Job Description

Squad Lead

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for a highly motivated, experienced Squad Leader with enthusiasm for all aspects of product development who knows how to work with a team of highly skilled engineers. Our goal is to create an environment where continuous improvement of the development process is in focus and where everyone's common goal is to deliver outstanding software as fast as possible. You will be a proven expert in using the Agile / Scrum / Lean software development methodologies, a guardian of the delivery team's development processes and driven by delivering value. The Squad Lead will be an excellent communicator and facilitator, and not afraid to raise issues and drive change to remove impediments from the delivery team. You will have some familiarity with leading squads that incorporate AI solutions into their product(s).

Technical Skills:

 Experience of a wide range of Technology roles is desirable, ideally with some form of development engineering background

 Rounded and holistic understanding of Agile Methodologies such as CSP, KMP & ICP-ACC Certifications or their equivalent

 Experience of working/managing delivery of technology solutions using Net, Angular, Sql stored procedures, workflow automation

 Experience of using Jira and ADO as tool for managing work through its full life-cycle

 Employee Benefits Health Insurance Functional domain knowledge and experience of managing related products

Process Skills:

 Experience and track record of successful delivery in a regulated, complex, multi-product technological landscape. We also have significant security processes and legislative requirements to protect our customers and their data

 You will be expected to have a broad technical understanding to support your Agile credentials from software architecture through test, DevOps practices, security and operational run

 A metrics driven approach to delivery evaluation and drive out systems and processes that help define and report on the metrics we believe to be important

 Excellent stakeholder management skills.  As we work to transform the Mercer IT and Business into a truly Agile organisation you will need to influence and coach senior executives, many of whom will be new to Agile

 Ideally familiarity with managing AI model developments into existing and new applications

 Pods and squads are distributed globally and utilise a mix of permanent and partner staff who work largely remotely so experience of working with and motivating distributed teams is vital

 You will be collaborative, Inquisitive and interested in technology and best practices

Behavioral Skills :

 Run the software delivery for your Squad ensuring there are smooth and efficient processes for getting software through from requirements to working in production

 Identify and work to eliminate blockers

 Responsible for ensuring your Squad is motivated, collaborative, efficient and empowered

 e2e Delivery of working software for 1 or more products or solutions into production

 You will generally be responsible for 2 squads of between 5-9 people

 You will have an Enterprise mind-set able to foster collaboration, break down silos, identify and work to remove blockers

 You will be a recognised Agile Expert intimately familiar with the processes and practices required for successful and sustainable delivery. Our main delivery methodologies are Scrum and Kanban

 You will be proficient at creating highly performing teams and take a hands on approach where required

 Hands on experience of a range of squad based roles is an advantage

 Solid understanding of Software Development, Architecture, Test Engineering and Security best practice in an Agile environment

 Pods support the full lifecycle of a product and we operate on the philosophy that the work comes to the team. You will need to consider tech debt, obsolescence, security and modernisation

 Ensure our Agile governance and ceremonies are in place and effective

 Plan product releases

 You will be familiar with acting as Scrum Master for teams developing or receiving AI solutions

 Our standard metrics are visible and actively being used to drive making choices

 Own the Continuous Improvement backlog for your squad. This is the key mechanism by which we deliver improvements for the following; time to market, efficiency and quality

 You will provide coaching and support to your squad ensuring that they operate well as a team and foster o culture of ownership and respect

 You may be asked to be a line manager to 1 or more other squad leads

 In addition to your day to day activities you will be assigned 1 or more workstreams leadership opportunities that will deliver cross-functional benefits to our organization

Experience and Education Required

 Bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent required from an accredited institution.

 8-10 years of IT experience