Agile Coach / Scrum Master (Product Delivery)
Location: UK (hybrid/remote-by-agreement)
Employment type: Full-time, permanent employee of Acend
Salary: £60,000 per year + 10% performance-based bonus
Benefits: Pension (auto-enrolment), statutory leave/benefits (see below)
About Acend
Acend helps large organisations work smarter and move faster. We’re a boutique product and transformation consultancy working with brands like AstraZeneca, Novartis and Ferrero, small team, big impact.
The role
We’re looking for a Scrum Master who is also an Agile Coach: someone equally comfortable enabling teams day-to-day delivery and coaching leaders on modern product ways of working. You’ll blend Scrum and Kanban fluently, work end-to-end through Discovery → Alpha → Beta → Live, and keep the focus on outcomes customers feel.
What you’ll do
Guide the agile process: set up and drive Scrum/Kanban systems, facilitate Sprint/Flow ceremonies, and keep work visible (boards, WIP limits, metrics).
Coach for outcomes: upskill teams, Product Owners/Managers, and stakeholders; nurture psychological safety, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Optimise flow: map idea→outcome, reduce queues/hand-offs, tune WIP, and remove impediments quickly.
Product ways of working: partner with Product Owner to shape hypotheses, define value slices, and run Discovery/Alpha/Beta/Live.
Delivery excellence: forecast with evidence (throughput, cycle time), manage risk/RAID, drive release readiness, and land increments frequently.
Prioritisation & planning: enable outcome-based roadmaps, story mapping, and backlog stewardship; align OKRs with team plans.
Stakeholder facilitation: run crisp reviews, data-driven retros, and clear trade-off conversations.
Measures that matter: establish metrics (lead/cycle time, flow efficiency, escaped defects, NPS/activation) and use them to improve.
Facilitation of Agile ceremonies: Planning, Backlog refinement, Daily stand ups, Retrospectives, Cross product planning and Quarterly strategic planning.
Ensure Quality of Delivery: Strong user stories, acceptance criteria, DOR, DOD.
What you’ll bring
Proven experience as Scrum Master and Agile/Lean Coach in product environments.
Hands-on with Scrum & Kanban (service-level expectations, WIP, classes of service) and scaling patterns (e.g., lean, lightweight, not ceremony inflation).
Strong product management literacy: discovery methods, hypothesis testing, customer interviews, experiment design, outcome metrics.
Comfortable working through Discovery/Alpha/Beta/Live.
Tooling: Jira, Miro, good data hygiene for trustworthy metrics.
Excellent facilitation: coaching, and conflict-resolution skills; bias to action and delivery.
Nice-to-have certs: PSM II/III, KMP, or equivalent experience. Dev Ops/CICD experience.
How you’ll work
Drive the agile process and integrated planning.
Facilitate daily flow rituals (Daily Scrum/stand-ups, Sprint/Flow Planning, Reviews, Retros).
Help remove impediments for the team and support the Product Owner with backlog clarity.
Coach estimations/capacity where useful and establish lean metrics the team owns.
Compensation & benefits (UK)
Base salary: £60,000 per annum.
Bonus: 10% performance-based (subject to company and personal performance).
Pension: Auto-enrolment workplace pension (employer contributions in line with scheme rules).
Holidays: 20 days’ annual leave plus all UK public/bank holidays.
Statutory leave & pay: Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Statutory Maternity/Paternity/Adoption/Shared Parental Leave and pay, in accordance with UK law.
Other statutory entitlements: Right-to-work compliance, itemised payslips, rest breaks/working time protections, and protection from unlawful discrimination.
Expenses & kit: Reasonable business expenses reimbursed; laptop and required software provided.
Note: This summary reflects UK statutory minima; Acend policies may provide enhancements which will be detailed at offer.
Equal opportunity
Acend is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on any protected characteristic.
How to apply
Send your CV or LinkedIn profile and a short note on a time you improved flow from idea to outcome for a team. Include examples of Discovery/Alpha/Beta/Live or Kanban improvements you’ve led.