Scrum Master

In a Nutshell

🧭 Role: Scrum Master

📄 Employment Type: Permanent

📍 Location: Remote, with occasional travel for workshops

About Amber Labs

The digital transformation partner for highly regulated industries. Our teams deliver digital transformation for organisations operating in complex, highly regulated environments. From securing national borders to supporting critical defence operations, we deliver secure AI, data, cloud and software solutions across high-stakes programmes.

What You'll Be Doing

We're looking for an experienced Scrum Master to join a legacy remediation programme within a major central government department.

The programme is modernising and remediating long-standing legacy systems that underpin critical public services. You'll work with multidisciplinary agile teams, helping them deliver high-quality software at a steady, sustainable pace and continually improve how they work.

This is a hands-on role for someone who has applied agile in the real world, not just in theory. You'll work closely with delivery managers, product managers and an experienced agile coach to embed good practice, and you'll use the right metrics to drive genuine improvement.

You'll be responsible for:

• Facilitating Scrum events, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews and retrospectives, and keeping them focused and valuable
• Coaching teams, product owners and stakeholders in agile values, principles and practices
• Defining, tracking and reporting meaningful team metrics, such as velocity, cycle time, throughput and predictability, and using them to drive continuous improvement
• Making work visible through well-maintained Jira boards and backlogs
• Supporting product owners with backlog refinement, prioritisation and setting clear sprint goals
• Identifying and removing impediments, and escalating blockers and dependencies early
• Promoting high software quality standards, including a clear definition of ready and definition of done
• Working with other Scrum Masters and delivery managers to coordinate dependencies across teams
• Building a team culture of transparency, collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement
• Helping teams balance new delivery with technical debt and risk as they remediate legacy systems

What We're Looking For

You will need:

• Proven experience as a Scrum Master in software delivery teams
• Real-world experience applying agile values and practices, going beyond running ceremonies
• Public sector experience, ideally on central government digital or technology programmes (essential)
• Experience defining and tracking the right team metrics, and using data to improve productivity, predictability and quality
• Strong facilitation and coaching skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively
• A good understanding of the software development lifecycle and what good software engineering looks like
• Experience using Jira or similar tools to manage backlogs, boards and reporting
• Experience managing impediments, dependencies and risks across multiple teams
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Eligibility for BPSS clearance

Desirable Experience

• Experience on legacy modernisation or remediation programmes
• Experience working across multiple teams using scaled agile approaches
• Experience with Kanban or flow-based delivery
• Familiarity with the GDS Service Standard and agile delivery in government
• Agile certifications such as PSM, CSM, ICAgile or equivalent

What's In It For You

We believe benefits should be practical: things that genuinely support your day-to-day, give you flexibility and help you keep developing.

Here are a few of our perks:

• 25 days' annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Private medical insurance with Bupa
• Remote-first working, with access to our Liverpool Street office
• Personal training budget to support your professional development
• Perkbox membership, with discounts across retail, travel, dining and wellness
• Electric Vehicle Scheme after one year of service
• Regular team socials
• Referral scheme offering up to £3,000 for successful hires
• Your choice of PC or Mac

How We Work

We've worked hard to build a team of people who are experts at what they do. Because of that, we'll trust you to get on with your job and give you the space to do it well. But you'll always have plenty of support around you whenever you need it, whether that's to sense-check an approach, tackle a tricky client challenge or simply bounce ideas around.

We keep our structure flat and our processes straightforward. If you have a good idea, you'll be encouraged to run with it, and if something could be done better, we'll encourage you to say so. Ultimately, we work with people who take pride in their work, support their team and want to leave things better than they found them.

What Happens Next?

Once you've applied, our in-house Talent team will review your application and, if it looks like there could be a good fit, they'll be in touch.

For most of our roles, there are two interview stages: one focusing on your experience and delivery expertise, and another focusing on how you communicate, collaborate and approach your work.

A Human Approach to Hiring

We use AI responsibly, in our client projects and internally. When it comes to hiring, though, there are always real people behind the process. Decisions throughout the recruitment process, from CV review and progressing to interview through to making an offer, are made by our Talent team.

Diversity & Inclusion

Amber Labs is an equal opportunities employer, and we're committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to do their best work, regardless of background, identity or experience.

If there's anything we can do to make the recruitment process more accessible or comfortable for you, just let our Talent team know and we'll be happy to help.