Ever wondered what it's like to work at one of Greater Manchester's leading tech employers or what specific job roles get up to each day?
Jess Stewart is an Agile Coach at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence.
We spoke to her to find out more about this role, her experience at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, and what an average day looks like.
Name: Jess Stewart
Company: BAE Systems Digital Intelligence
Job Title: Agile Coach
How did you get into your current role?
I had a previous career in the environmental and charity sectors but it was very stressful and so mid pandemic I decided to make a change. By chance I met a women who was a software engineer and, after hearing that I liked problem solving, team work and continuous improvement, she suggested I might be a good match for a tech career. Upon her advice I retrained through a boot camp. I had almost no tech knowledge or experience before starting and it was fairly terrifying to be changing careers so completely. But it’s the best decision I ever made.
What do you enjoy most about working at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence?
The colleagues and the team work. The support network here is amazing, everyone takes time to share ideas and learning and the internal agile coaching community run regular knowledge exchange meetings online. Even with hybrid working my team are really engaging to work with day to day and there are regular face to face sessions to keep us connected. The calibre of the people I work with is really high, the engineers have so much technical knowledge and expertise – they are really inspirational.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Impossible to say as every day is so varied but generally emails/admin first thing, the morning team sync to see how everyone is getting on and what they plan to do that day, meetings with colleagues from across my team and with other agile coaches from the wider project. I also do individual catch ups with my team to coach and support them. Planning and following up from ceremonies like retros is also a big part of my role.
What was it like starting a new job post-pandemic?
I think working remotely during the pandemic meant I was used to asynchronous communication and being part of remote teams – both of which have really helped since I joined BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. Starting post pandemic was good as they had worked out all the necessary systems and ways to function really effectively remotely.
What excites you the most about the work?
I really enjoy the pace of the work and how quickly things can evolve and change. The agile mind set and way of thinking is very like the continuous improvement work I did in my previous career – just with different words to describe what’s going on.
Have you learned anything new since you started?
Almost everything I’ve learned has been new. I was lucky to have a lot of transferable skills from my previous career, especially soft skills like communication and coaching, but I feel very lucky to be on a huge learning curve now in tech. It’s great to understand how websites and apps are created but it does make me frustrated with ones I use that don’t work very well now in my life. I end up thinking “Who designed this? Who coded this? Why is this button in the wrong place?” when I’m ordering pizza or booking a class on the gym app!
