Delivery Lead, Digital & Technology (Agile)

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. For 90 years we have shaped brighter futures through education, arts, culture, language, and creativity. Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries.

Role Context - About The Team

The Digital and Technology (D&T) team collaborate with other parts of the British Council to foster a digitally enabled, customer centric organisation. As a digitally inclusive team, we strive to ensure our people, and those we work with, are enabled to feel digitally confident. We do this by empowering our people with digital skills and support to help them rise to important challenges, regardless of role or location. Our people steer our ambition, drive our successes and manage us through periods of great change. Together, we strive to build an inclusive environment that upholds our values and supports us in our work.

• Open and committed - We share the right information, with the right people, at the right time.
• Optimistic and bold - We define and validate value to empower our experts to make high-impact decisions.
• Expert and inclusive - We reduce digital inequalities and reduce the impact of digital disadvantage for our people, our stakeholders, and our customers.

The Engineering division brings together Engineering, QA, Architecture and Delivery expertise to ensure excellence in the development of our global products and services. Encompassing Reuse, Buy and Build strategies, it champions community communities of practices, defining solutions and core-capabilities and to create amazing products. The division ensures, through architecture, delivery of strategic, enterprise wide solutions to business problems, proactive management of technology risks, setting practices, standards and guidance to the wider organisation for flexible approaches to technology adoption to meet business objectives, and enable strategic delivery.

Role Purpose - The Job:

In the capacity of a Delivery Lead within Digital and Technology, this role bears accountability for the entire lifecycle of creating and implementing digital products. Beyond project ownership, the Delivery Lead assumes a critical role, driving motivation, and overseeing the performance of multi-disciplinary product and project delivery teams. Responsible for orchestrating the seamless execution of projects, the Delivery Lead navigates the intricacies of product development with an emphasis on efficiency, collaboration, and high performance. From initiation to implementation, this role takes charge of project delivery teams, fostering a culture of motivation and collaboration to ensure the successful realization of Digital and Technology products.

Accountabilities

• Consultancy, Analysis and Problem Solving: Initiate, develop, and maintain effective relationships and engagement with owners and stakeholders dispersed across the globe. Identify issues and blockers and work with all parties to find suitable resolutions. Encourage and facilitate continuous improvement of the delivery team.
• Functional Expertise: Own the delivery of digital products assigned to this role, acting as either a servant or project leader where appropriate. Coach and mentor both team members and others to apply the most appropriate Agile and Lean tools and techniques, whilst also being sympathetic to traditional project management approaches. Effectively translate complex technical details ensuring they are accurately communicated to non-technical stakeholders.
• Service Improvement: Creating a delivery ethos amongst all teams they lead. To be responsible for the communication of plans, risk and issue logs, and sprint backlogs as required. Provide regular project reporting to agreed templates to stakeholders, working closely with Product Owners and other key leads.
• Relationship and Stakeholder Management: Initiate, develop, and maintain effective relationships and engagement with owners and stakeholders, dispersed across the globe. Build and maintain delivery teams, ensuring they are motivated, collaborating, and working well, ensuring they focus the team on what is most important to the delivery of products and services. Provide regular project reporting to agreed templates to stakeholders, working closely with Product Owners and other key leads.
• Commercial and Financial Management: Manage any third-party integrators. Provide regular project reporting to agreed templates to stakeholders, working closely with Product Owners and other key leads. Ability to maintain delivery pace.

Requirements Of The Role

Minimum/essential

• Varied knowledge and demonstrable experience of delivery/project management in an Agile environment.
• Ability to liaise with senior management stakeholders, business users, PMO Programme level colleagues managing third party suppliers to deliver suitable solutions.
• Understand the fundamentals of the Agile framework (such as iterative development using incremental delivery).
• Experience of using formal planning tools to create project plans where appropriate.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills using various tools including Word, Excel templates, and PowerPoint presentations.
• Degree level qualification or equivalent by experience.

Desirable

• Experience of leading, coordinating and organising remote teams in a collaborative environment.
• Demonstrated the ability to rapidly adapt and respond to changes and ability to prioritise.
• Experience of both infrastructure and product projects is highly desirable, including rollout experience, which would be advantageous.

Closing Date: Applications will close at 2:59 on 27 May UK Time. You must have the legal right to work in the listed locations at the time of application.

Important Information:

• Contract type: Indefinite Contract
• Pay band: 8
• Annual Salary: £38,820 onwards plus London Market allowance of £3,300 if London-based
• Location: UK – (London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast). This role is open to candidates based in all UK locations and on a permanent homeworking basis for staff already on permanent homeworking contracts.

Requirements:

Please note that candidates must have the pre-existing, legal right to work in the listed locations at the time of application. Mobility/relocation / visa sponsoring support will not be provided.

The British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all sections of the community as we believe that a diverse workforce gives added depth to our work. The British Council is a Disability Confident Employer. The Disability Confident scheme helps challenge attitudes, increase understanding of disability and ensure staff are drawn from the widest possible pool of talent. We guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the minimum role requirements. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

Safeguarding Statement

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with. We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989. Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

If you experience any difficulties with submitting your application, please email askhr@britishcouncil.org