AGILE COACH

Value Steering & Operations Enablement

Level: Senior

Role Purpose

The Agile Coach is part of the Delivery Enablement competence and operates within the Value Steering & Operations Enablement subdomain.

The role supports the successful execution of organizational strategy by enabling teams, leaders, and value streams to continuously improve ways of working, strengthen delivery effectiveness, and successfully adopt organizational initiatives.

Working closely with Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Team Leads, fellow Agile Coaches, and business stakeholders, the Agile Coach contributes to a unified Delivery Enablement approach in which the PMO and Agile Office operate as one integrated enablement function. Together, they support strategy execution through project delivery, organizational change, agile adoption, capability building, and continuous improvement.

A key responsibility of the role is ensuring that strategic initiatives, delivery improvements, governance changes, and new ways of working are not only implemented but also embedded into daily operations and become part of the organization's DNA.

The role has a strong focus on cross-domain and cross-competence initiatives, enabling effective collaboration across teams, functions, and business areas.

Role Responsibilities

Agile Development Team Facilitation

• Facilitate agile ceremonies, workshops, retrospectives, planning events, and problem-solving sessions across teams and value streams.
• Coach teams in continuously improving their ways of working, delivery effectiveness, collaboration, and value creation, using agile principles pragmatically rather than promoting specific frameworks.
• Support teams in improving flow, predictability, collaboration, delivery effectiveness, and value delivery.
• Facilitate collaboration, conflict resolution, and decision-making to enable effective work delivery.
• Support teams in embedding newly introduced practices into their daily ways of working and maintaining improvements over time.

Digital Strategy / Transformational Projects Execution

• Support the implementation of PMO-led strategic initiatives, organizational improvements, governance changes, and transformation programs.
• Design and facilitate workshops, training sessions, and adoption activities required for successful implementation.
• Work closely with Project Managers and business stakeholders to ensure organizational initiatives are successfully adopted and sustained beyond project completion.
• Translate strategic objectives into practical team behaviours, processes, and operating practices.
• Support organizational change activities that enable successful delivery and long-term adoption.

Stakeholder Management

• Develop and implement stakeholder engagement approaches to identify relevant stakeholders, foster positive relationships, and ensure appropriate stakeholder participation and ownership.
• Partner with Team Leads, Scrum Masters, Project Managers, leaders, and business stakeholders to align priorities and improve organizational effectiveness.
• Build partnerships across domains, competencies, and business units to support cross-functional collaboration and strategic execution.
• Balance the needs of multiple stakeholders while maintaining focus on organizational outcomes and value delivery.
• Ensure transparency, alignment, and effective communication across initiatives and improvement efforts.

Information and Business Advice

• Provide specialist advice on ways of working, delivery practices, operating model standards, and organizational effectiveness.
• Support leaders, Team Leads, Scrum Masters, and delivery teams in interpreting and applying policies, frameworks, and practices appropriately.
• Resolve complex or contentious issues related to delivery effectiveness, collaboration, stakeholder alignment, and organizational agility.
• Act as a trusted advisor within the Delivery Enablement competence.

Organizational Capability Building

• Use the organization's development framework to identify capability-building opportunities across teams and delivery roles.
• Coach and support Team Leads, Scrum Masters, Project Managers, delivery teams, and other stakeholders in strengthening leadership, delivery effectiveness, collaboration, and continuous improvement capabilities.
• Partner with Scrum Masters to improve team maturity, facilitate organizational change, remove systemic impediments, and embed new ways of working into daily operations.
• Design and deliver training, mentoring, and coaching programs that improve organizational effectiveness and professional capability.
• Mentor Scrum Masters and less experienced Agile Coaches to strengthen coaching capabilities across the organization.
• Coach teams and stakeholders in the responsible and effective use of AI-enabled tools, automation, and agentic ways of working.
• Promote experimentation, learning, and knowledge sharing related to AI-supported delivery, collaboration, analysis, and continuous improvement practices.
• Contribute to Communities of Practice, knowledge-sharing initiatives, and continuous learning activities.
• Ensure consistency, quality, and impact of coaching services through sharing best practices, lessons learned, and proven approaches.

Risk and Issue Management

• Identify and evaluate delivery risks, dependencies, systemic impediments, and organizational constraints affecting value delivery.
• Analyze complex situations and distinguish root causes from symptoms.
• Facilitate sustainable solutions to organizational and delivery challenges.
• Escalate organizational issues where appropriate and support resolution across teams and business areas.
• Promote proactive management of dependencies, risks, and delivery obstacles.

Operating Model and Continuous Improvement

• Proactively identify opportunities to improve organizational effectiveness, delivery performance, collaboration, and value delivery.
• Contribute to shaping and evolving the agile operating model and delivery practices within Sanoma Learning.
• Develop proposals and recommendations for improving governance, decision-making, delivery processes, and organizational ways of working.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and evidence-based decision-making.
• Use delivery data, flow metrics, feedback, and observations to identify opportunities and drive measurable improvement.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI, automation, and agentic solutions to improve delivery effectiveness, decision-making, productivity, and organizational learning.
• Drive adoption of AI-enabled ways of working that accelerate insight generation, transparency, efficiency, and value delivery.
• Support teams and stakeholders in embedding AI tools into daily work practices where they create measurable business value.
• Ensure implemented improvements become embedded and sustained as part of business-as-usual operations.

