Sarah Sautner

formerly Sarah Hingley · Brooklyn, NY

I scale product and engineering organizations through operational excellence and data-driven systems. The focus is on building high-performing product teams that use product operations to get aligned in the service of speed.

I started out making glass by hand, where you need an idea of the shape you're trying to achieve before you get started. As our world changes, I've kept the same principles: human interaction and connection in the physical world come first, and tech is there to make product and operations run better.

Reach out if you need support, suggestions, or a smile.

Path

  1. Glassmaker and Operations Lead. Ran Night Lighting Design, my own custom lighting studio in NYC, alongside production and studio work for Kanik Chung Glassblowing (photographed at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show) and for Ippolita, including the glass for Reliquary, her seven-piece glass and steel sculpture show that opened on Fashion's Night Out in September 2011: the heart suspended in the steel torso, and a spine running close to two stories.
  2. Kettlebell Kitchen (Series B, North Castle Partners), prepared meals built for athletes and sold through CrossFit gyms. Owned customer support and product satisfaction, then stood up the product function that went on to build meal plan subscriptions and fulfillment, delivery, and logistics tech.
  3. REEF Technology, Miami's first unicorn, turning parking lots into kitchens and logistics hubs. Growth operations leader turned product operations leader, focused on delivery aggregation, forecasting, fulfillment, and POS integrations in ghost kitchens.
  4. BetterCloud, the SaaS management and security platform for IT teams. Owned the customer feedback lifecycle and implemented a dual-track PDLC. The playbook included Stakeholder Story Time and a bi-directional flow of the fact base: customer intel, prospect intel, competitive intel, and internal execution intel. Heavy engagement with Vista Equity Partners, who led a strategic growth investment in the company.
  5. Beyond Identity, a hardware-backed, device-bound identity and access management platform. Ran technical program management to get it to FedRAMP Moderate ATO. Promoted to Chief of Staff to the CTO/CPO while reformulating how product and engineering were run, which led into the broader AI transformation.
  6. Windward Momentum. AI strategy consultant for an agency specializing in Product, Engineering, and Talent Operations in the agentic age.

Work

Windward Momentum

Product, Engineering, and Talent Ops teams at Series A to E startups.

AI Adoption Dashboard

How a ~100 person software org actually uses AI, measured across five dimensions (co-authorship with Claude, intensity, consistency, breadth, and lifecycle coverage).

Modern Rooftop coming soon

Find out what your NYC rooftop could become, what the city will allow, and which vetted local contractors can build it.

Tots Photography coming soon

Picture day for NYC daycares.

Made by hand

Cards

Hand-painted watercolor balloon cards, made in Brooklyn and sold at TYSM BK.

Props

Oversized props, starting with a giant cookie, also at TYSM BK.

Lighting Night Lighting Design, 2010 to 2017

Custom lighting design for homes and businesses in NYC, from the first sketch through blowing the glass and installing it. The freeform Chandelier and the Blossom lights, each petal on its own LED, were featured in Glashaus 1/2011 in its New Talents in the US series ("Sarah Hingley: Let There Be Light" by Annette Rose-Shapiro). Shown at 70John Gallery in Brooklyn. See the work.

Tableware

A collection of hand-blown pieces for the table: nyCUPS, a line of glass cups stamped with a borough mark, alongside bowls, decanters, drinking glasses, salt and pepper shakers, and one-off work off the pipe. See the work.

Before that

Trained at UrbanGlass, then assisted in Kanik Chung's studio, which is where the lighting work started. Written up in NYU Livewire in 2013.

Teaching assistant for the NYU Glass Survey course taught by Victoria Calabro, for various classes at UrbanGlass, and for Kanik Chung's hot glass class at Penland, 2011 Session 4, alongside Elaine Li. Took Eating Your Way Through Design, Jen Elek and Netty Blair's class at Pilchuck, on scholarship in the summer of 2012. All of this work is under my maiden name, Sarah Hingley.