Looking for a role that will allow you to make your mark in Agile Delivery?

We are looking for an Agile Delivery Lead/Scrum Master to join the team and offer expertise and guidance to drive the team and create a thriving environment.

What part will you play? If you’re looking for a place where you can make a meaningful difference, you’ve found it. The work we do at Markel gives people the confidence to move forward and seize opportunities, and you’ll find your fit amongst our global community of optimists and problem-solvers. We’re always pushing each other to go further because we believe that when we realize our potential, we can help others reach theirs.

Join us and play your part in something special!

The opportunity:

Working as an Agile Delivery Lead, you will be crucial in aligning our service teams to operate in an Agile and efficient manner.

You will coach the teams on Kanban, Scrum-ban, and other Agile best practices, as well as collaborate with internal and external partners to align expectations and remove impediments. Additionally, you will help the teams improve their processes and performance through regular retrospectives, feedback sessions, and data analysis. This role offers an opportunity to become part of a culture of trust, transparency, and continuous improvement within and across the teams.

What you’ll Be Doing:

Collaboration and Transition:

• Collaborate with partners to transition and support the operating model to Agile methodologies and processes, including Scrum, Kanban, and/or SAFe.
• Work with other teams and remove delivery team roadblocks.
• Collaborate with external vendors and external stakeholders

Servant Leadership:

• Act as a servant leader by maintaining the team and meeting their needs.
• Support team balance between planned, project tasks, and operational/ticket-driven work.

Agile Ceremonies:

• Schedule Agile ceremonies and supervise the progress of stories throughout the Sprint and Release schedule.
• Negotiate scope changes with the Product Owner team.

Process Improvement and Risk Management:

• Recommend improvements and drive alignment across the organization.
• Take ownership of the evaluation and appropriate mitigation of team risks.
• Guide the team through the continual improvement process and shield the team from external interference by removing barriers and escalating issues.

Solution Advocacy:

• Actively provide solutions and encourage others to adopt new processes and improvements based on program retrospectives.

Progress Monitoring:

• Build and maintain progress information on behalf of the team (Burndown Charts, Sprint Review Packs, etc.).
• Enable close cooperation across all roles and functions.

Process Implementation:

• Implement processes, practices, and tools to allow for multiple paths of delivery by creating simplified, consistent, reusable, efficient, and flexible methodologies.
• Maintain the metrics dashboard ensuring all data is accurate.
• Monitor costs, timescales, and resources used, and act where these deviate from agreed tolerances.

Scoping and Prioritization:

• Define and manage scoping, definition, and prioritization activities for initiatives of medium size and complexity.
• Facilitate input from partners, provide constructive challenge, and enable effective prioritization of the product backlog.
• Investigate, manage, and apply authorized requests for changes in line with the change management policy.

Our Must-Haves:

• SAFe certified (or other scaled Agile frameworks) desirable.
• Certified Scrum Professional®-ScrumMaster (CSP-SM) or Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM℠) certification desirable.
• ITIL 4 Foundations.
• Experience and Knowledge:
• Previous exposure to working with Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
• Understanding of IT Operations (Network and Platform Infrastructure, Database, Server Ops, etc.).
• Experience with project management and Agile teamwork tools such as JIRA, EazyBI, Confluence.
• Experience leading team planning and skilled at using numerous estimation methods.
• Basic project management knowledge: Ability to apply project management principles, tools, and techniques to develop/plan and lead projects or work plans to ensure successful completion (e.g., on time, within budget).
• Familiarity with design thinking and customer-centric design.
• Occasionally work outside of UK hours to partner with US team members

Who we are:

Markel Group (NYSE – MKL) a Fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20+ countries, is a holding company for insurance, reinsurance, specialist advisory, and investment operations around the world.

We’re all about people | We win together | We strive for better | We enjoy the everyday | We think further

What’s in it for you?

• A great starting salary plus annual bonus & strong benefits package…
• 25 days paid holiday plus Bank Holidays, with the opportunity to buy/sell extra leave
• Fantastic company pension scheme, private medical and dental cover, life assurance, travel insurance cover, income protection, season ticket loan as well as other great benefits on offer
• There are countless opportunities to learn new skills and develop in your career and we can provide the support needed to do just that!

Are you ready to play your part?

Choose ‘Apply Now’ to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you.

Markel celebrates the value of a diverse workforce that brings experience and expertise from a wide variety of backgrounds and life circumstances. Whatever your background, if you feel you meet the requirements of this role then we want to hear from you. We are also happy to consider candidates who are looking for flexible working patterns.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided with all reasonable accommodations to be able to participate in the job application or interview process and to perform essential job functions if successful. Please contact us via email at [email protected] or call us at 0161 507 5827 to request any accommodations that may be needed. This includes any alternative formats of any documents or information on how to apply offline.