Squad Coach - 12 Month FTC (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds & London)

Genomics England partners with the NHS to provide whole genome sequencing diagnostics. We also equip researchers to find the causes of disease and develop new treatments – with patients and participants at the heart of it all. Our mission is to continue refining, scaling, and evolving our ability to enable others to deliver genomic healthcare and conduct genomic research.

We are looking for an experienced Squad Coach / Scrum Master to join our thriving Agile practice based on a 12 month fixed term contract. Here at Genomics England, Agility is core to achieving our company vision - to create a world where everyone benefits from personalised genomic medicine. We firmly believe Agile ways of working are key to:

• Enabling openness, transparency, retrospection and learning
• Generating a culture of iteration and adaptability
• Building a sense of family, accountability and cohesion

Our Squad Coaches are the cornerstone of Agility at Genomics England. They are essential to ensuring each squad strives towards exceptional levels of performance to deliver high-value, high-quality services that make a difference to the lives and treatment of patients in the UK living with cancer and rare diseases. You’ll work closely with cross-functional squads within the Newborns team, contributing to life-changing genomic services for the NHS and wider research communities. This role will suit a true collaborator and people person - someone who understands where they can add real value and is motivated by facilitating others to achieve great things.

What you will be doing:

• Partner with Product, Tech, and Design Leads to ensure cohesive and outcome-focused squad leadership
• Set up and continuously improve systems of work that promote transparency, flow, self-organisation, and alignment with the GEL Way and NHS/GDS standards
• Use data and metrics (e.g. flow, squad health, OKRs) to guide continuous improvement and squad effectiveness
• Apply systems thinking and root cause analysis to identify and remove systemic blockers to performance
• Coach squads through tailored strategies that support their growth into high-performing, self-organising teams
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies, OKR events, and workshops with purpose and engagement
• Support the Product Manager with planning, visioning, and backlog management while keeping users at the centre
• Protect squads from distractions and help remove delivery impediments
• Contribute to Agile capability building across GEL through training, pairing with fellow coaches, and evolving the GEL Way
• Role model inclusive, values-led leadership and help others navigate change with empathy and influence

Qualifications Essential Skills And Experience For Success:

• Relevant experience in an Agile Coach / Scrum Master / Delivery Manager role
• Ability to lead and organise 1-2 squads along with relevant stakeholders such as Product Manager, Technical Leads, Designers, Service Owners etc.
• Deep knowledge and experience with Agile ways of working frameworks like Scrum, Kanban
• Demonstrable experience of applying systems thinking, root cause analysis, etc. to identify and unpick tough and often systemic problems, proactively resolving these problems
• Outcomes-oriented, data-driven, adaptive mindset
• Demonstrable experience of using metrics to drive delivery excellence
• Experience of coaching multidisciplinary digital teams to deliver digital services - from discovery, design, delivery, growth, continuous improvement to retirement
• Experience supporting teams to align around outcomes using OKRs or similar goal-setting frameworks
• Great interpersonal and communication skills; an inspiring team player, coach, and leader
• Passion for all things Agile
• Good understanding of the holistic Software Development Lifecycle and previous experience with DevOps practices
• Solid working experience with the Atlassian toolkit

Desirable Skills And Experience For Success:

• A recent Agile certification (just to show you love learning!)
• Knowledge of healthcare, life sciences or genomics
• Previous experience in a direct delivery role
• Knowledge of frameworks that allow Agile methods to scale
• Experience of matrix-managed organisations
• Experience of Agile delivery in UK government, particularly the Government Digital Service (GDS) Service Standard

Additional Information:

This is a 12-Month Fixed Term Contract (FTC). We have a blended working model, for this role you will be required on-site c. 8 days per month. Closing Date: Wednesday 11th February. Salary from: £60,000.

Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including:

• Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
• Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
• Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), and a Give As You Earn scheme.
• Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
• Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
• Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace:

Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background.

Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor. Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties.

Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity. We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us.

Culture:

We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other.

Blended working model:

Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team. Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum.

Our office locations are: Canary Wharf, Cambridge and Leeds.

Onboarding background checks:

As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.