Agile Practice Lead

Job Description

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation. Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues. Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers. Job PurposeLeads the Agile Delivery services across the cross-functional CLUK Change Portfolio end to end, utilising and championing Agile, DevOps and Product based delivery approaches to facilitate execution, remove blockers and embed continuous improvement as part ofour wider delivery framework. Defines and implements best-in-class delivery operations focused on Product and Business outcomes aligned to our overall strategy, measured via robust OKR (Objective and Key Result) and KPI (Key Performance Indicator) measurement. Continually improves the quality of our overall Agile delivery to the business by utilising Agile and Lean principles to continuously remove obstacles, maximise value and reduce overall waste within the delivery of projects to support achievement of our overallstrategy. Key Duties

• To drive innovation with the CLUK delivery discipline through working with IT& Change colleagues to adopt and embed Agile and Lean principles to minimise waste and maximise value through the delivery life cycle and the ultimate resolution of business problemsvia aligned technology, people or process solutions.
• To develop the Agile Delivery Practice through leadership and development of people and core Agile and Lean skills such that Agile delivery becomes known for predictable production lines and consistent delivery of value over the medium term, with Agilebecoming the normalised delivery approach within the majority of the change portfolio.
• To develop the understanding of our business and our products within the Agile delivery practice through partnering with key stakeholder areas across our business, enabling team members to deliver strategic workstreams in close partnership with Productand Technical leads.
• To manage the relationship between Product, Engineering, Business Stakeholders, Architecture and Security through regular review and challenge of functional solutions to ensure we are always solving the most critical of our business challenges in the mostefficient way.
• To manage the quality of Agile delivery to the business through regular review and assessment of Product roadmaps and value delivery to ensure that all aspects of the solutions designed and delivered meet the requirements of the business and solves thespecific business problem
• To proactively develop strong relationships with key stakeholders across the business through regular interaction, support and challenge in order to identify and manage synergies across multiple business aligned teams, and manage associated challenges,issues, risks and gaps that may impact on the quality of change delivery across the business

Skills/Knowledge/Experience

• Extensive knowledge of leading an Agile practice within a Financial Services organsiation
• Extensive knowledge of delivery methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, Safe Agile) and their specific pros and cons within a Financial Services environment
• Extensive knowledge of the specific challenges and drivers (such as benefits realisation management) within a major Financial Services organisation
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills and proven relationship builder
• Excellent communication skills at executive level
• Excellent financial management and change/project management skills
• Excellent stakeholder management skills to ensure collaboration and engagement with key functions across the business
• Excellent analytical skills with a strong focus on detail and the ability to aggregate for Executive audiences
• Confident in oral communication and can adapt to the audience, coupled with confident presentation skills
• Confident influencer at all levels
• Highly organised and methodical
• Proven experience in leading large-scale, multi-team, multi-vendor Agile deliveries with budgets up to £10m
• Proven experience of implementing effectively delivery methods at scale, and empirically improving them
• Proven experience in transformation and delivery in a complex, matrix enterprise environment
• Proven team player
• Extensive leadership experience within Financial Services in an Agile delivery practice involving delivering and leading change using Agile and Lean techniques
• Proven experience of understanding the the key drivers and issues within Financial Services and using that knowledge to influence how solutions are developed/deployed to solve business problems
• Experienced in acting independently with initiative and decisiveness, and escalating issues effectively when required

Benefits of working at Canada LifeWe believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package thats regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, youll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pensionand bonus scheme, along with, income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance. We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development. How we work at Canada LifeOur culture is unique and incredibly important to us. We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures. Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationshipswe have with others. Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward. We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. Thats why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop. Diversity and inclusionBuilding an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic i