Agile Coach

Company Overview

Overview of Key Duties:

Key Accountabilities:

 
• Coach a range of Agile teams and support our Agile transformation working with cross-functional, distributed teams to achieve higher levels of agility and driving adoption of best-practices based on previous experiences
• Coach and facilitate the maturity of agile release trains (ARTs) and any new ones aligned to value streams
• Developing and aligning the coaching practice with the strategic direction of the organisation, managing deviations, and effectively communicating solutions and their justification to relevant stakeholders
• Play a pivotal role in the evolution and maturity of the Agile methodology,  supporting teams and management in reducing feature delivery times and gaining maximum alignment to business priorities
• Conduct training, facilitation and coaching of distributed teams across the Lean-Agile values and specific techniques/methods, preferably within the Scaled Agile Framework (but also within Scrum, Kanban, DevOps etc.)
• Support the solution implementation: assure that delivery is aligned with the overall vision and that reaching sprint goals brings visible benefits in terms of time-to-market and business relevance
• Champion and embody the Lean-Agile core values and promote their usage across the organisation: acts as an Agile change agent both internally and externally
• Can easily operate at CxO and board room level to help innovation and ensure the medium and long term strategic goals of the organisation are achieved
Factor Summaries
 
Key Competencies:

 
• Seasoned Agile Coach with proven solid, hands-on experience with Lean-Agile transformations
• Be a recognised thought leader who easily becomes the trusted advisor
• The role requires demonstrable experience with agile implementations at enterprise level, in large organisations, engaging from team to CxO levels.
• The day-to-day job of the Agile Coach will require working directly with the onsite/offsite teams and their stakeholders (including senior and executive-level management).
• Most of these competencies are needed for successful role fulfilment:
• Applied workshop facilitation and mentoring/coaching skills, in particular at team and individual level for solving/removing impediments and improving productivity
• Is capable of quickly becoming recognised as an ally of the team and can develop trust within the client organisation
• Excellent influencing, problem solving/troubleshooting skills
• Ability to work effectively under pressure in a resilient and flexible manner

 
Knowledge

 
• Exposure across the end-to-end software delivery, project management and/or service management methodologies
• Extensive knowledge of Lean/Agile development tools and techniques
• Experience of on-site / off-shore delivery model
• Fluent English language skills (written, spoken)

 
Experience

 
• Relevant Agile Leadership/Consulting experience (including recent, active experience as part of an agile transformation)
• Relevant Scrum Master/Agile Team Facilitator experience (with active experience as part of an agile team)
• Hands-on experience in application development and support, including Agile product development experience with planning, estimating, progress reporting and release management
• Experience in scaled agile implementations, preferably using the scaled agile framework (SAFe)
• Experience in an on-site / off-shore delivery model
• Experience in multiple roles of an Agile team
• Experience of coaching teams
• Experience in workshop facilitation
• Proven Business and IT experience ideally supported with relevant professional qualifications

Qualifications:

• Suitable Scrum qualification (from Scrum alliance or Scrum.org)

Preferred

• Agile coaching qualification
• Certified SAFe® Program Consultant

Note to Agencies:
Schroders does not accept speculative CV’s from agencies. We do have a PSL who are invited to support us when required.  We only pay fees to agencies instructed to send CV’s and are submitted through our recruitment portal.  We do not pay fees on speculative or unsolicited CV’s sent to Schroders or Schroders employees and reserve the right to contact unsolicited CV’s directly.