Introduction

Are you an experienced and motivated people leader with a passion for building and growing lean/agile software development teams that deliver complex and compelling information systems end-to-end? Are you at ease with leading and developing software engineers, with nurturing teams into a culture of relentless improvement and self-organisation? Are you familiar with concepts such as design thinking, and Lean/Agile? Are you passionate about working with people, driving organizational change, and coaching individuals and teams? Then join CERN's Business Computing group. CERN, take part!

You will join the Business Computing (BC) group in the Finance and Administrative Processes (FAP) department, where 70+ talented international colleagues are responsible for delivering information systems for all of CERN’s business functions.

The product management driven group is working for clients across the whole Organization (HR, Finance, Planning, Safety, Security, Purchasing, Logistics, and Accelerator Operations). The type of products under the group’s responsibility ranges from custom-made solutions for a few users to large and widely integrated systems with 15,000+ users. Hence, working for the BC group provides numerous perspectives for being in touch with different business areas, technologies, and organizational challenges.

Functions

As an Agile Team Lead, you will head one or more agile software development teams. You will be responsible for recruiting, coaching, and developing individuals, as well as ensuring that the individuals work together in high performance self-organized teams for agile solution delivery. In addition, you will consult the group's management to ensure further growth of the group's lean/agile maturity and help nurturing a group culture based on relentless improvement, learning and innovation.

More specifically, you will take on the following responsibilities:

• Lead one or more agile computer engineering teams
• Mentor newcomers, coach and grow individual talents, steer and monitor individual career development, drive the annual performance appraisal exercise
• Anticipate future talent needs, plan and execute new recruitments
• Build and nurture high performance self-organised teams for agile solution delivery
• Help teams and individuals by recognising and actively managing conflicts
• Be a member programme of the group's leadership team with a focus on group-wide Lean/Agile growth and coaching
• Uphold and further promote Lean/Agile values and behaviours in the with BC group business partners
• Work with the Product Managers, Product Owners, and the group's external stakeholders to build and maintain an efficient agile-minded demand management process
• Potential additional responsibilities such as Product Owner/Designer/Manager as required

Master's degree or equivalent relevant experience in the field of computer science, organizational psychology, personnel development and coaching or a related field.

Experience:

• Demonstrated experience working with and coaching teams composed of computer engineers
• Proven track record of positively impacted workplace behaviours
• Wide experience in applying Lean/Agile principles and values incl. how to scale Agile across multiple teams and value trains across an organization
• At ease in communicating with people individually and in groups, and in recognizing and actively managing conflicts
• Proven experience of successfully managing individuals with diverse social/cultural/educational backgrounds using a personalised/adapted style of communication and leadership
• Experience in working as a Scrum master for agile software development teams
• Experience in using software development productivity tools such as ticketing, planning and documentation tools (e.g., Atlassian Jira and Confluence, Klaxoon, etc.)

Any of the following experience would be a plus:

• Using Agile scaling frameworks such as SAFe or similar
• Applying design thinking in different professional contexts
• Accompanying organisations through an Agile transformation or other similar organizational change
• Coaching young professionals and career starters

Technical competencies:

• Team management: ability to lead individuals to work together in self-organized high performance agile teams.
• Organisational design & development: knowledge of different Lean/Agile organisation forms and ability to prepare and run organizational change initiatives. Evolve Agile based operating models by applying suitable scaling frameworks. Deep understanding of factors influencing behaviours in the workplace.
• Organisation's culture shaping: experience in running culture-shaping / identity definition initiatives.
• Knowledge and application of coaching techniques: knowledge of and experience in applying people and team coaching techniques. At ease with facilitating workshops and managing people/team conflicts. Excellent active listening and facilitation skills, empathy, and self-awareness.
• Development of application software: good knowledge of organizational software development processes and related team organisation as well as interaction with stakeholders

Behavioural competencies:

• Bringing the best out of people: Adapting leadership style to individual staff members' education, background and culture in order to achieve a high level of motivation and productivity. Encouraging ideas and initiatives from others; fostering collaboration and team cohesion. Taking time to listen and to consider team members' ideas, opinions and concerns.
• Setting direction: Actively promoting a culture of creativity, continuous development and knowledge transfer. Setting clear, challenging and attainable objectives; defining and communicating performance indicators. Managing conflicts within the team and with stakeholders in a constructive way.
• Communicating effectively: Expressing opinions, ideas and suggestions with conviction and in a logical/structured manner; keeping to the point. Successfully changing other people's opinions by persuasive arguments. Delivering presentations in a structured and clear way; adjusting style and content to the audience; responding calmly and confidently to questions.
• Working in teams: Working well in groups and readily fitting into a team; participating fully and taking an active role in team activities. Cooperating constructively with others in the pursuit of team goals; balancing personal goals with team goals. Sharing and letting others participate in own work/project; encouraging team development.
• Demonstrating flexibility: Adapting quickly and resourcefully to shifting priorities and requirements being able to deal with ambiguous or unpredictable situations. Demonstrating a willingness to accept changing circumstances; supporting initiatives for change.

Language skills:

• English spoken and written, with the ability to create reports, and make presentations.
• The ability to understand and speak French or an undertaking to acquire it.

Eligibility and closing date:

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We welcome applications from all Member States and Associate Member States.

This vacancy will be filled as soon as possible, and applications should normally reach us no later than midday CEST 16th August 2023. 

Employment Conditions

Contract type: Limited duration contract (5 years). Subject to certain conditions, holders of limited-duration contracts may apply for an indefinite position.

These functions require:

• Work during nights, Sundays and official holidays, when required by the needs of the Organization.
• Working on site at the Organization. 

Job grade: 6-7

Job reference: FAP-BC-2023-63-LD

Benchmark Job Title: Computing Engineer