The interview process was great and I ended up meeting with the recruiter, hiring manager, and a c-level executive. I prepared presentation materials and even prepared a demo of a proposed solution mock-up for the c-exec. I sent personalized thank you notes to the hiring manager and c-executive. A couple of days after my last interview, the recruiter contacted me to let me know that they were moving forward with the offer process. A few days later I completed and passed the background check. That was the point where the company dropped the ball and the experienced soured. The updates ranged from “offers take longer for Director and above” to “everyone in senior leadership is at an offsite meeting” (with no offices, I found that difficult to believe), to “we are close to getting the offer to you”, to “we may not fill the position after all”, and finally “the position was cancelled”. All of this in just over a week’s time. A bit of digging on my part discovered a ticket that seemed to indicate the issue was with the title being a director role. I didn’t care what the title was - like many people, I was motivated by the type of work. Tip: in the future, don’t start a search until you have the CEO on board. I may have dodged a bullet - micromanagement is dangerous and it seems to be very present here.