Freelance Opportunity | Lyon, France | Hybrid – Three Days Onsite
The Opportunity
We are supporting an established international organisation seeking experienced Performance & Agility Coaches to improve the effectiveness of its software engineering and digital product development teams in Lyon.
The organisation develops innovative, business-critical technology solutions supporting complex industrial operations within a highly regulated environment. Its multidisciplinary teams work across software engineering, digital products, data and emerging technologies, developing solutions that improve operational efficiency and business performance.
This is a hands-on coaching assignment focused on improving delivery predictability, collaboration, prioritisation and sustainable organisational performance.
We are looking for pragmatic, experienced practitioners who can work directly alongside delivery teams while also influencing Product Owners, engineering leaders and senior stakeholders. The emphasis is on understanding how work actually gets done, identifying systemic obstacles and enabling measurable improvements — not introducing Agile frameworks or ceremonies for their own sake.
Key Responsibilities
Team Performance & Delivery Effectiveness
Work closely with multidisciplinary software engineering and product teams to understand existing working practices, challenges and opportunities for improvement.
Identify and address systemic impediments, bottlenecks, dependencies and organisational constraints affecting delivery.
Help teams improve workflow, collaboration, decision-making, feedback loops and continuous improvement.
Support teams in establishing realistic delivery forecasts, understanding uncertainty and communicating delivery confidence to stakeholders.
Apply Lean principles, systems thinking and appropriate performance measures to improve flow, quality and predictability.
Encourage greater ownership, autonomy and accountability while maintaining alignment with wider organisational objectives.
Leadership Coaching & Organisational Improvement
Coach Product Owners, engineering managers, delivery leaders and senior stakeholders to improve organisational effectiveness.
Help leaders understand how prioritisation, competing demands, resource allocation and organisational structures affect team performance.
Support alignment between strategic objectives, portfolio priorities and day-to-day delivery.
Facilitate constructive conversations across teams and leadership groups, helping resolve conflicting priorities and dependencies.
Influence change without relying on formal authority, adapting coaching approaches to different individuals, teams and organisational circumstances.
Build sustainable internal coaching and continuous improvement capabilities.
Portfolio Management & Delivery Predictability
Help teams and leaders improve visibility of work across products, initiatives and value streams.
Support effective prioritisation based on business value, capacity, dependencies and delivery constraints.
Improve the organisation's ability to forecast delivery outcomes and communicate realistic expectations.
Use evidence, meaningful metrics and practical experimentation to identify improvement opportunities.
Establish appropriate performance baselines and assess whether coaching interventions are producing measurable benefits.
Help stakeholders make better-informed decisions about competing priorities, delivery commitments and organisational capacity.
Technical Delivery, Quality & Governance
Work effectively with software engineers, testers, product specialists and other technical stakeholders.
Understand how engineering practices, testing, automation, dependencies and release processes influence delivery performance.
Support improvements in quality built into delivery, including appropriate testing, feedback and continuous integration practices.
Help teams balance innovation, speed and autonomy with security, governance, quality and regulatory requirements.
Encourage practical solutions that improve performance without compromising necessary controls.
About You
We are particularly interested in experienced coaches who can demonstrate tangible improvements in complex technology delivery environments.
Essential Experience & Capabilities
Substantial hands-on experience in Agile, Lean, organisational performance or enterprise coaching.
Proven experience working with software engineering, digital product development or technically complex delivery teams.
Strong understanding of the challenges associated with delivering software products in multidisciplinary environments.
Demonstrable experience improving team effectiveness, delivery flow, predictability and organisational collaboration.
Ability to diagnose systemic problems and address underlying causes rather than simply treating symptoms.
Experience coaching and influencing both delivery teams and senior leaders.
Practical understanding of Lean thinking, systems thinking, continuous improvement and evidence-based decision-making.
Experience helping teams and stakeholders manage priorities, dependencies, capacity and delivery expectations.
Ability to establish meaningful measures of success and demonstrate the impact of coaching interventions.
Excellent facilitation, communication and stakeholder management skills.
A pragmatic, adaptable and framework-agnostic approach.
Strong professional English communication skills.
Ability to work onsite in Lyon three days per week.
Particularly Valuable Experience
Coaching software product teams working on complex, business-critical or internally developed technology solutions.
Lean portfolio management, value stream management, prioritisation and cross-team dependency management.
Practical experience improving delivery forecasting and stakeholder confidence.
Experience with CI/CD, test automation, shift-left quality and controlled software release processes.
Working within pharmaceutical, life sciences, medical technology, manufacturing or other regulated environments.
Familiarity with GxP, validation, traceability, quality management or controlled change.
Coaching autonomous, cross-functional teams operating within matrix organisations.
Applying human-centred design, experimentation and data-driven approaches to organisational improvement.
French language capability or experience working within French organisations.
What Success Looks Like
Success in this assignment will be measured by practical improvements in how teams and leaders operate, rather than the adoption of any particular methodology.
Examples of positive outcomes include:
More predictable delivery and greater confidence in commitments.
Reduced bottlenecks, unnecessary dependencies and competing priorities.
Improved alignment between strategic objectives and team-level activities.
Stronger collaboration and decision-making across technical and business functions.
Better visibility of delivery performance, capacity and organisational constraints.
Improved quality and more effective integration of governance into delivery.
Teams and leaders developing the capability to identify and resolve problems independently.
Sustainable improvements that continue beyond the coaching engagement.
Our Approach to Candidate Selection
We are interested in what you have achieved, not simply the frameworks you have used or the certifications you hold.
Successful candidates will be able to discuss specific examples of situations where they have:
Identified the underlying causes of poor delivery performance.
Helped teams improve forecasting, prioritisation or delivery confidence.
Influenced senior stakeholders to address organisational obstacles.
Introduced practical changes that produced measurable improvements.
Managed situations where competing priorities, resistance to change or organisational complexity affected progress.
We welcome applications from experienced transformation and performance professionals whose previous job titles may differ from the title of this opportunity.
Location & Engagement
Location: Lyon, France
Working arrangement: Hybrid, with three days per week onsite.
Engagement: Freelance contract.
Language: Professional English essential; French advantageous.
ALL CANDIDATES MUST HAVE CURRENT AUTHORISATION TO WORK IN FRANCE