Agile Coach
Simply Business is more than our name. It's how we approach insurance: Make it clear. Make it simple. Make it affordable. By combining exceptional talent, technology, data, and knowledge, Simply Business is the go-to online insurance brokerage that protects small businesses and the entrepreneurs who work hard to build them.
We want team members who have the drive to challenge boundaries. If you’re smart and passionate about delivering brilliant customer experiences, we’d love to hear from you.
We have a growing body of enthusiastic, hands-on Agile Coaches using their experience of various Agile and Lean frameworks and practices to continuously improve the way we deliver value to our customers. Our ultimate aim is to support the company objectives by keeping the cost of change low, the process of change simple and the people involved motivated. As a company, we embrace the adaption of the Deming Cycle offered in Eric Ries’ Lean Startup known as Build-Measure-Learn, so we are open to experimentation in both our products and our ways of working.
As an Agile Coach, you will:
- Divide your time into these areas:
- Across these areas, you will:
Organisational training - Providing Agile training that is available across the business
Slice’ coaching - Creating and helping to implement a coaching plan bespoke to the needs to that Product Team group.
One team focus - keep close to one team as selected by the business as a priority team
On demand’ support - Support provided to teams and individuals across the business/outside the slices on a request and prioritisation basis
Strive to continuously improve your teams’ agile mindset, practices, process and team dynamics, whilst retaining or improving the ability to deliver consistently and at a sustainable pace.
Work closely with your teams not only to support them in delivering value, quality, and a great customer experience, but also to remove non-value adding activities, bottlenecks, and blockers.
Responsibilities Include:
- Lead and coach your team(s) and/or individuals in relation to the agile mindset as well as any Agile frameworks and tools that are appropriate for the team
- Adapting your coaching style depending on the needs of the team. Taking a coaching voice as an Agile coach, but also capable to adapt and switch to a hands-on delivery manager when required.
- Facilitate team meetings such as stand-ups, planning and retrospectives etc.
- Coach teams to develop a Product mindset and take a user-focused approach
- Support your Product Manager with planning and the Roadmap, as needed
- Help effective collaboration across teams and drive focus towards outcomes
- Help expose and facilitate removal of impediments and blockers
- Creation of progress and feedback reporting tools (Burn Down, CFD, Cycle times, etc)
- Protect the team from outside distraction
- Drive forward continuous improvement within the team
- Encourage sharing of best practices across teams
- Coordinate with other Agile Coaches to encourage, adopt and evolve the understanding of the agile mindset, values, principle, processes and tools throughout the wider business
What we are looking for:
- Experience of working within and coaching on Scrum and Kanban frameworks
- Creative facilitation
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills
- Enthusiasm to try out anything new you have learnt in relation to Agile
- A good understanding of what makes a user-focused product team
- Skill at managing multiple stakeholders from all levels of the business
- Comfortable challenging the team when needed
- Understanding of the complexities of change management
- Understanding of Agile Software Development and Testing practices
- Take pride and ownership in your work
- Enthusiasm and aptitude for learning new skills and practices
- You’re a cultural hacker; you're passionate about creating a fun and motivating environment
- You’re unintimidated by being outside of your comfort zone
- Think the word “Resource”, when referring to people, is a dirty word
What are the benefits?
Here are some of the great benefits and perks that come from being a Simply Business employee:
• A salary that reflects your experience, our pay policy, and the market we’re in from your first day
• Group plan for medical, dental, and prescription drug coverage
• Short term disability, long term disability, and life insurance coverage
• Participation in the Company’s bonus program
• Participation in 401(k) plan with a 3% employer match
• Commuter benefits to help cut down on commuting costs
• 25 days of vacation time plus 10 company holidays
• Flexible working hours and working from home
• Annual company trip, regular outings, and volunteer opportunities
• An awesome WeWork office with cold brew coffee and other beverages on tap, local pop-up events, and more
Simply Business is an equal opportunity employer. We're committed to welcoming and helping to grow employees within an inclusive & diverse culture. And that commitment starts with our interview process.
Once you apply, your info will be reviewed in a committee with employees from different levels, teams, and experiences. We pride ourselves on fostering a sense of community, which is only made stronger by each individual at SB, so you'll have the opportunity to meet a variety of people throughout the process. Get excited!
Want more info on working at Simply Business? Check out our careers page: https://www.simplybusiness.com/careers/
A brief update on Covid-19 (coronavirus)
Simply Business is well prepared to deal with unprecedented events. We’re an agile business by nature – and our hiring and interview process is no exception. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some parts of our hiring process may take a little longer than usual. Please bear with us, and rest assured that we're happy to hear from you and receive your application.
If it looks like you could be a good fit for the role, we’ll ask you to interview on Zoom – you’ll need WiFi and a laptop, or a 4G-enabled smartphone. If you don’t have access to either of these, or you need support with your application, get in touch with us at [email protected]. Similarly, please email us if you’re not well, you’re self-isolating, or if you want to pause your application for a bit – we’ll be happy to keep you updated on future opportunities like the one below.