Scrum Master

Value Proposition

At Shoprite, you will be part of delivering integrated solutions across the Shoprite Group to some of the most recognized South Africa Retail brands and you will do it by working on best of breed technologies. We are proud to be publicly recognised as a largest private sector employer in South Africa and leading employer in Africa. We focus on attracting, developing, and retaining a loyal and committed workforce, dedicated to the Group’s culture and organisational objectives.

Role Purpose

This exciting role is within the ShopriteX division working within amazing brands like Sixty60.

The purpose of the Senior Scrum Master is to lead the digital commerce scrum teams in agile development and achievement of product goals, including defining and refining backlog items, planning and managing multiple feature developments, sprints/iterations, sprint reviews and retrospectives with the aim of delivering high-value increments that meet the Definition of Done. This role leverages advanced scrum software development project management knowledge to direct to the scrum method adoption and practice within the larger IT team within the domain and guides scrum teams towards product releases within set guidelines, managing the communication and team organization.

This is a Servant Leader role that builds trust-based relationships, stimulates empowerment and transparency, drives commitment, encourages collaboration, flexibility, empathy and ethical behavior within the scrum team, stakeholders and the customers they serve. Furthermore, this role facilitates trains, coaches and optimizes scrum to the larger team by ensuring good scrum practice. The nature of projects in this role are generally highly complex within one or multiple domains and do from time-to-time impact other domains. We are searching for a dynamic, self-motivated and energised scrum master within Digital Technologies that is responsible for enabling our ShopriteX Digital Commerce division

Role Description

Scrum Team and Service Delivery

• Ensure relevant teams are practicing core Agile principles of collaboration, prioritization, team accountability, and visibility in accordance with relevant standards.
• Provide input to the product development process, the Product Owner and the scrum delivery team to manage the delivery of solutions and product releases.
• Manage communication channels within the scrum team to create a trusting and safe team environment.
• Drive the development and maintenance of team standards in order to maximise team performance.
• Provide the team with relevant prerequisites before sprints to enable them to deliver against expectations.
• Manage team delivery to ensure that sprint promises remain unobstructed, mitigating external disruptions and distractions, whenever possible, to ensure optimal team effectiveness. This includes, providing guidance on human resource implementation plan as appraisals, recruitment, skills development, leave etc., and developing the team resource allocation plan to ensure service delivery.
• Manage key dependencies closely to ensure delivery.
• Manage and mitigate for 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.
• Maintain process documentation in accordance with best practice standards.

Sprint and Backlog Management

• Manage the planning of prioritised sprint backlogs from both a business and technical viewpoint.
• Facilitate agile ceremonies of sprint kick-off, daily stand-ups, sprint review, and sprint retrospective in order to meet business requirements.
• Drive backlog maintenance and the facilitation of defects/bugs resolution to achieve and meet business needs.
• 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.

Stakeholder Management: Feedback and Reporting

• Drive team velocity and sprint progress with relevant stakeholders.
• Manage any issues that might affect the delivery of the team, removing barriers between stakeholders and the team.
• Implement the product definition, providing feedback on the user experience and user interface as part of the overlapping phase.

Qualifications and Experience

• Degree or Diploma in Information Technology or a related field – (essential).
• Scrum Master foundation certification (i.e., Certified Scrum Master / Agile Certified Practitioner / Professional Scrum Master) or relevant Scrum Master training - (essential)
• A Scrum Master with advanced knowledge and experience delivering diverse IT solutions through the scrum software development methodology, driving agility within development teams, and managing sprints and backlogs in a variety of environments - (essential).
• Solid experience managing multiple scrum teams and feature development in one backlog and understanding of standard software development roles and responsibilities - (essential).

Our Group and all its operating companies is committed to creating, embracing, and preserving a diverse workplace that values the unique talents, perspectives, backgrounds, and abilities that enrich our organisation. A place where everyone matters and feels included.

We are committed to Employment Equity when recruiting internally and externally.

Please take note that by responding to this application and providing your personal information, you confirm your express and informed consent for Shoprite Checkers (Pty) Ltd and all its subsidiaries and affiliates companies to process your personal information for the Company to consider your application for this position. All Personal Information which you provide to the Company will be used and/or retained only for the purposes for which it is collected, whereafter it will be permanently destroyed. Your information is only retained if it is required by law or where you have given consent to us to retain such information for an extended period.

If you don’t hear from us within 14 days, please consider your application unsuccessful. Any personal information collected as part of your application will be destroyed, securely, in accordance with South African legislation.