Lead Agile Coach

At its core, Admiral has always been a company that has strived for agility and Lean-ness. As it has grown larger, it is important to us that agility remains a key focus.

Here is an exciting opportunity to contribute to and shape ongoing initiatives across Admiral that are specifically focussed upon improving enterprise agility.

Job Purpose

The Lead Coach will act as an ambassador for enterprise agility, be a promotor of agile frameworks & methodologies and champion core agile principles in the organisation.  They will be accountable for continuing to embed enterprise agility, improving Agile culture and practices in the leadership and delivery teams.  They will demonstrate servant leadership to the CoE coaching community to help drive further agile adoption across the organisation as well as driving the strategy for the CoE team.

The Lead Coach will play an important role in supporting optimised delivery of the Portfolio, focusing on maximising the delivery of significant business value.  Being hands-on, engaging with teams at a tactical and strategic level. They will have experience of leading (designing and executing) an organisation through a move from a legacy framework to a fully-fledged scaled agile framework; being able to migrate the processes as well as the mindset / behaviours from developer to senior leader.

Accountabilities & Responsibilities:

• Create a cohesive strategy for diverse teams to enhance efficiency and effectiveness across our change portfolio.
• Work as part of the delivery leadership team to implement transformational work in line with our move to a Value Stream model.
• Lead the CoE coaches and community champions to drive agile adoption across the organisation.
• Responsible for development of knowledge and techniques and skills relevant to Admiral’s developing agile operating model.
• Strengthen enterprise understanding of key supporting frameworks (Product Management, Lean Portfolio Management, LEAN) to increase the delivery of value.
• Provide guidance on agile ways of working to ensure that agile culture is embedded within the business.
• Responsible for the overall management for development and provision of training covering relevant SAFe / Lean skills and capabilities, taking account of strategic aims of Admiral.
• Conduct regular agile maturity assessments and pulse checks.  Provide insight and recommendations for improvements.
• Support active monitoring of delivery performance metrics and develop action plans for improvements as required.
• Support the refinement of Strategic Investment Portfolio governance and the ad-hoc demand process.
• Enable a culture of continuous improvement and learning, by coaching team members and role-modelling self-development.

Outcomes:

• Demonstrate a 10% + increase in NPS scores from colleagues on the Value of the CoE.
• Directly support a 5% + improvement in throughput, and quality of the delivery teams.
• Values to be re-visited and set annually.

Knowledge and Experience Required

Strategic and Leadership Experience:

• Involvement in agile transformation at scale in large enterprise organisations.
• Experience in building and executing a strategy to drive enterprise agility.
• Experience in defining and mobilising value streams, shared services and component teams.
• Experience in coaching at enterprise level on agile best practice.
• Experience in Strategic Planning, Value Management and Prioritisation.
• Experience of coaching at a C Suite level and fostering buy-in at all levels.
• Rehearsed in supporting both business leadership and delivery leadership. through change.

Behavioural Competencies:

• Passionate about understanding people / teams in various stages of agile environment.
• Excellent communicator with ability to negotiate, influence and explain.
• Able to lead calmly through periods of high pressure whilst inspiring people and teams to achieve excellence and grow their skills.
• Have drive, enthusiasm, and a can-do attitude.
• Innovative and creative thinking.

Technical and Role Based Skills:

• Extensive experience of agile at scale, using a range of approaches/frameworks to meet the needs of the organisation.
• Experience in designing, mobilising and developing Agile Release Trains.
• Driving best practice for leaders of ARTs, Shared Services and Component Teams.
• Experience of relevant delivery methods and frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, SAFe & Lean.
• Knowledge of Product, Project and Portfolio Management best practice. Industry-recognised certifications beneficial.
• Knowledge and understanding of cross-delivery team and shared service dependency management.
• Experience in coaching, mentoring and growing a team of Agile Coaches.
• Working knowledge of the application of OKR’s and how they may encourage the organisation to focus on outcomes.
• Knowledge and experience of agile development techniques like: User Stories, Continuous Integration & Deployment, ATDD - Acceptance Test Driven Development, TDD - Test-driven development, BDD – Behaviour Driven Development, Continuous Testing, Pairing and Automated Testing.

Our Commitment to You

At Admiral, we are committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace. Admiral is proud to be an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other legally protected status.

All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment.

Salary, Benefits, and Work-Life Balance

We do not have a set salary for this position, as it will be dependent on the successful candidate’s experience. We are happy to see CVs from all candidates who meet the requirements and will be happy to discuss the remuneration package.

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons we’re consistently voted one of the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to work for in the UK. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

All colleagues will receive 33 days holiday (including banks holidays) when they join us, and this will increase with length of service, up to a maximum of 38 days (including banks holidays). You also have the option to buy or sell up to five days of annual leave in addition to your allocation.

You can also view some of our other key benefits here.

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