Culture of Innovation

• Drive a culture of innovation by promoting experimentation, learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Facilitate multi-stakeholder solutions that improve organizational effectiveness and value delivery.
• Encourage teams and leaders to explore new approaches, tools, metrics, automation, and AI-enabled ways of working.
• Support innovation initiatives, workshops, communities, and cross-functional improvement activities.
• Foster an environment where diverse perspectives contribute to creativity, innovation, and better outcomes.

Horizon Scanning

• Identify emerging industry trends, organizational development approaches, delivery practices, technologies, and AI capabilities.
• Continuously evaluate emerging AI technologies, agentic capabilities, automation opportunities, and delivery tooling and assess their potential impact on organizational effectiveness and value delivery.
• Translate emerging developments into practical applications that improve ways of working, coaching effectiveness, delivery performance, and strategic execution.
• Recommend improvements to operating models, delivery practices, governance approaches, and collaboration mechanisms.
• Contribute to the evolution of the Agile Office and Delivery Enablement capability.

Personal Capability Building

• Act as a subject matter expert in delivery enablement, organizational effectiveness, change enablement, continuous improvement, and agile ways of working.
• Maintain awareness of industry best practices, emerging trends, AI developments, and relevant certifications.
• Continuously develop expertise through professional development, networking, conferences, and industry engagement.
• Share knowledge, insights, and expertise across the organization.
• Demonstrate a learning mindset and continuously evolve coaching approaches and practices.

Must-Have Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in Agile environments as Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Delivery Coach, or similar role.
• Proven experience coaching multiple teams and stakeholders in complex, cross-functional organizations.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree, or equivalent practical experience.
• Fluent written and spoken English.
• Strong understanding of agile principles and the ability to apply ways of working pragmatically to business needs.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating workshops, training sessions, and organizational change initiatives.
• Experience supporting the implementation, adoption, and sustainment of organizational improvements or transformation initiatives.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across all organizational levels.
• Ability to provide specialist business advice and guidance on ways of working and organizational effectiveness.
• Strong systems-thinking capability with the ability to identify dependencies, risks, and root causes.
• Ability to analyze delivery data, flow metrics, and organizational insights to drive improvement.
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI-enabled tools to improve productivity, decision-making, insight generation, facilitation, continuous improvement, and delivery effectiveness.
• Strong interest in emerging AI and agentic ways of working, with the ability to translate new capabilities into practical business value.
• Experience using digital collaboration, delivery management, analytics, and AI-enabled tooling.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, coaching, and relationship-building skills.
• Proven ability to manage complexity and operate effectively in changing environments.
• Strong conflict management and consensus-building capabilities.
• Ability to influence and lead without formal authority.
• Experience working across domains and competencies to support strategic initiatives and organizational goals.
• Strong adaptability and ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments.

Nice-to-Have Requirements

• Advanced Agile certifications (PSM II/III, ICP-ACC, ICP-ENT, or equivalent).
• Experience working in PMO, transformation, organizational change, or delivery enablement environments.
• Experience scaling ways of working across multiple teams, value streams, or business units.
• Experience building and facilitating Communities of Practice.
• Experience supporting cross-domain and cross-competence initiatives.
• Experience with value stream management, portfolio delivery, or operating model design.
• Experience embedding AI-enabled, data-driven, or agentic ways of working into organizational practices.
• Analytical, technical, product development, or business transformation background.
• Experience mentoring Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, or delivery leaders.
• People leadership experience.

Success Profile

The successful Agile Coach:

• Ensures PMO-led initiatives are successfully adopted, embedded, and sustained.
• Builds sustainable capabilities rather than dependency on coaching support.
• Supports Team Leads, Scrum Masters, and delivery teams in improving effectiveness and value delivery.
• Proactively identifies and drives organizational improvements.
• Uses data, insights, AI tools, and agentic capabilities to accelerate learning, transparency, and decision-making.
• Balances strategic objectives with operational realities.
• Enables cross-domain and cross-competence collaboration.
• Contributes to a Delivery Enablement function where PMO and Agile Office operate as one integrated capability supporting strategy execution.
• Creates measurable improvements in organizational effectiveness, collaboration, and value delivery.

About Sanoma Learning

How do you prepare students for the world, engage their curiosity and inspire them to grow? That is the main question of teachers all around the world. At Sanoma Learning, it has always been our mission to help to find and develop best-in-class answers to this question. If you join us, it means that you embark on an exciting journey to help shape the future of learning for primary, secondary and vocational education. We believe that your journey is our success as a company.

Sanoma Learning is a leading K12 European learning company, operating in 12 countries. Our learning products and services enable and support teachers and schools to develop the talents of every child to reach their potential. By offering printed and digital learning content, as well as digital learning and teaching platforms for primary, secondary and vocational education, we want to grow our positive impact on learning across Europe. With over 3000 employees, we help shape the future of education for 25+ million of students.

So, are you ready to start your journey to help shape the future of learning and help teachers to support all students to reach their potential?

Sanoma Learning is an equal opportunity employer; we are committed to inclusion and diversity, ensure equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other characteristics.