Squad Lead

Openwork Limited; Swindon; On-site; GBP 56,000 - 69,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary up to 62,600

On-target bonus 10%

Pension matching up to 10%

Critical illness cover

Income protection

Death in service 4x

27 days holiday + bank holidays

Additional 10 days purchase option

Private medical insurance

Dental insurance

Job summary

We’re looking for a Squad Lead to join Openwork Limited’s technology function and take ownership of delivering outcomes through high-performing, cross-functional teams. Operating within our Tribe model, you’ll lead a Squad aligned to a clear mandate - whether that’s decommissioning legacy systems, building new platforms, or delivering business-critical change.

Your focus is on how delivery happens: ensuring work is well-planned, prioritised, and executed in a structured and predictable way.

Qualifications

• Experience leading delivery-focused or agile teams.
• Proven track record delivering technology or change initiatives.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams (engineering, QA, analysis).
• Coaching and developing individuals within a squad.
• Experience in regulated or structured environments is advantageous.
• Delivery leadership using Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid approaches.

Responsibilities

• Owning and coordinating end-to-end delivery for your Squad, maintaining plans aligned to Tribe priorities.
• Managing and maintaining the Squad backlog, ensuring work is well-defined, prioritised, and ready for execution.
• Establishing and maintaining a consistent delivery rhythm (planning, execution, review).
• Providing visibility of progress, managing risks and ensuring predictable delivery outcomes.
• Leading the Squad’s day-to-day activity, removing blockers and keeping the team focused.
• Developing individuals within the Squad through coaching, feedback, and support.
• Building a high-performing team culture centred on accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Partnering with the Tribe Lead to align delivery with technical direction.
• Identifying and managing risks and dependencies, escalating where needed across teams or Tribes.
• Supporting stakeholder engagement, communicating progress, risks, and outcomes clearly.
• Ensuring delivery artefacts are maintained and governance-ready.

Skills

Delivery leadership

Agile frameworks

Backlog management

Sprint planning

Stakeholder management

Coaching

Cross-functional teams

Regulated environments

Risk management

Governance

Job description

We’re looking for a Squad Lead to join Openwork’s technology function and take ownership of delivering outcomes through high-performing, cross-functional teams.

Operating within our Tribe model, you’ll lead a Squad aligned to a clear mandate - whether that’s decommissioning legacy systems, building new platforms, or delivering business-critical change. Your focus is on how delivery happens: ensuring work is well-planned, prioritised, and executed in a structured and predictable way.

This is a delivery and people leadership role. You are not the technical authority - that sits with the Tribe Lead, but you are responsible for enabling your team to perform at its best, translating priorities into actionable plans, and driving consistent delivery outcomes.

The Benefits

• Salary - up to£62,600
• Bonus scheme - on target bonus - 10%
• Pension scheme - contribute up to 5% of your salary and Openwork will match you and put in an extra 5%
• Critical illness cover
• Income protection
• Death in service - 4x salary
• 27 days holiday + bank holidays, with the opportunity to buy up to an additional 10 days
• A range of other flexible benefits to include private medical insurance, dental insurance and much more.

Key Responsibilities:

• Owning and coordinating end-to-end delivery for your Squad,maintainingclear plans aligned to Tribe priorities
• Managing andmaintainingthe Squad backlog, ensuring work is well-defined, prioritised, and ready for execution
• Establishing andmaintaininga consistent delivery rhythm (planning, execution, review)
• Providing visibility of progress, managing risks and ensuring predictable delivery outcomes
• Leading the Squad’s day-to-day activity, removing blockers and keeping the team focused and aligned
• Developing individuals within the Squad through coaching, feedback, and support
• Building a high-performing team culture centred on accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Partnering closely with the Tribe Lead to align delivery with technical direction
• Identifyingand manage risks and dependencies, escalating where needed across teams or Tribes
• Supporting stakeholder engagement, communicating progress, risks, and outcomes clearly
• Ensuring delivery artefacts (plans, risks, decisions, backlog) aremaintainedand governance-ready.

What will you need to succeed?

• Experience leading teams in delivery-focused or agile environments
• Proven track record of delivering technology or change initiatives
• Experience working with cross-functional teams (engineering, QA, analysis)
• Demonstrable experience in coaching and developing individuals
• Experience in regulated or structured environments is advantageous
• Delivery Leadership - Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid), Backlog management, sprint planning, and delivery tracking, dependency management across teams and workstreams
• Understanding of the software delivery lifecycle
• Ability to work effectively with technical stakeholders
• Awareness of engineering practices and quality expectations
• Delivery risk identification and mitigation, with experience working within governance-led environments, maintaining artefacts to support reporting and oversight
• Awareness of Consumer Duty and the importance of reliable, high-quality systems in regulated contexts
• Ability to translate technical delivery into business outcomes, with strong stakeholder communication and relationship management.

Why us?

We're a dynamic, fast-paced and growing business with huge ambition. This is all made possible by the brilliant people who are part of The Openwork Partnership family. We're investing heavily in our colleagues, continuously striving to give them the platform to develop personally and professionally and reach their full potential.

We’re also very proud of our culture, as one of the Best 100 Large Companies to work for in 2022. The Openwork Partnership values and respects individuality and we are committed to building an inclusive culture and environment where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work. We believe that you will bring your best self to work if you are trusted to choose when, where and how you do it. On top of offering a modern workplace with bags of development opportunities, we also offer a highly attractive benefits package to reward you for your hard work. This includes a competitive base salary, an industry-leading annual bonus, enhanced pension, critical illness cover, income protection and a range of other flexible benefits