Scrum Master at NRF National Research Foundation

National Research Foundation; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

The National Research Foundation is seeking a Scrum Master to support multiple agile teams in Cape Town. This permanent position involves mentoring teams, facilitating agile processes, and driving organizational change. The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor's degree and 2-5 years of relevant experience, with proficiency in agile methodologies and tools.

Qualifications

• 2-5 years of relevant experience in agile environments.
• Experience with Scrum Master Certification.
• Proficiency in scaling frameworks like SAFe.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate and lead agile ceremonies for multiple teams.
• Coach teams on agile practices and process improvements.
• Collaborate with technical teams to enhance processes.

Skills

Agile methodologies

Servant leadership

Facilitation

Stakeholder management

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's Degree / Advanced Diploma / NQF 7

Tools

JIRA

GitHub

Google Drive

Miro

Job description

Scrum Master at NRF National Research Foundation

National Research Foundation

• Permanent Specialist position
• Observatory
• Posted 19 May 2025 by National Research Foundation

Position Summary:
This Scrum Master supports multiple agile teams across diverse, complex projects. They act as mentors, problem-solvers, and agile process guardians, fostering positive team dynamics and removing obstacles to progress.

Key Responsibilities:

• Facilitate and lead meetings, including planning, progress, review, retrospectives, and problem-solving workshops, leading one or few teams and ensuring alignment across teams.
• Provide coaching to both the team and the manager to help align agile practices with organizational goals.
• Identify and implement process improvements on an average scale and help drive organizational change.
• Monitor and distribute relevant alerts raised with Operations and RFI Alerts channels. Research and propose new technologies, systems, methods, or approaches for organizational use.
• Continuously learn, acquire new skills, and execute a self-development plan.
• Collaborate with software engineers, technical leads, and systems engineers to update, review, and automate processes where applicable.
• Establish and maintain working relationships with members of other SARAO teams.
• Respond to inter-team issues collaboratively.
• Engage in public outreach and education activities.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree / Advanced Diploma / NQF 7

Minimum Experience:

• 2-5 years of relevant experience

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field (e.g., Computer Science) with 5+ years; OR
• Honours Degree with 4+ years; OR
• Master's Degree with 3+ years; OR
• Doctorate with 2+ years and Scrum Master Certification.

Additional Experience & Knowledge:

• Proficiency in agile methodologies, including scaling frameworks like SAFe.
• Experience mentoring and leading multiple agile teams.
• Knowledge of Agile techniques such as user stories, TDD, continuous delivery, pair programming.
• Servant leadership, facilitation, stakeholder management, and fostering collaboration.
• Ability to enable teams to self-organize and deliver effectively.

Additional Notes:

• Experience with modern software collaboration tools like GitHub, Containers, Google Drive, JIRA, Miro, etc.
• Experience in project management and systems engineering support.
• Ability to collaborate across teams and industry, and report on feature implementation.

Applicants should submit a comprehensive CV, a motivation letter, and at least three referees via the NRF Recruitment Portal.