Job Description

Scrum Master (SFIA Level 5)

Location: Remote (with ad hoc travel as required)

Rate: £500 per day inside IR35

Contract Length: Initial 4-month discovery phase, transitioning into a long-term engagement with rolling 6-month Statements of Work

Clearance: BPSS required

Equipment: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Role Purpose

We are seeking an experienced Senior Scrum Master / Agile Delivery Lead to drive Agile delivery across one or more squads within HMRC programmes.

This role is responsible for ensuring effective Scrum practices, enhancing team performance, and delivering against programme objectives. You will act as a servant leader and coach, fostering continuous improvement and increasing delivery maturity while influencing delivery approaches at a programme level.

Core Responsibilities

Agile Delivery Leadership

Lead end-to-end Agile delivery across one or more Scrum teams

Ensure delivery aligns with programme objectives, milestones, and outcomes

Support delivery across multiple workstreams and/or complex services

Operate at programme level to influence delivery strategy and execution

Scrum Facilitation

Facilitate all core Scrum ceremonies, including:

Daily stand-ups

Sprint planning

Backlog refinement

Sprint reviews

Retrospectives

Maintain team cadence, focus, and predictability of delivery

Ensure Agile best practices are consistently applied

Coaching & Mentoring

Coach teams in:

Scrum principles and Agile ways of working

Self-organisation, ownership, and accountability

Support Product Owners to:

Prioritise backlogs effectively

Maximise value delivery

Drive continuous improvement in team maturity and Agile capability

Stakeholder & Governance Management

Collaborate with Delivery Managers, Product Managers, Architects, and SMEs

Provide regular updates on:

Progress

Risks

Blockers

Dependencies

Ensure alignment with governance, reporting, and assurance frameworks (HMRC/GDS standards)

Influence stakeholders at both team and programme levels

Removing Impediments

Identify and remove delivery blockers and inefficiencies

Drive improvements in:

Team velocity

Collaboration

Quality of delivery

Enable teams to operate autonomously and effectively

Delivery Tooling & Reporting

Manage Agile tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps)

Track and report on:

Sprint progress

Burn-down charts and velocity metrics

Ensure transparency and visibility of delivery across stakeholders

Key Skills & Experience

Essential

Proven experience operating at SFIA Level 5 (Senior Scrum Master / Delivery Manager)

Strong background in Agile methodologies, including:

Scrum

Kanban

SAFe or other scaled Agile frameworks

Demonstrable experience leading:

Cross-functional delivery teams within complex programmes

Excellent stakeholder engagement and management skills

Strong coaching, mentoring, and facilitation abilities

Skilled in conflict resolution and team dynamics

Ability to operate effectively at both team and programme levels

Technical & Domain Experience

Hands-on experience with Agile tooling (Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps)

Prior delivery experience within:

HMRC

UK Government

GDS (Government Digital Service) environments