The Role

We are looking for a highly skilled and experienced Agile Delivery Manager to join our Bristol office on a 12-month basis, supporting and driving the delivery of our Data and Insight team. This role requires a deep understanding of Agile methodologies and a strong ability to work across multiple teams (up to three), ensuring Agile principles and practices are fully embedded and continuously improved. The successful candidate will play a critical role in facilitating Agile processes, fostering collaboration, removing impediments, and driving efficiencies within the teams.

The Agile Delivery Manager will act as a servant-leader, creating an environment that enables teams to self-organise while maintaining a focus on delivering high-value outcomes. They will also be responsible for ensuring alignment across teams, managing dependencies, and working closely with stakeholders to provide transparency on progress, risks, and delivery timelines. A strong understanding of Azure DevOps (ADO) is essential, as it will be the primary tool used for managing work items, tracking progress, and maintaining delivery workflows.

What You`ll Be Doing

• Agile Leadership & Facilitation: Act as a servant-leader, guiding multiple Agile teams in delivering high-value outcomes through effective facilitation of Agile ceremonies and continuous improvement practices.
• Cross-Team Coordination & Collaboration: Ensure seamless collaboration across teams, working closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Data Engineers, and other stakeholders to drive alignment and delivery efficiency.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Provide transparency on delivery progress, risks, and timelines, managing stakeholder expectations and facilitating prioritisation.
• Impediment Resolution: Proactively identify and resolve impediments to maintain team productivity and flow.
• Agile Metrics & Insights: Track and analyse key Agile metrics to provide insights that drive informed decision-making and continuous improvement.
• -Agile Coaching & Development: Mentor and coach teams to enhance their Agile maturity and foster a culture of learning and adaptability.
• Champion Agile Best Practices: Advocate for Agile methodologies and best practices, promoting a mindset of agility, innovation, and iterative improvement.

What We`re Looking for in You

• Proven Agile Delivery Experience: Demonstrated success as an Agile Delivery Manager, Scrum Master, or in a similar role, ideally within a data-driven environment.
• Agile Frameworks: Strong working knowledge of Scrum, as well as experience with Kanban, SAFe, and other Agile methodologies.
• Multi-Team Coordination: Proven ability to work across multiple Agile teams, ensuring effective alignment, coordination, and delivery.
• Facilitation & Coaching: Excellent facilitation skills for Agile ceremonies and workshops. Ability to coach and mentor teams to enhance Agile maturity and performance.
• Stakeholder Management: Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the capability to engage effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Impediment Resolution: Proactive problem-solving abilities to identify, track, and resolve impediments impacting team performance.
• Azure DevOps Proficiency: Strong proficiency in Azure DevOps (ADO) for managing work items, tracking team performance, and maintaining delivery roadmaps.
• Agile Metrics & Reporting: Solid understanding of Agile metrics (velocity, cycle time, burndown charts) with the ability to derive meaningful insights to inform decision-making.
• Continuous Improvement: A proactive mindset towards continuous improvement, driving efficiencies, and fostering a culture of learning and adaptation.
• Leadership & Collaboration: Ability to lead cross-functional teams, drive collaboration, and ensure alignment with strategic goals.

Desirable Product Ownership Skills:

• User Story Writing: Ability to work with Product Owners and stakeholders to craft clear, concise, and actionable user stories that drive value.
• Backlog Management: Proficiency in backlog grooming and prioritisation, ensuring that work items are well-defined and aligned with strategic goals.
• Stakeholder Management: Strong stakeholder management skills to facilitate collaboration, align expectations, and maintain transparency on delivery progress and priorities.
• Data & Insight Experience: Experience working within a Data and Insight team or in a data-focused delivery role.
• DevOps & Cloud Platforms: Familiarity with DataOps, DevOps practices, or cloud-based data platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Agile Certifications: Relevant Agile certifications such as Certified Scrum Master (CSM), SAFe Agilist, ICAgile Certified Professional, or equivalent.
• Distributed Team Leadership: Experience leading teams in a distributed or remote working environment.

This role offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact on our organisation s success by leading and shaping our lean delivery capabilities. If you are a strategic and innovative leader with a passion for agile methodologies, DevOps, and empowering teams, we invite you to apply and join us on this transformative journey.

What You`ll Get in Return

• A discretionary annual bonus so you can share in the company`s success
• 25 days` paid holiday and an annual holiday buying scheme, with 5 additional days awarded for long service
• A generous pension scheme - employer contributions between 5% and 11% depending on how much you save
• Various benefits to support your health and wellbeing including a Healthcare Cash Plan, an Employee Assistance Programme, a Wellbeing platform and a Gym benefit that you can share with your family and friends
• Enhanced Family Leave including 18 weeks full pay for birthing parents and 4 weeks for non-birthing parents
• Lots of other great benefits including an annual ShareSave scheme, Employee Life Assurance, a discounts portal and more!

About Unite Students

Founded in 1991, Unite Students is a FTSE 100 business and the UK`s leading provider of purpose-built student accommodation. You can find us in 25 leading university towns and cities, with 74,000 students calling US home! We are driven by our values, culture, and a commitment to develop diverse and inclusive teams, filled with positive energy and new ideas.

Instinctive inclusion. We know that to create and maintain a happy healthy organisation, we have to work hard to ensure inclusion isn`t just what we do but who we are.

People make Unite Students. Employees, students and neighbours all contribute to building environments where we can all thrive.

Room for Everyone

We`re proud to be an employer that embraces individuality, and we`re passionate about building inclusive teams. We focus on creating a collaborative culture where you can be you, where your voice is heard, and where you can truly belong. We take great pride in being rated Gold Investors in People and are constantly striving to provide the highest standard of learning and development opportunities and professional pathways for our people. Building a home for success, for both our employees and students, requires exceptional people with a passion for creating room for everyone, doing what`s right, keeping US safe, and raising the bar. Join us as we build better experiences for students that live with us.

We are US.