Senior Scrum Master SFIA 5

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