Agile Delivery Manager

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Companies House Digital and Technology Directorate.

We are looking for talented Agile Delivery Managers with a software delivery and digital services background to help our Agile Scrum teams develop and deliver quality digital services for our millions of users. The role provides an opportunity to contribute to the success of existing and future services provided by Companies House.

You’ll have the opportunity to be at the forefront of digital transformation in government and help shape our services to meet the ever-changing demands of the UK’s business landscape.

This rewarding leadership role is ideal for someone who is passionate about working with people and is motivated by successful delivery in a complex environment. You are someone who cares about and can exemplify Civil Service values, in a diverse, ethical and positive working culture.

Our approach to hybrid working provides opportunities for you to be adaptable in the way you work so that you can achieve a healthy balance between your work and home life. The degree of choice you have will depend on business need, your role and your day-to-day work activities and will be discussed at offer stage. Remote contracts will only be offered to successful candidates who are not within a commutable distance to our Cardiff, Belfast or Edinburgh offices. If you are located in a reasonable distance to one our offices, you will receive a hybrid contract aligned to one of our offices.

We offer an excellent benefits package that includes a generous 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays and 1 privilege day, and enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme with a contribution rate averaging 28%.

Find out more about what a great place Companies House is to work

Job description

As the Agile Delivery Manager, you will be accountable for the successful delivery of products and services within your team.

You will lead one of our Agile Scrum teams, acting as a servant leader to facilitate collaboration, decision-making, effective planning of work, clarity on vision, scope, goals and roadmap, conflicting priorities and conflict resolution.

You are instrumental in taking the Product vision and making it happen, devising the right team and ways of working, and showing exceptional leadership and communication skills.

An Agile Delivery Manager is accountable for the performance of the team.

At this role level, you will:

• Be an active member of our community of practice, where you will share best practice, insight and support with your peers.
• Lead from the front using your Agile expertise and the scrum framework and Lean practices.
• Build and maintain teams, ensuring they are motivated, collaborative, and working productively.
• Proactively address team dynamics and resolve issues as they arise, removing impediments/blockers to ensure a smooth workflow.
• Challenge and encourage the team to identify assumptions and risks, and proactively plan to address these throughout delivery.
• Focus the team on what is most important to the delivery of products and services.
• Encourage, support, and facilitate continuous improvement of the delivery team.
• Understand the agile project phases and know how to support the team through this lifecycle (discovery, alpha, beta, live, retirement).
• Coach and mentor team members and others to apply the most appropriate Agile and Lean tools and techniques
• Form relationships with your peers to enable efficient cross-team collaboration and dependency management.

Further information on a Delivery Manager and skills expected can be found here.

Our team

Our Agile Delivery Profession is part of the Digital and Technology (DAT) directorate. We are a team of 10 permanent and 10 third party Agile Delivery Managers working hand in hand to deliver Companies House digital strategy. We have 5 experienced Senior Agile Delivery Managers who will support you closely in your work, and one of them will be your direct line manager.

There are opportunities to join one of our Software delivery teams as well as our Data Science team. The Data Science team is new to Agile ways of working, requiring coaching and mentoring to apply the most appropriate Agile and Lean tools and techniques to ensure an effective environment.

Person specification

You will be a servant leader who steers from the front. You will be someone who can create the right environment for your multidisciplinary teams to succeed, helping them to become self-managing and creating a culture of learning and transparency.

We are looking for the following experience, which will be assessed at sift and at interview. Please refer to the bullet points in bold below when writing your personal statement, including examples to evidence your level of skill.

We will look for the required skills as detailed in the Government Digital and Data Delivery Manager capability, at Delivery Manager level, and in particular:

• Agile and Lean Practices
• Experience of delivering working software, with a deep understanding of the development lifecycle in an agile environment
• Communicating between technical and non-technical
• Strong track record of building high performing agile software delivery teams using Scrum (additional experience of Kanban, XP, or Lean is desirable)
• Communicate and visualise progress towards goals using delivery plans, metrics and forecasting techniques

Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package that includes:

• a generous 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays and 1 privilege day
• enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme with a contribution rate of averaging 28%
• a range of recognition schemes including instant awards to thank and recognise each other's efforts and contributions
• strong ethos of equality, diversity and inclusion
• great work life balance with flexible and mobile working available for many roles
• a pro-active approach to employee wellbeing that allows our employees to flourish and be their best at work and has enabled us to become an Investors In People platinum accredited employer
• online financial support and advice
• seasonal flu jabs
• generous maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave allowances
• a focus on career development and progression
• a number of inclusive network groups to support our colleagues and a great sports and social society
• cycle to work scheme
• staff discount scheme
• holiday play scheme for children
• 3 days paid volunteering leave

Next Steps

Click 'Apply Now' to be taken to our main advert Civil Service Jobs where you can see more details regarding the role, the incredible benefits we have to offer and what it's like to work in Companies House.

If you have any questions about the role or process, please reach out to kjones6@companieshouse.gov.uk.

This role closes on 26 January 2025.

In your application form we’d like you to:

1. Tell us about your employment history, including any key responsibilities and achievements.
2. Write a personal statement of 1250 words where you demonstrate how you meet the experience detailed in the bold bullet points in the person specification (including examples to evidence your level of skill):

• Agile and Lean Practices
• Experience of delivering working software, with a deep understanding of the development lifecycle in an agile environment
• Communicating between technical and non-technical

What will the process look like?

• We will sift applications and then invite successful candidates from the sift stage to attend a virtual interview.
• At sift candidates will be assessed against experience listed in the advert and are asked to supply work history and personal statement, referencing any transferable skills using the job description for reference. The personal statement will be scored against the bullet points in bold in the person specification (and above), including examples to evidence your level of skill.
• At interview candidates will be assessed against the behaviours and technical skills listed in the advert and we will use Success Profiles: Behaviours and Technical skills. As part of your interview, there will be a work-based activity.
• The work-based activity (which will be a discussion topic) will be at the beginning of your interview and will be assessing the technical skills listed in the advert (Agile and Lean practices, and Planning - maintaining delivery momentum).
• The panel will share the discussion topic details at the beginning of the call - they're keen to discuss your approach and understand how you tackle a work-based scenario. 15 minutes of the interview will be dedicated to this section. You are not required to prepare or present your work, this is an opportunity to demonstrate your approach.
• The next part of the interview will be behaviour questions.

Key dates

• We plan to sift w/c 27 January and interview w/c 3 & 10 February. This might need to change - we will keep you informed as you move through the process.
• We may also raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications.

Sponsorship

Companies House cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. Companies House holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.