Senior Agile Delivery Manager (Contract)
Duration: 12 Months
Contract Type: Inside IR35
Day Rate: Up to £600/day via Umbrella + Expenses
Location: Leeds, Newcastle or Birmingham (60% Onsite Requirement)
Opportunity Overview
A large, complex organisation is seeking a Senior Agile Delivery Manager to support the delivery of a newly formed software engineering team. This team will focus on a defined backlog of critical improvements across service security, resilience, testability, and recoverability.
This is a hands on delivery role, not a coordination position. You will operate as an embedded Scrum Master within an active engineering team, working closely with developers, testers, and DevOps engineers to drive high quality software delivery.
The successful candidate will play a key role in ensuring backlogs are technically ready, prioritised, and executable, working in close partnership with architecture and business analysis functions.
Key Responsibilities Agile Delivery (Hands on)
- Act as Scrum Master / Delivery Manager within a live software engineering environment
- Lead core agile ceremonies including sprint planning, stand ups, reviews, and retrospectives
- Actively remove blockers and manage delivery flow, scope, and prioritisation
- Maintain consistent delivery momentum across sustained build activity
Software Delivery & Technical Engagement
- Work closely with engineers across development, testing, and DevOps
- Operate effectively within modern software delivery lifecycles
- Engage confidently in technical discussions, trade offs, and challenges
- Support delivery across complex areas such as security, resilience, and recoverability
Senior Stakeholder Engagement
- Influence and challenge senior technical and non technical stakeholders
- Provide clear, evidence based reporting on delivery progress
- Build trust through transparency and consistent performance
Planning, Coordination & Governance
- Collaborate with Product Managers and technical leads to maintain prioritised backlogs
- Proactively manage risks, issues, and cross team dependencies
- Utilise Jira for detailed planning, tracking, and reporting
- Support governance and change processes where required
Essential Skills and Experience
- Recent, hands on experience delivering software within agile engineering teams
- Proven track record operating as a Scrum Master or Delivery Manager in active build environments
- Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices, including:
- Version control (e.g. Git)
- CI/CD pipelines
- Cloud native or platform based architectures
- Experience working directly with developers, testers, and DevOps engineers
- Ability to manage complex delivery risks, dependencies, and backlogs
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills at a senior level
- High proficiency in Jira for team and programme level delivery
- Demonstrable experience aligned to senior capability (e.g. SFIA Level 6 equivalent)
- CV evidence must clearly outline delivery outcomes, technical context, and problem solving approach
Technical Environment
- Cloud platforms (e.g. AWS and/or Azure) within active software delivery environments
- Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform)
- CI/CD tooling and DevOps practices
- Automated testing and quality engineering approaches
- Secure and resilient digital service delivery
Desirable Experience
- Experience working with platform or data engineering teams
- Exposure to large scale, regulated or public sector environments
- Familiarity with service management or change tools (e.g. ServiceNow)
Location & Working Pattern
- Primary locations: Newcastle, Leeds, or Birmingham
- Minimum 60% on site presence required
- Candidates must live within a realistic commuting distance (approximately 90 minutes) for sustained attendance
What's on Offer
- 12 month contract engagement
- Competitive day rate via umbrella
- Opportunity to work within a high impact, delivery focused engineering environment
- Exposure to complex, large scale digital services
Application Process
For further information or to apply, please get in touch for a confidential discussion.