Agile Delivery Lead

Hodge; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Hodge in Cardiff is seeking an Agile Delivery Lead to enable successful delivery of technology initiatives across squads. You will foster agile ways of working, lead delivery planning, manage risks and dependencies, and drive continuous improvement to maximise value delivery.

Collaborating with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and business stakeholders, you will guide lean flow, CI/CD maturity, and governance while enhancing quality controls and predictable outcomes for regulated environments.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading Agile delivery across multiple teams.
• Strong understanding of Agile frameworks and practices (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe).
• Experience guiding teams in lean flow, planning, and delivery discipline.

Responsibilities

• Optimise end-to-end flow by reducing WIP, shortening queues, and addressing systemic dependencies.
• Guide teams in kanban-style flow management and throughput improvement.
• Strengthen backlog quality, sprint hygiene, and predictability through refinement and planning accuracy.
• Promote consistent application of Agile metrics and transparent reporting across squads.
• Partner with engineering leadership to ensure delivery practices, release management, and quality controls support reliable product delivery.
• Support adoption of better development workflows, observability, and DevOps-aligned practices.
• Collaborate with Product Owners and Tech Leads to ensure acceptance criteria drive quality-built-in.
• Introduce earlier testing, validation, and feedback loops to reduce rework.
• Promote pairing, peer review, automated checks, and progressive delivery techniques.
• Ensure capacity planning, team utilisation, and sustainable delivery across squads.
• Align delivery objectives with Leads on priorities and execution.
• Follow delivery governance processes and report to leadership forums.
• Maintain knowledge of Compliance & Risk regulatory information.
• Identify and manage cross-team dependencies and delivery risks.

Skills

Agile delivery

Scrum

Kanban

SAFe

Delivery leadership

Risk management

Stakeholder management

Coaching teams

CI/CD

Job description

Do you want to be part of a force for good, helping to make life better for customers and society in the moments that matter? At Hodge, we put people at the heart of our business, and that means our customers, colleagues and communities. Hodge is a Welsh financial services provider focused on real estate finance and specialist residential mortgage markets.

Under the overall management of the Delivery Lead Manager, the Agile Delivery Lead is accountable for enabling the successful delivery of technology initiatives across squads by fostering effective agile ways of working, delivery excellence, and predictable outcomes.

The role focusses on delivery planning, dependency management, risk management, and continuous improvement activities while partnering with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and business stakeholders to maximise value delivery. The role will also be responsible for running, coaching and guiding teams in lean flow, engineering practice improvement, CI/CD maturity, agile discipline, and reducing systemic delivery constraints.

• Shows understanding of quality, auditability, risk, and control expectations in regulated environments.
• Demonstrable knowledge of Agile delivery frameworks and practices (e.g. Scrum, Kanban, SAFe).
• Proven experience leading Agile delivery across multiple teams.
• Experience managing risks, dependencies, and delivery governance.
• Strong facilitation, conflict-resolution and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working with Product Managers, Product Owners, and Engineering leaders.

Key Responsibilities will include:

• Optimise end-to-end flow by reducing WIP, shortening queues, and addressing systemic dependencies.
• Guide teams in kanban-style flow management and throughput improvement.
• Strengthen backlog quality, sprint hygiene, and predictability through improved refinement, planning accuracy, and execution discipline.
• Promote consistent application of Agile metrics and transparent reporting across squads.
• Partner with engineering leadership to ensure effective delivery practices, release management approaches, and quality controls support reliable product delivery.
• Support adoption of better development workflows, observability, and DevOps-aligned practices.
• Partner with Product Owners and Tech Leads to ensure acceptance criteria drive quality-built-in.
• Introduce earlier testing, validation, and feedback loops to reduce rework.
• Promote pairing, peer review, automated checks, and progressive delivery techniques.
• Ensure effective capacity planning, team utilisation, and sustainable delivery practices across squads.
• Collaborate with Leads to align delivery objectives, priorities, and technical execution.
• Ensure delivery governance processes are followed, and accurate reporting is provided to leadership forums.
• Develop and maintain up-to-date knowledge of Compliance & Risk regulatory information.
• Identify, track, and proactively manage cross-team dependencies and delivery risks.

Please be aware that should we pursue your application, all our Financial Services employees will be expected to complete background checks to assess suitability for employment, these include; a criminal record, identity, media, sanctions, adverse finance, fraud prevention and reference checks to comply with our regulatory requirements.

Hodge is an advocate of being an equal opportunities employer, We believe in promoting equality and diversity which is central to our lives today. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and recognises the value a diverse workforce brings to an organisation.

ESG and sustainability are at the heart of everything we do and serves as a reminder of the responsibility we have to our stakeholders, customers, colleagues and the communities we operate in to use our position wisely. We’re currently exploring different certifications available and have done an initial review of how we think we’d fare, as we see this as a real opportunity for Hodge given our social purpose.