Job Description

Job id: 074185. Salary: Up to \xc2\xa389,200 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 06 September 2023. Closing date: 08 October 2023.

Business unit: IT. Department: IT Portfolio Management.

Contact details: Jon Ward. Jonathan.ward@kcl.ac.uk

Location: Guy\'s Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.

Job description

The Head of Agile Centre of Excellence (ACE) leads the ACE, a team of Agile coaches and practitioners, driving the adoption and maturing of Agile best practice across the King\'s. The Head of ACE ensures the Organization is consistently applying use of Agile frameworks and methods, evangelising for the use of Agile across the organization, and continuing to develop and improve Agile capabilities through helping set strategic direction and providing thought leadership.

The Head of ACE, supported by the Guiding Coalition, leads stakeholder and wider business engagement and promotion of Agile practices. The Head of ACE will also lead the King\'s wide Agile Community of Practice.

This post will be offered on a full-time, indefinite contract.

Key responsibilities

• Management of the ACE team - Day to day management of the ACE team, including recruitment, coaching, staff development and other pastoral responsibilities.
• Facilitate the Agile Transformation and work to continuously improve the Organisations Agile maturity level
• Support the launch of new ARTs - provide consistency through frameworks, training, templates, tooling and support for teams undertaking the transition to agile ways of working.
• Coaching Leadership - coach both New and Existing Agile Leaders by running or facilitating SAFe courses for Leadership, or workshops on core topics . And for existing Agile leaders, through existing coaching or collaborative relationships,
• Monitor and measure ACE value delivered - the ACE will have some OKRs which it will track against to monitor the success of the agile transformation itself.
• Fostering Lean-Agile Learning - maintain a library of role specific and team training material which can be delivered either through courses and workshops or through self service. ART and Agile team members will have coaching available both on a 121 and team basis.
• Leadership of the King\'s Agile Community of Practice - build a thriving community of Agile practitioners with a varied range of collaboration and learning opportunities to underpin King\'s agile transformation
• Facilitate the Agile Transformation and work to continuously improve the Organisations Agile maturity level
• Support the launch of new ARTs - provide consistency through frameworks, training, templates, tooling and support for teams undertaking the transition to agile ways of working.
• Coaching Leadership - coach both New and Existing Agile Leaders by running or facilitating SAFe courses for Leadership, or workshops on core topics . And for existing Agile leaders, through existing coaching or collaborative relationships,
• Monitor and measure ACE value delivered - the ACE will have some OKRs which it will track against to monitor the success of the agile transformation itself.
• Fostering Lean-Agile Learning - maintain a library of role specific and team training material which can be delivered either through courses and workshops or through self service. ART and Agile team members will have coaching available both on a 121 and team basis.
• Leadership of the King\'s Agile Community of Practice - build a thriving community of Agile practitioners with a varied range of collaboration and learning opportunities to underpin King\'s agile transformation

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

1. Scrum Master certification

2. Education to degree standard and/or equivalent qualifications/experience

3. Significant expertise in Agile methods and approaches

4. Presentation skills and the ability to communicate confidently

5. Experience leading or facilitating significant change to business technology using recognised frameworks and approaches, in conjunction with cross functional and multi-skilled teams.

6. Experience with Azure DevOps or similar tool and implementation of best practices in Agile tools and workflows

7. Experience of managing, inspiring, engaging and motivating a team and colleagues to achieve excellent results

8. Coaching capability - ability to support and inspire colleagues to follow recognised good practice

9. Ability to create an environment of mutual influence, encouraging the personal development of each individual and the development of teams

Desirable criteria

1. SAFe Program Consultant Certification

2. Other Agile certifications

3. Expertise in SAFe methods and approaches

4. Ability to lead Agile Training courses

Further information

In the immediate term, the ACE will be a function within King\'s IT Solutions, with IT acting as an incubator. But the intention that this becomes a \xe2\x80\x9ccentral\xe2\x80\x9d team servicing the whole of King\'s as soon as practicable.

King\'s College London