Agile Coach (hybrid or remote)

• About Us

   

  The world isn’t standing still, and neither is Allstate. We’re moving quickly, looking across our businesses and brands and taking bold steps to better serve customers’ evolving needs. That’s why now is an exciting time to join our team. You’ll have opportunities to take risks, challenge the status quo and shape the future for the greater good.

   

  You’ll do all this in an environment of excellence and the highest ethical standards – a place where values such as integrity, inclusive diversity and accountability are paramount. We empower every employee to lead, drive change and give back where they work and live. Our people are our greatest strength, and we work as one team in service of our customers and communities.

   

  Allstate operate a very flexible hybrid working policy that will allow you to design your working week in collaboration with your manager with a blend of remote and office working for NI based employees as well as condensed working patterns (4 day week/9 day fortnight). Employees based in GB will be employed on a permanent remote working contract.

   

  Join our team and you’ll find challenge and reward in a culture of innovation, support and balance. 

   

   

  Location

   

  Belfast / Derry-Londonderry / Strabane

   

  Your role in the team

   

  Allstate is seeking an enterprise coach with a strong background in successful lean-agile transformation up to C-suite organization level involving business and IT teams.

   

  Allstate is a leading personal property insurance provider that helps individuals, families and businesses protect themselves and quickly recover from unexpected loss and disruption to their lives. Allstate enjoys a significant market share but faces increasing pressure from other large traditional competitors as well as small agile market disruptors.

   

  Though Allstate’s products and services are available predominantly in North America it relies heavily and increasingly on Allstate’s Technology & Strategic Ventures (ATSV) IT department which follows a multi-shore staffing model with technology teams located across north America, Northern Ireland and India. Allstate Northern Ireland employs approx. 2,300 staff predominantly within technology.

   

  Allstate is undergoing an enterprise-wide lean-agile transformation. Our multi-year Transformative Growth program is aimed at making our insurance products “Affordable, Simple and Connected” (ASC) by modernizing our IT systems, processes and teams, and reducing operating costs. In many areas lean-agile ways of working have been established particularly within ATSV IT teams.

   

  However, systemic impediments remain above the team level (such as siloed working) that require strong relationship building, communication, business change management, thought-leadership, coaching, collaboration and facilitation in addition to knowledge of lean-agile frameworks and technologies.

   

  We are seeking to achieve greater business agility by bringing together many perspectives from across our insurance businesses and technology for faster collaboration and learning, problem solving, product development and service delivery.

   

  Helping to influence and guide this transformation is Allstate’s Enterprise Agility Office (EAO), a team of experienced coaches and lean-agile practitioners located across North America, Northern Ireland and India. The successful candidate will work from within the EAO to coach business and technology teams to streamline their collaborations. We have opportunities at both Band D (see essential criteria) and Band E (refer also to desirable criteria) positions.

   

   

  So, what are the essential criteria to apply?

   

  • All candidates must evidence an existing right to work in the UK
  • 5 years’ experience and a proven record of coaching the successful delivery of customer/business solutions.
  • One or more internationally recognized Agile certifications, a minimum of 3 years’ experience working with practices such as XP, Scrum or Kanban and lean-agile frameworks such as SAFe, DAD or LeSS.
  • Experience of workshop facilitation including use of electronic tools to facilitate sessions remotely/virtually.
  • Experience of implementing continuous improvement by working with teams to review, assess, implement and adapt ways of working for more efficient delivery.
  • Experience conducting team health checks / maturity assessments, identifying opportunities for further improvement. Understand pitfalls of such tools and have experience coaching organizations in their appropriate use.
  • Experience contributing to and collaborating with a community of coaches, scrum masters, product owners and/or other servant-leaders.
  • Strong written and verbal communications skills, including the ability to communicate ideas effectively to technical and non-technical audiences, and effective negotiation skills to help influence managers and leaders.
  • Extensive experience developing, delivering and evaluating lean-agile related training to teams and specific roles such as scrum master, product owner, etc. so as to help them understand their role, responsibilities and interactions.
  • Developing new assets in support of transformation (e.g. summarizing and introducing new ideas through presentations, training material, etc.) and successfully using those assets to achieve a change in mindset, behaviors, processes and working practices.
  • Experience of using modern agile workflow, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools such as Jira, Trello, VersionOne, Confluence, Mural, etc.

   

   

   

  We also have some desirable criteria

   

  • Experience of successfully delivering large complex solutions (e.g. multiple teams involving 30 more staff) through the use of a lean-agile scaling framework.
  • Experience scoping lean-agile transformation engagements with teams, managers and leaders, establishing baseline metrics, objectives and key results/KPIs to measure and demonstrate progress toward successful transformation and/or product/service delivery.
  • Experience of innovation and thought leadership, and demonstrating how this has influenced the direction of transformation.
  • Experience of encouraging business agility by establishing cross-functional teams of customer-facing/business staff as well as technology staff so as to shorten feedback loops or learning and solution delivery.
  • Experience of lean-agile anti-patterns particularly in large enterprises with an understanding of effective methods to overcome them.
  • Experience of coaching organizations at the portfolio level including strategy deconstruction using tools such as lean-value trees, OKRs and portfolio roadmaps, lean funding and value stream identification.

   

   

  What we offer

   

  As Digital DNA’s Workplace of the Year 2020 winners, we offer a generous benefits package that includes flexible annual leave entitlement, dental and healthcare insurance, an attractive pension package and discounts on gym memberships, public transport and parking.

   

  Allstate invests heavily in your development, as an employee you will have access to multiple world-class learning platforms and courses from our award-winning in-house Learning & Development team.

   

  We pride ourselves in providing clear career paths and opportunities for internal mobility allowing you to further develop within the organisation.

   

  We encourage a better work life balance and you’ll have the opportunity to apply for various flexible working arrangements.

   

   

  Apply Here: https://bit.ly/3LzuIfi 

   

   

  Statement on Fair Employment and Equal Opportunities

   

  Allstate NI wishes to ensure equal opportunity is given to all job applicants.  This company will not discriminate on the grounds of race, gender (including gender reassignment status), sexual orientation, religious belief, political opinion, marital status, age or disability.

   

  We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons. However, as women are currently under-represented in our workforce, we would particularly welcome applications from women. All appointments will be made on merit.

   

  Applicants should note Allstate NI complete AccessNI background checks on all candidates offered a position.

   

   

  The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 18th February 2022