Agile Lead/ Coach

Avance Consulting; Bournemouth; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company seeks an Agility Lead to enhance agile practices across product teams. This role involves coaching, facilitating planning, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of experience and a strong understanding of agile methodologies.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as an Agility Lead or in a relevant domain.
• Knowledge of the development lifecycle, including CI/CD and testing.
• Foundational knowledge of agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach teams to adopt and implement agile methodologies.
• Develop and implement operational and transformation plans.
• Monitor product and team performance through metrics.

Skills

Facilitation skills

Communication

Problem-solving

Job description

The Agility Lead leverages foundational coaching techniques and knowledge of core agility methodologies to guide product execution and delivery. Coaching may extend beyond the boundaries of the aligned product to develop and share knowledge of the product development lifecycle.

Day to day, the agile lead will increase the effectiveness of agile ways of working in product teams through coaching, influencing, teaching, and participating in Community of Practice activities. This enables product teams to deliver business outcomes. The role involves working with product teams and across the organization to enhance understanding of the value of agility, especially regarding prioritization of workflow and updating the product backlog. The Agility Lead supports the product team with agility, coaches product quads and teams in writing effective OKRs, initiatives, epics, relevant tools, and methodologies to successfully deliver complex products. They facilitate quarterly and monthly planning, guide the team towards self-management and cross-functionality, and build a trusting, safe, and transparent environment for both business and tech stakeholders. This environment encourages raising problems during appropriate scrum events without fear of blame and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Job Responsibilities

1. Lead and coach teams to adopt and implement agile methodologies, promoting open communication and engagement, ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with organizational goals.
2. Use advanced communication, facilitation, and presentation skills to manage and influence stakeholders, communicating organizational impediments to leadership.
3. Develop and implement short to mid-term operational and transformation plans, prioritize tasks, and manage resources to achieve product goals efficiently using metrics and evidence-based decisions.
4. Work with all group members and stakeholders to help them understand and work towards product goals.
5. Improve product processes and structures for better alignment, coordination, transparency, and efficiency, taking a data-driven approach.
6. Monitor product and team performance and health through team health checks, JIRA, and JIRA Align metrics, facilitating coaching and conversations when interventions are needed.
7. Identify and remove impediments to group performance and health.
8. Facilitate problem-solving and decision-making with colleagues inside and outside the group.
9. Communicate within and outside the product area, facilitate group events and workshops as appropriate.
10. Create a culture centered on trust, transparency, continuous improvement, and empowerment. Establish feedback loops and increase psychological safety using coaching behaviors.
11. Develop sufficient knowledge of the product's customers and technologies to engage in problem-solving and represent the group.

Required Qualifications, Capabilities, and Skills

• 5+ years of experience or equivalent expertise as an Agility Lead or in a relevant domain.
• Facilitation skills for engaging audiences, balancing conversations, and working neutrally to achieve goals.
• Knowledge of the development lifecycle, including CI/CD, testing, requirements gathering, and system/application/product design.
• Foundational knowledge of various agile frameworks (e.g., Scrum, Kanban, LeSS, SAFe) and experience in using lean agile processes to enable environments and support product development and service delivery.
• Understanding of product discovery and delivery practices, including effective OKR frameworks.