Company Description

The British Airways (BA) IT Operations team is part of BA Digital within the International Airlines Group (IAG), one of the world’s leading airline groups and owner of some of the biggest brands in the sky.

Our vision is to become the most trusted digital airline. We seek to delight our customers, enable our colleagues, accelerate business performance, increase shareholder value, and protect our business through the innovative and agile use of technology and data.

To harness our full potential across our customer, operational and colleague journeys, as well as our enabling domains, platforms and programmes, we are changing our ways of working and transitioning into a product-led organisation at scale.

Together, we are building a better BA.

Job Description

The Technical Area Lead will take on a critical role in BA Digital Delivery organisation: you are responsible for overseeing dedicated squads of technical professionals, setting your squad’s strategic direction & targets, driving the successful delivery of projects within budget & scope and reporting to the BA Digital or Delivery leadership team.

The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical background, exceptional leadership skills and a proven track record in Product delivery roles, with a deep understanding of Agile methodologies. By providing technical guidance, facilitating communication between your squads and leadership and continually refining processes, you empower your team and deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet and exceed our customers' expectations.

Accountabilities 

• Lead and manage dedicated squads within a Product area/family, providing direction, mentorship and guidance to ensure successful deliveries and foster a collaborative and innovative team culture, promoting knowledge sharing and skill development
• Share ownership of defining Product objectives jointly with business, including defining overall objectives of the squads along with Principal PTAMs (from BA Digital) and Technical Leads who are business owners (from BA Businesses), utilising Agile frameworks, such as Scrum or Kanban, through cross-collaboration across squads
• Collaborate with PTAMs across Delivery and other BA Digital cross-functional teams to align technical efforts with product goals and ensure roadmaps strike the right balance between business delivery, technology enablement and operations work in terms of scope, timeline and budget
• Ensure the highest standards of quality and consistency in technical deliverables by implementing best practices, quality control processes and code reviews
• Identify potential project risks and develop mitigation strategies to minimise disruption and ensure Product success while applying Agile risk management principles
• Lead and participate in retrospective sessions to identify areas for improvement in processes, workflows, and technical practices
• Lead and manage financial management activities, such as finance reviews, capex utilisation and squad/team budgets tracking, collaborating with finance teams to ensure accurate financial reporting and squads adhere to budgets
• Leverage your deep technical knowledge and data to make informed decisions, guide the squad in addressing complex technical challenges and stay up to date with industry trends and emerging technologies to provide valuable insights and recommendations
• Manage and evolve the roadmap to ensure a healthy balance between BAU-type maintenance work to uphold stable operations and the initiation of new, innovative projects, driving forward organisational goals and prioritising tasks, aligning resources, and ensuring timely delivery while fostering a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence
• Act as a liaison between the squads and the BA Digital leadership team, providing regular updates on squad progress, challenges & opportunities and presenting reports on key performance indicators, technical achievements and learnings of the squad
• Serve as a pivotal communicator between technical teams and business stakeholders, translating complex technical concepts, findings, and analyses into clear, understandable, and actionable insights for non-technical audiences, ensuring seamless collaboration and informed decision-making
• Exhibit strong leadership skills by fostering a positive, collaborative, and inclusive team environment, mentoring and developing staff, specifically PTAMs to achieve their full potential by providing coaching and mentorship in areas of technical expertise to share best practices and improve processes, workflows and technical practices as well as leadership practices and people development strategies
• Demonstrate exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, ensuring clear and effective communication across all levels of the organisation, facilitating cross-functional collaboration, and building strong relationships with both internal teams and external stakeholders
• Showcase a high degree of emotional intelligence, adapting to different personalities and situations, understanding and valuing diverse perspectives, and promoting a culture of respect and understanding within the team and the broader organisation

We are looking for individuals with ability to provide both a technical and a commercial focus, with the ability to analyse and understand complex business processes, drive change assessment, and identify opportunities for improvement, simplification, and re-usability.

We are looking for individuals able to navigate through uncertainty, with high agility and adaptability that work smarter not harder.

This role may require some travel and working from multiple sites/locations within UK and internationally. You must be willing and able to travel to participate in meetings, workshops and other related activities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in a related technical field or relevant experience
• Certification in agile methodologies such as Certified ScrumMaster (CSM),SAFe Agilist or SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) could be an advantage depending on the assigned area, desired (not mandatory)

Skills:

• Strong leadership skills to build and motivate high-performing teams, fostering collaboration and innovation within the squad
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong project management and organisational skills to ensure the successful delivery of projects on time, within scope, and within budget
• Strong understanding of relevant technologies, tools, and frameworks, along with the ability to make informed decisions and guide teams
• Proficiency in Agile frameworks (e.g., Scrum, Kanban) and Agile practices, with the ability to implement Agile principles effectively
• Proficiency in Agile tools (e.g., JIRA, Confluence) to create and manage dashboards, customise workflows

Experience:

• Minimum of 4 years of experience managing agile teams
• Knowledge of collaboration tools, such as Jira or Mural etc.
• Experience of working across culture and diverse teams
• Desirable cultural and organisational change experience and/or a consultancy or transformation background