Squad Lead

Operating within our Tribe model, you’ll lead a Squad aligned to a clear mandate - whether that’s decommissioning legacy systems, building new platforms, or delivering business-critical change. Your focus is on how delivery happens: ensuring work is well-planned, prioritised, and executed in a structured and predictable way.

This is a delivery and people leadership role. You are not the technical authority - that sits with the Tribe Lead, but you are responsible for enabling your team to perform at its best, translating priorities into actionable plans, and driving consistent delivery outcomes.

This is a deliberately flexible role, applicable across any Tribe at Openwork (including Clean Slate, New Ground, and future initiatives), with a consistent expectation of strong delivery leadership and team development.

The Benefits

•  Salary - up to £62,600
•  Bonus scheme - on target bonus - 10%
•  Pension scheme - contribute up to 5% of your salary and Openwork will match you and put in an extra 5%
•  Critical illness cover
•  Income protection 
•  Death in service - 4x salary
•  27 days holiday + bank holidays, with the opportunity to buy up to an additional 10 days
•  A range of other flexible benefits to include private medical insurance, dental insurance and much more.

Key Responsibilities:

•  Owning and coordinating end-to-end delivery for your Squad, maintaining clear plans aligned to Tribe priorities 
•  Managing and maintaining the Squad backlog, ensuring work is well-defined, prioritised, and ready for execution 
•  Establishing and maintaining a consistent delivery rhythm (planning, execution, review) 
•  Providing visibility of progress, managing risks and ensuring predictable delivery outcomes 
•  Leading the Squad’s day-to-day activity, removing blockers and keeping the team focused and aligned 
•  Developing individuals within the Squad through coaching, feedback, and support 
•  Building a high-performing team culture centred on accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement 
•  Partnering closely with the Tribe Lead to align delivery with technical direction 
•  Identifying and manage risks and dependencies, escalating where needed across teams or Tribes 
•  Supporting stakeholder engagement, communicating progress, risks, and outcomes clearly
•  Ensuring delivery artefacts (plans, risks, decisions, backlog) are maintained and governance-ready.

• Experience leading teams in delivery-focused or agile environments 
• Proven track record of delivering technology or change initiatives 
• Experience working with cross-functional teams (engineering, QA, analysis) 
• Demonstrable experience in coaching and developing individuals 
• Experience in regulated or structured environments is advantageous 
• Delivery Leadership - Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid), Backlog management, sprint planning, and delivery tracking, dependency management across teams and workstreams 
• Understanding of the software delivery lifecycle 
• Ability to work effectively with technical stakeholders 
• Awareness of engineering practices and quality expectations 
• Delivery risk identification and mitigation, with experience working within governance-led environments, maintaining artefacts to support reporting and oversight 
• Awareness of Consumer Duty and the importance of reliable, high-quality systems in regulated contexts 
• Ability to translate technical delivery into business outcomes, with strong stakeholder communication and relationship management.