NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE

Job description Agile Product Delivery Manager Contract Type: Permanent Location: London or Newcastle Salary: London c£74,355 Newcastle c65,060 plus civil service employer pension contribution of 28%. A higher base salary may be available for exceptional applicants. A minimum of 2 days a week based in the office is expected. Nationality Requirement: • UK Nationals • Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK • Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas or accept temporary visas as we are looking to hire on a permanent basis. Please contact the HR Service desk ( ) should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility. Introduction: Agile Product Delivery Manager is a role within the NAO's Digital Services (DS) function. With responsibility for ensuring their digital products provide value and achieve the right outcomes by balancing user and business needs. The post holder will be responsible for leading products through different phases of the product lifecycle, from discovery, through development, delivery and continuous improvement, to retirement. The post holder will also be accountable for the effective delivery of these products and services, which could be complex and high risk. This role requires a strong background in Agile methodologies, technical project management, and cross-functional team leadership. You will work closely with engineering, DevOps, QA, and architecture teams to ensure timely, high-quality, and scalable product delivery. This role reports into the Head of Audit Technology. The postholder is expected to matrix manage a range of architects, engineers, analysts, and external supplier teams. This role requires regular attendance at the NAO's office either in Victoria, London, or at the office in Newcastle. Responsibilities of the role: Technical Delivery Leadership •Own the successful delivery of technical solutions from the initial concept phase through to deployment, ensuring that all initiatives are in alignment with architectural and business goals. •Work in close collaboration with architectural, engineering and operation leads to define comprehensive delivery plans, establish technical milestones, and develop effective release strategies. •Act as the primary point of accountability for delivery outcomes, balancing speed, quality, and technical debt. Agile Execution •Facilitate Agile ceremonies (sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, retrospectives) with a focus on delivering high-quality technical outcomes. •Ensure that user stories are well-defined, technically feasible, and appropriately prioritized. •Foster a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging experimentation, feedback loops, and iterative delivery. •Translate product requirements into actionable technical tasks and delivery roadmaps. Cross-Functional Collaboration •Work closely with delivery managers, architects, developers, QA, and operational engineers to ensure alignment across all stages of the delivery lifecycle. •Coordinate with external vendors or third-party teams when necessary to manage integrations or dependencies. •Act as a bridge between technical teams and business stakeholders, ensuring clear communication and shared understanding. Operational Delivery & Vendor Management •Manage supplier contracts and project/product financials to support successful IT product delivery. •Lead the creation and evaluation of Statements of Work and supplier proposals. •Drive governance through project boards, delivering business cases and executive updates. DevOps & CI/CD Enablement •Collaborate with teams to implement and maintain robust pipelines that support frequent, reliable, and automated deployments. •Promote infrastructure-as-code, automated testing, and monitoring practices to improve delivery speed and system resilience. •Support the adoption of modern DevOps tools and practices across delivery teams. Quality & Compliance •Ensure that all deliverables meet internal quality standards and external compliance requirements (e.g., security, data privacy, accessibility). •Champion test automation, code reviews, and performance testing as integral parts of the delivery process. •Work with QA and security teams to embed quality and compliance into the development lifecycle. Technical Metrics & Reporting •Define and track key delivery metrics such as velocity, lead time, deployment frequency, and change failure rate. •Use data to identify bottlenecks, forecast delivery timelines, and inform decision-making. •Provide regular updates to senior leadership on delivery progress, risks, and mitigation plans. Risk and Issue Management •Proactively identify technical and delivery risks, assess their impact, and develop mitigation strategies. •Manage dependencies across teams, systems, and external partners to ensure smooth delivery flow. •Maintain a delivery risk register and escalate issues when necessary to avoid delivery delays. Key skills / competencies required The skill sets listed also include the corresponding skill level (awareness, working, practitioner, expert): •Agile and Lean practices: You can coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean good practices, creating and tailoring the right approach for a team while challenging, evaluating and iterating the approach through the lifecycle. (Skill Level: Practitioner) •Applying user-centred insights: You can use user insights to represent users in internal discussions, advocating for research to be completed with all types of users for the product or service. You use user needs to agree the work that needs to be done and determine priorities with the team. (Skill Level: Practitioner) •Communicating between the technical and non-technical: You can mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels. You can identify the needs of business and technical stakeholders and effectively manage stakeholder expectations. (Skill level: Expert) •Creating value for money: You can advocate for user needs while ensuring this is balanced against cost and value for the organisation. You can determine the benefit of a product and persuade others it's the right product to use, communicating business-value propositions and helping others make value-based decisions to direct development. (Skill Level: Practitioner) •Lifecycle management: You can work and consult with the right people at the right time to move through the life cycle and deliver value, using evidence to decide when a team should continue, change direction or stop. You can identify tools and techniques required at different phases of the life cycle and guide colleagues and stakeholders through these phases. (Skill Level: Practitioner) •Maintaining delivery momentum: You can facilitate the delivery flow of a team, managing the pace and tempo. You can actively address internal and external risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team. (Skill level: Practitioner) •Managing Product Outcomes: You can lead teams to create effective methods for measuring product outcomes, advocating for data-driven decision making and helping others to prioritise to make better choices. You use data to drive continuous improvement, increasing quality and user experience while identifying opportunities to share and connect product data. (Skill Level: Practitioner) •Product Management: You can set the strategy and vision for your products, collaborating with others and creating a prioritised roadmap to use to discuss product strategy at all levels. (Skill Level: Practitioner) Experience •Minimum of 5 years in Agile delivery or technical project management roles, with a demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams in delivering complex software solutions. Experience should include managing full product lifecycles from discovery through to deployment, and continuous Improvement. •Strong understanding of modern software development practices and architectures, including microservices, RESTful APIs, cloud-native applications, and distributed systems. Ability to engage in technical discussions with engineers and architects, and make informed decisions on delivery trade-offs. •Deep familiarity with Agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe. Proven ability to tailor Agile practices to suit team maturity and project context, while maintaining a focus on iterative delivery, continuous feedback, and value-driven outcomes. •Hands-on experience with Agile project and delivery tools such as Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms. Comfortable configuring boards, workflows, and dashboards to support transparency and delivery tracking. •Demonstrated success in leading multidisciplinary teams, including developers, QA engineers, DevOps, and UX designers. Skilled at fostering collaboration, resolving conflicts, and aligning team efforts with strategic goals. The deadline for applications is About the National Audit Office The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK's main public sector audit body. Independent of government, we have responsibility for auditing the accounts of various public sector bodies, examining the propriety of government spending, assessing risks to financial control and accountability, and reviewing the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of programmes, projects, and activities. We report directly to Parliament . click apply for full job details