a psychological lens to the trust, conflict and communication that shape leadership relationships.

A sea change rarely happens in familiar waters. Outside of work, Sarah has traveled to more than 35 countries, lived and worked in Africa, and is an avid scuba diver who still hopes to one day dive with orcas.

Praise

What leaders say

Sarah is able to glean incredible insights quickly and convey those insights in ways that drive self-reflection and desire to tackle opportunities.
Tooey CourtemancheCEO, Procore Technologies
Sarah has always impressed me with her ability to quickly build relationships, diagnose root causes, bring really valuable insights, and help drive positive change.
Mike SeaversSVP, Technology, Scopely
If you have the opportunity to work with her, don’t even think about it, just do it - you’ll thank me later.
Oksana KubushynaCo-Founder & CEO, Seeker Entertainment
Sarah transformed how we approached HR, as well as serving as a fantastic mentor and executive coach.
Mick DreelingEngineering Director, Netflix
Sarah initially joined to help us build out our HRBP function, and ultimately ended up running our entire HR department.
Christopher HopperCEO & Co-Founder, Aurora Solar
Having Sarah in your corner is the best thing a leader can do to invest in themselves, their happiness, and their own self-improvement.
Zach BlitzSVP, AI Strategy & Transformation, Scopely
Contact

Facing an HR or leadership challenge?

Reach out and Sarah will respond within 24 hours to set up a conversation about what you’re navigating.

sarah@seachangeleadership.com (805) 453-5387 LinkedIn