Scrum Master at Old Mutual South Africa

Job Description

• The role of the Scrum Master is to facilitate the removal of impediments and foster an environment for high-performing team dynamics, continuous flow, and relentless improvement. The Scrum Master’s primary responsibility is assisting the self-organizing, self-managing team achieve its goals. 
• The Scrum Master also helps the team coordinate with other teams in the programme. will lead a team of IT resources, such as analysts and developers. The incumbent will work in a multi-functional team to ensure continuous delivery of quality solutions.

Agile Development Team Facilitation

• Lead Scrum ceremonies, remove obstacles, and facilitate problem-solving, collaboration, and conflict resolution to enable the most effective work delivery by development teams on small projects.

Agile Release Planning

• Plan and replan software releases for medium-sized projects as they are produced to ensure timely updates and to deliver the planned benefits as early as possible in the project or program.

Agile Backlog Management

• Review the backlog of work for a small project and reprioritize the work and deployment of project resources to reduce costs and increase the value of the work delivered to the business.

Culture of Innovation

• Promote a culture of innovation by creating solutions that boost creativity, innovation, and collaboration, such as idea generation platforms, jam sessions, and hackathons.

Digital Strategy/Transformational Projects Execution

• Execute and deliver elements of the digital road map, leveraging agile and design-thinking principles to drive sustainable implementation.

Project Risk and Issue Management

• Identify and evaluate risks, issues, dependencies, and constraints associated with the project, escalating matters where appropriate. Where necessary, develop, agree on, and implement solutions to overcome these concerns.

Data Collection and Analysis

• Collate and analyze data using preset tools, methods, and formats. Involves working independently.

Work Scheduling and Allocation

• Assign short-term work schedules to a team of subordinates in order to achieve expectations while following established timelines.

Project Resource Management

• Carry out delegated activities to support the deployment and effective utilization of project resources.

Project Planning

• Carry out delegated activities to support the production of workstream and project plans that identify and organize all the activities needed to deliver project objectives and that comply with the organization's project management framework.

Performance Management

• Respond to personal objectives and use performance management systems to improve personal performance; or monitor the performance of the team, allocate work and review completion, take appropriate corrective action to ensure timeliness and quality, and contribute to formal individual performance management and appraisal.

Personal Capability Building

• Develop own capabilities by participating in assessment and development planning activities as well as formal and informal training and coaching; gain or maintain external professional accreditation, where relevant, to improve performance and fulfill personal potential.
• Maintain an understanding of relevant technology, external regulation, and industry best practices through ongoing education, attending conferences, and reading specialist media.

​Requirements: Skills, Qualifications and Experience required

• Matric certificate with relevant qualification.
• Good understanding of business IT.
• Knowledge of agile methodology and frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, Scaled Agile (SAFe) etc.
• Very strong technical background either as a Business Analyst, Software Developer, Quality Analyst or Project Manager.
• Successfully applied Agile/XP/Scrum practices and introduced Agile techniques and have coached teams to apply them effectively.
• Proficient in managing scope in an Agile project and facilitating the user story lifecycle in close collaboration with the customer/Business Outcome Owner, including breaking down complex requirements into independent user stories, capturing detailed acceptance criteria, building a release plan with user, managing the backlog, running showcases.
• Ideally, experience of running distributed teams and distributed agile.
• Experience in software development projects.
• Exceptional listening, written and verbal communication skills including exceptional client facing/consulting skills.
• Professional facilitation skills to empower the team through facilitation.
• Understand the value of team metrics and keep track of them to drive team performance.
• Ability to run and facilitate core meetings and activities: Backlog Refinement, Sprint Planning, story writing, sizing, prioritising, Daily stand ups, Sprint Reviews and Sprint Retrospectives.

Stakeholder Management, Negotiation & Communication Skills.

• JIRA/Confluence experience (or other relevant tools). Making work visible though a Sprint board.

Skills

• Adaptive Thinking, Agile Project Management, Backlog Management, Budget Management, Change Management, Executing Plans, Oral Communications, Project Communications Management, Project Estimations, Project Performance Management (PM), Project Quality Assurance, Project Resource Management, Project Schedule Management, Project Scope Management

Competencies

• Business Insight
• Collaborates
• Communicates Effectively
• Cultivates Innovation
• Decision Quality
• Directs Work
• Drives Engagement
• Drives Results

Education

• NQF Level 7 - Degree, Advance Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate or equivalent

Closing Date

• 20 November 2025