Principal Delivery Lead

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

 

Location: Warsaw

Department: Digital and Technology 

Contract type: Indefinite Contract  

Closing Date: 23rd September 2024, at 23:59

Some of our benefits are:

• Enjoy a standard workday of 7.45 hours and a weekly total of 38.75 hours, allowing for a healthy work-life balance.
• Benefit from additional holidays, including a minimum of 35 days of annual leave per year, which includes public holidays. Our holiday calendar is meticulously crafted based on the public holiday lists for Poland, Belgium, and adheres to the British Council policy.
• Stay active and healthy with our Corporate Sports Card - MultiSport Light 10, which is partially funded by our Social Fund (ZFŚS).
• Avail significant discounts on our English courses and exams for both you and your immediate family members.
• Take advantage of various financial grants and holiday refunds through our Social Fund (ZFŚS), which offers both random and social assistance.
• Access our Employee Assistance Programme, providing confidential psychological support services to ensure your overall wellbeing.
• Explore diverse avenues for professional development and career advancement within our organizational structure.

 

You must have the legal right to work in Poland at the time of application. There is no relocation or sponsorship support.   

British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service.  This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.  

 

Role purpose 

In this senior position, you'll help shape and drive the delivery of our digital products and technology solutions. You will be responsible for developing and implementing products and projects, leading a team of Delivery Leads, and collaborating with other Principal Delivery Leads to establish a community of practice around delivery excellence. Your responsibilities include personally supervising deliveries, guaranteeing not just the effective completion of specific projects, but also guiding a team of Delivery Leads. This comprehensive approach emphasises your critical role in navigating the complex environment of digital initiatives, linking individual project accomplishments to bigger organisational goals within the dynamic digital realm. 

 

Role context 

The Digital and Technology (D&T) team collaborate with other parts of the British Council to foster a digitally enabled, customer centric organisation. As a digitally inclusive team, we strive to ensure our people, and those we work with, are enabled to feel digitally confident. We do this by empowering our people with digital skills and support to help them rise to important challenges, regardless of role or location. Our people steer our ambition, drive our successes and manage us through periods of great change. Together, we strive to build an inclusive environment that upholds our values and supports us in our work. 

We are:  

• Open and committed - We share the right information, with the right people, at the right time. 
• Optimistic and bold - We define and validate value to empower our experts to make high-impact decisions. 
• Expert and inclusive - We reduce digital inequalities and reduce the impact of digital disadvantage for our people, our stakeholders, and our customers. 

The Engineering division brings together Engineering, QA, Architecture and Delivery expertise to ensure excellence in the development of our global products and services. Encompassing Reuse, Buy and Build strategies, it champions community communities of practices, defining solutions and core-capabilities and to create amazing products. The division ensures, through architecture, delivery of strategic, enterprise-wide solutions to business problems, proactive management of technology risks, setting practices, standards and guidance to the wider organisation for flexible approaches to technology adoption to meet business objectives, and enable strategic delivery.   

 

Main accountabilities 

• With support from technical roles within effectively communicate complex technical details to non-technical stakeholders, ensuring a shared understanding of project goals and progress.  
• Identify and address issues and blockers collaboratively, working with all relevant parties to ensure successful resolutions and project continuity.  
• Champion and facilitate continuous improvement initiatives within the community of Delivery Leads, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence.  
• Demonstrate a self-starting attitude and a discovery mindset, setting the tone for proactive problem-solving and strategic exploration.  
• Own the delivery of digital products assigned to this role, acting as either a servant or project leader where appropriate. 
• Coach and mentor both team members and others to apply the most appropriate Agile and Lean tools and techniques, whilst also being sympathetic to traditional project management approaches. 
• Take ownership of managing and tracking through documentation, including project plans, risk and issue logs, and sprint backlogs, providing guidance and support to the team of Delivery Leads.  
• Provide regular, comprehensive project reporting to various stakeholders, offering insights into the collective progress of the delivery teams.  
• Manage and maintain the delivery pace across the teams, ensuring alignment with timelines and expectations while providing guidance and support to Delivery Leads in achieving their respective objectives. 
• Creating a delivery ethos amongst all teams they lead.  
• Initiate, cultivate, and sustain effective relationships and engagement with product owners and stakeholders globally, ensuring alignment with overarching delivery goals.  
• Lead, build and maintain successful delivery teams, ensuring they are motivated, collaborating, and working well, ensuring they focus the team on what is most important to the delivery of products and services.  
• Oversee the delivery of the team of Delivery Leads you manage.  
• Build and foster a cohesive community of practice for Delivery Leads, providing guidance, support, and creating an environment for knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.  
• Coach and mentor both Delivery Leads and development team members in the application of Agile and Lean tools and techniques, promoting best practices across the community.  
• Manage relationships with third-party integrators, ensuring seamless collaboration and integration with the overall delivery strategy.  
• Provide regular project reporting to agreed templates to stakeholders, working closely with Product Owners and other key leads. 
• Ability to maintain delivery pace within own delivery and those in their team. 

 

Requirements of the role:

• Varied Knowledge and Demonstrable Experience: Possess diverse experience in delivering projects within an Agile environment. 
• Stakeholder Engagement Skills: Demonstrate effective communication and collaboration with senior management, business users, PMO Programme-level colleagues, and third-party suppliers. 
• Understanding of Agile Fundamentals: Exhibit a solid grasp of Agile principles and practices, including iterative development with incremental delivery. 
• Proficiency in Planning Tools: Experience of using formal planning tools to create project plans where appropriate (for example Miro, Jira, Confluence, Planner, Microsoft Project etc) 
• Communication Skills: Display excellent verbal and written communication proficiency using various tools, including Outlook, Word, Jira, Teams, Excel, and PowerPoint. 
• Building Community of Practices: Establish and foster a community of practices around delivery excellence, encouraging knowledge sharing and continuous improvement. 
• Written and verbal proficiency in English is required 
• Degree level qualification or equivalent by experience 

 

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

 

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement

 

The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment.  We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability.  All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

 

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.

 

We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.

 

Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

 

If you have any problems with your application please email askhr@britishcouncil.org

 

Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our ‘ASK HR’ email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.

---