Agile Coach

Join a leading independent technology and services provider as an Agile Coach.

Job Overview: The Agile Coach will play a pivotal role in transforming the organisation's ways of working by embedding Agile principles, frameworks, and behaviours across technology teams. Operating as a trusted advisor and catalyst for change, you will guide teams and leaders in adopting high performing Agile practices, ensuring alignment with industry standards and the bank's strategic objectives. This role focuses on enabling sustainable agility, improving delivery outcomes, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.Location: Northampton NN4 7SGRate: in-scope IR35 £405 per Day (via a Hays Approved Umbrella Company).Contract Length: 31/12/2026Work Schedule: 2 - 3 days onsite/week

Key Responsibilities

Agile Transformation & Coaching

• Lead the adoption and maturation of Agile practices across multiple teams, ensuring consistent application of Scrum, Kanban, and scaled frameworks.
• Coach teams, Product Owners, and senior stakeholders to internalise Agile mindset, principles, and behaviours.
• Facilitate the development of sprint goals, team charters, definitions of done/ready, and operating rhythms aligned with best practice.
• Identify organisational constraints impacting agility and partner with leadership to remove systemic impediments.

Team Performance & Capability Uplift

• Foster high performing engineering and delivery teams through hands on coaching, mentoring, and continuous skill development.
• Provide expert guidance to resolve complex delivery challenges while ensuring alignment with technology practices, regulatory obligations, and business goals.
• Drive the creation of measurable improvement plans focused on flow, predictability, quality, and customer value.

Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Identify, design, and implement process improvements to optimise development lifecycle efficiency and effectiveness.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, emerging frameworks, Agile tooling, and modern engineering practices to continuously uplift organisational capability.
• Actively contribute to Agile and technology communities of practice, promoting knowledge-sharing and innovation.

Stakeholder Influence & Collaboration

• Partner with business stakeholders, engineering leaders, and cross-functional teams to ensure alignment between Agile delivery, strategic objectives, risk policies, and regulatory requirements.
• Facilitate workshops, planning events, retrospectives, and Agile ceremonies with clarity, neutrality, and impact.
• Influence decision-making at senior levels using strong negotiation and facilitation skills.

Agile Coach Expectations

• Strategic Leadership & Change Enablement
• Shape and contribute to Agile strategy, change roadmaps, and frameworks that enhance enterprise-wide ways of working.
• Recommend improvements to delivery processes, governance models, and tooling to increase overall agility and effectiveness.
• Ensure continuous improvement initiatives comply with risk, control, and governance requirements.

People Leadership

• Define roles, responsibilities, and future workforce needs aligned to Agile transformation goals.
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members, demonstrating the organisation's LEAD behaviours:
• L - Listen and be authentic
• E - Energise and inspire
• A - Align across the enterprise
• D - Develop others

Individual Contributor Path

• Operate as a subject matter expert in Agile disciplines, influencing multi-year programmes and major transformation initiatives.
• Guide teams through complex problem-solving, integrating insights from research, analytics, and industry benchmarks.
• Coach and mentor less experienced specialists, nurturing the next generation of Agile practitioners.

Risk, Controls & Governance

• Champion strong risk management and control practices within Agile delivery.
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks impacting Agile adoption or delivery outcomes.
• Ensure ways of working comply with organisational, regulatory, and security expectations.

Enterprise Collaboration

• Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure alignment across functions.
• Collaborate across business and technology domains to maintain visibility of strategy, evolving priorities, and dependencies.

Required Experience

• Demonstrable experience transforming teams and organisations through Agile adoption, coaching, and scaled frameworks.
• Prior experience as an Agile Coach operating in large, complex enterprise environments.
• Strong facilitation and negotiation skills at senior and cross-functional levels.
• Experience applying Agile in technology and engineering settings, with the ability to coach on delivery flow, quality, and technical practices.

Highly Valued Skills

• Agile certifications (e.g., CSM, CSP, ICP-ACC, SAFe, LeSS).
• Experience as a Scrum Master or Agile Delivery Lead.
• Technical background or strong understanding of software development practices.
• Experience with large-scale Agile frameworks (SAFe, LeSS, Spotify Model, Nexus).

Additional Information

Interview Process: In Person / Teams

How to Apply: If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.

Hays Talent Solutions is a trading division of Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited and acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers. By applying for this job you accept the T&C's, Privacy Policy and Disclaimers which can be found at hays.co.uk