Senior Agile Delivery Manager

Senior Agile Delivery Manager
12-month Contract - Inside IR35 - up to 600 per day
Newcastle, Leeds or Birmingham based (must be local to one of these offices) - Hybrid working - 3 days office based
Previous experience working on government projects highly desirable

Role Context
The client is forming a new software engineering team to address a defined backlog of 20-30 items focused on service security, testability, resilience and recoverability.
This role is not a coordination-only delivery role. We require a highly experienced Delivery Manager who can operate immediately and sustainably in a hands-on Scrum Master / agile delivery capacity, working directly with engineers on day-to-day delivery.
You will work closely with a Senior Technical Business Analyst and Architect to ensure the backlog is technically ready, prioritised and executable before and during active sprint delivery.

Core Purpose
The Senior Agile Delivery Manager is a technical delivery leader responsible for the hands-on delivery of software within a modern engineering environment.
You will:
Lead agile ceremonies,
Actively manage delivery risks and dependencies,
Influence and engage senior stakeholders, and
Enable engineering teams to deliver high-quality software outcomes.
Recent, applied experience leading software development teams is essential.
Statements of capability or aspiration without evidence will not be considered sufficient.

Key Responsibilities
Agile Delivery (Hands-on)
Act as Scrum Master / Delivery Manager for a software engineering team on a day-to-day basis.
Lead sprint planning, daily stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives.
Actively remove delivery blockers and manage scope, flow and prioritisation.
Maintain delivery momentum across a sustained period of active build work.
Software Delivery & Technical Engagement
Work directly with software developers, testers and DevOps engineers.
Understand and manage delivery within modern software engineering lifecycles.
Engage confidently with technical discussions and trade-offs.
Support delivery across complex technical concerns (e.g. resilience, security, recoverability).

Senior Stakeholder Influence
Influence and challenge senior technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Provide clear, evidence-based delivery reporting.
Build trust through consistent delivery performance and transparency.
Planning, Coordination & Reporting
Maintain and refine prioritised backlogs with Product Managers and technical leads.
Proactively manage risks, issues and cross-team dependencies.
Use Jira effectively for planning, tracking and reporting at team and initiative level.
Complete delivery-related governance and change activity (e.g. ServiceNow).

Essential Skills & Experience (Mandatory)

Recent, hands-on agile delivery experience with software development teams
Operating as a Scrum Master / Delivery Manager in active software build
Delivery within modern engineering environments, including:
o Version control (e.g. Git)
o CI/CD pipelines
o Cloud-native or platform-based services
Strong senior stakeholder engagement and influence
Practical experience managing delivery risks, dependencies and complex backlogs
High proficiency in Jira (team and programme level)
SFIA Level 6 capability demonstrated through applied experience, not role titles

Technical Environment (Experience Required)
The successful candidate will have worked recently and directly with engineering teams using technologies and practices such as:
Cloud platforms (e.g. Azure and/or AWS) as part of software delivery, not migration only
Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform)
CI/CD tooling and modern DevOps practices
Automated testing and quality practices
Secure, resilient digital services

Desirable Experience
Experience with platform engineering or data engineering teams
Previous experience working within UK government digital services
Use of ServiceNow for delivery/change processes

Disclaimer:

This vacancy is being advertised by either Advanced Resource Managers Limited, Advanced Resource Managers IT Limited or Advanced Resource Managers Engineering Limited ("ARM"). ARM is a specialist talent acquisition and management consultancy. We provide technical contingency recruitment and a portfolio of more complex resource solutions. Our specialist recruitment divisions cover the entire technical arena, including some of the most economically and strategically important industries in the UK and the world today. We will never send your CV without your permission. Where the role is marked as Outside IR35 in the advertisement this is subject to receipt of a final Status Determination Statement from the end Client and may be subject to change.