Senior Scrum Master (Bellville)

Momentum; Bellville; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Metropolitan is seeking an experienced Scrum Master/PO professional to lead multiple Agile teams in delivering insurance IT solutions. You will coach stakeholders, foster Agile maturity, and drive efficient backlog management across sprints.

The role emphasizes collaboration, delivery speed, and quality through DevOps practices and automated testing. Ideal candidates have 7+ years in Scrum Master/PO/PM roles, familiarity with product development lifecycles, and proven ability to manage several

Qualifications

• 7+ years’ relevant experience as a Scrum Master, Product Owner or Project Manager (essential)
• Exposure to diverse IT solution implementation in a variety of environments (desirable)
• Insurance industry experience (essential)
• Understanding of the product development lifecycle.
• In-depth understanding of Agile methodologies, and up-to-date knowledge of industry standards and best practices.
• Knowledge of numerous well documented techniques for filling the intentional gaps left in Scrum
• Understanding of standard software development roles and responsibilities.
• Experience managing multiple feature developments across multiple backlogs.
• Certified scrum master.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate work and dependencies across multiple Agile teams, including facilitation of Scrum of Scrums and alignment of cross-team delivery.
• Coach Product Owners, stakeholders, and leadership on Agile principles to foster maturity.
• Promote modern engineering practices including automated testing and DevOps collaboration to improve delivery quality and speed.
• Support and educate Product Owners on maintaining the product backlog and preparing for next sprint.
• Monitor and ensure items planned for the sprint are focused on and manage unplanned work with the Product Owner.

Skills

Agile methodologies

Team leadership

Stakeholder communication

Risk management

Education

Diploma/Degree in Project Management or Business Admin

Tools

Scrum

Job description

Metropolitan is one of the oldest financial services brands in South Africa. With a 125-year legacy of serving the communities in which it operates, Metropolitan represents true empowerment in serving Africa's people through affordable financial solutions that create financial growth and security. Metropolitan operates in South Africa, but the brand is also present in 7 African countries including, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Ghana and Lesotho. Metropolitan provides financial wellness solutions that meet the needs of low-income clients, including funeral insurance, health, savings, hospital cash-back cover, retirement solutions and life insurance www.metropolitan.co.za.

Disclaimer As an applicant, please verify the legitimacy of this job advert on our company career page.

Role Purpose

Lead scrum teams in Agile development, guiding them towards product releases within set guidelines, ensuring clear communication and team organisation, product backlog maintenance and release planning, and facilitating core Agile ceremonies and practices.

Requirements

• 7+ years’ relevant experience as a Scrum Master, Product Owner or Project Manager (essential)
• Exposure to diverse IT solution implementation in a variety of environments (desirable)
• Insurance industry experience (essential)
  • Understanding of the product development lifecycle.
  • In-depth understanding of Agile methodologies, and up-to-date knowledge of industry standards and best practices.
• Knowledge of numerous well documented techniques for filling the intentional gaps left in Scrum
  • (E.g. Burndown techniques, retrospective formats, handling bugs, etc.).
• Understanding of standard software development roles and responsibilities.
• Experience managing multiple feature developments across multiple backlogs.
• Diploma/Degree in Project Management / Business Admin or similar related qualification.
• Certified scrum master.

Duties & Responsibilities

INTERNAL PROCESS

• Ensure relevant teams are practising core Agile principles of collaboration, prioritisation, team accountability, and visibility in accordance with relevant standards.
• Lead and coordinate work and dependencies across multiple Agile teams, including facilitation of Scrum of Scrums and alignment of cross-team delivery.
• Coach Product Owners, stakeholders, and leadership across the organisation on Agile principles, fostering increased organisational Agile maturity.
• Promote modern engineering practices including automated testing, and DevOps collaboration to improve delivery quality and speed.
• Give input into the product development process, and support the Product Owner and the scrum delivery team to ensure delivery of solutions and product releases.
• Understand and give input into the team strategy to ensure prioritised value-add items are aligned to the team and overall business strategies
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies of sprint kickoff, daily stand-ups, sprint review and sprint retrospective in order to meet business requirements.
• Track and communicate team velocity, sprint progress and maintain process documentation in accordance with best practice standards.
• Use appropriate communication channels within the scrum team to create a trusting and safe team environment.
• Assist with backlog maintenance and the facilitation of defects/bugs resolution to achieve and meet business needs.
• Assist with production support to enable business continuity
• Participate proactively in developing and maintaining team standards in order to maximise team performance.
• Mitigate external disruptions and distractions, whenever possible, to ensure optimal team effectiveness.
• Support and educate Product Owners on maintaining the product backlog, actively managing this and preparing for next sprint.
• Monitor and ensure that items planned for the sprint are focused on, and unplanned work is identified and raised with the Product Owner to manage expectations and delivery.
• Provide the team with relevant prerequisites before sprints to enable them to deliver against expectations.
• Identify key dependencies and manage them closely to ensure delivery.
• Monitor and raise issues / blockers / risks early so they can be mitigated or cleared, enabling the team to deliver optimally.
• Track and ensure that delivery takes place according to the definition of Ready and/or Done.
• Optimise the velocity of delivery and focus on continuous improvement to enhance delivery and meet business needs.
• Facilitate discussions leading to collective decision-making, goal setting and conflict resolution within the team to ensure optimal team functioning.

CLIENT

• Provide authoritative expertise and advice to clients and internal and external stakeholders.
• Build and maintain relationships with clients and internal and external stakeholders.
• Deliver on service level agreements made with clients and internal and external stakeholders in order to ensure that client expectations are managed.
• Make recommendations to improve client service and fair treatment of clients within area of responsibility.
• Participate and contribute to a culture which builds rewarding relationships, facilitates feedback and provides exceptional client service.

PEOPLE

• Develop and maintain productive and collaborative working relationships with peers and stakeholders.
• Positively influence and participate in change initiatives.
• Continuously develop own expertise in terms of professional, industry and legislation knowledge.
• Contribute to continuous innovation through the development, sharing and implementation of new ideas.
• Take ownership for driving career development.

FINANCE

• Identify opportunities to enhance cost effectiveness and increase operational efficiency of solutions.
• Provide input into the risk identification processes and communicate recommendations in the appropriate forum.

Competencies

• Passion to make a difference in the lives of people in the low to middle income markets.
• Strong problem solving and judgement skills.
• Strong work planning and time management skills.
• Have the ability to take accountability and see projects through.
• Be versatile and open to learning opportunities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong documentation and relationship building skills.
• Ability to work with a diverse group of people as well as independently.
• Ability to work accurately under pressure.
• Ability to establish priorities and balance several tasks with accuracy and attention to detail in a demanding deadline-driven environment.