Scrum Master

Scrum Master role blending Agile and Waterfall methodologies. Support the implementation of AI Tech as we transform our Tech Platform. Circa £50,000 (on experience) + up to 20% annual performance bonus & great corporate benefits.

Country's largest non-bank lender. Friendly team, great career opportunities. 26 days holiday, and a day off for your birthday, plus bank holidays. Free access to company holiday homes. Buy & sell holidays. Discretionary annual bonus plus an additional Shared Reward Bonus. Matched pension contribution. Health cash plan plus Private medical insurance. Life assurance and Critical illness cover. Travel season ticket loans and Ride to work scheme. Free local gym access. Local bar / restaurant discounts. Role based from great modern offices in Cheadle (South Manchester).

We're Together. For over 50 years, we've helped thousands of people, businesses and professionals unlock their property ambitions with our common-sense approach to mortgages and secured loans. We take the time to understand our customers and our door is always open, so we can often help when other lenders can't or won't. Based in Cheadle, Cheshire, our 800 colleagues help our customers throughout the UK, backed by the power of a £7.8 billion loan book.

Working in no small part with our newly formed AI Team, this is a really exciting Scrum Master role, which will see you working on the latest tech during a time of tech transformation and investment. In this role, you will be supporting both our Platform Engineering and Database Teams. Beyond the usual mechanics of the Scrum Master role, you will be keeping the team focused on the priorities and protecting them from interruptions. As such you will triage all the support requests that come in through the sprint before distributing across the teams. There is real depth to this role and you will be supporting aspects of Delivery and capacity planning as you create short and longer term team plans and the necessary resource allocations. You will ideally be a Change/ Project expert and be able to blend Agile and Waterfall methodologies incorporating Agile ways of working against a more traditional Project Plan. Working with Product Owners and Product Managers to secure Project Commitments and Resource is key. So too is the ability to speak to stakeholders in the business and foster support from your Development Teams. An outgoing personality and natural ability to develop and drive personal relationships within professional parameters will be highly regarded.

Typical Duties Include:

• Set up and facilitates the ceremonies for the team. These would include Daily Stand-Up, Sprint Planning, Demo and Retro.
• Continuously evaluates the effectiveness of the ceremonies and looks for ways to improve these, working closely with the Product Owner and the team to realise these improvements.
• Understands the principles of "Flow" and getting work items "done". Values this and embeds this thinking in the team.
• Removes impediments quickly and seen as a member of the team that can help address these issues, as well as helping the team try and address issues on their own where appropriate - maintaining a view on flow.
• Support the team during BRP and ensure the flow of the session works for the team to achieve the right outcomes. Prepares the team ahead of the session so they know what to expect and appropriate pre-work is done.

Qualifications

Candidates with a blend of the following skills will be very highly regarded:

• Good working knowledge of Agile concepts and agile tooling that facilitates it.
• Comfortable blending Agile and Waterfall methodologies and be comfortable using KANBAN.
• Strong influencer with the ability to influence across a broad stakeholder group.
• Practised in helping everyone understand Agile concepts and ways of working; able to encourage and enable others.
• Experience working on infrastructure change projects.
• Proven capability to assess and keep assessing what is important at any given time in order to prioritise and effectively manage expectations.
• Energises the team, keeps spirits and momentum high.

If you feel you have some of the skills mentioned above, but not all, please do still apply and we would be happy to have a further discussion with you in regards to your suitability for the role. Together embraces diversity and inclusion, and are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. Not only do we welcome difference – we celebrate it, support it and really value our colleagues for who they are. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills. If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process. Please note that all successful applicants will undergo relevant employment reference, financial and criminal record checks.