Scrum Master

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About Vitality Group

Vitality Group, a subsidiary of Discovery Limited is responsible for the expansion of the Vitality Shared-Value Insurance business model beyond South Africa and the UK, serving to fully leverage the assets and intellectual property of Discovery beyond its primary markets. The business forms equity or contractual partnerships with leading global insurers to integrate Vitality and shared value with partner’s insurance and financial services products in the markets where they operate. Vitality Group also operates a business providing wellness solutions to employer groups in the United States. Vitality Health International, a business unit within Vitality Group coordinates and focuses on resource allocation to Discovery’s emerging, global health insurance initiatives. Vitality Group is also responsible for Discovery’s 25 percent equity investment in Ping An Health, the largest comprehensive medical insurer in China.

To date, Vitality Group’s businesses jointly reach more than 27 million unique lives across 38 markets (Argentina, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, France, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Macao, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States, Vietnam and Zambia) as well as our primary markets in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Key Purpose

• Is a servant‑leader for the Scrum Team that does anything possible to help the team perform at their highest level
• Help form a self‑managed team that is motivated, predictable, transparent and consistently delivers quality work and continually inspects and adapts in order to improve and maximize throughput whilst upholding the Agile values, principles and practices
• Facilitates the removal of impediments teams face when developing solutions
• Implements agile best practices within a team
• Helps the development team, business and management develop a culture of collaboration — Act as a change agent to the team and organisation
• Supports the team to be self‑organising and function as an accountable, high performance team
• Focused and goal driven and helps to achieve the Sprint goals
• Be a master facilitator

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

Act as Scrum master for 2 – 4 scrum teams with a focus on guiding the teams towards improving the way they work.

Facilitate Scrum Events ensure that they are focused and productive (Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Planning, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives and Backlog Grooming)

Help facilitate Product Planning Workshops and Release Planning Sessions

Assist the Product Owner in prioritisation and scheduling of work, to meet delivery time frames

Ensure backlog is in good standing by having regular re‑occurring weekly backlog grooming sessions

Ensure that all the team members understand their role and fulfil them to the best of their ability

Guide / coach / mentor the development team to take on the responsibilities of the process and ownership of the product – lead the team to a self‑organised state

Build a high performing team, focusing on improving team dynamics and performance, help the team manage interpersonal conflicts, challenges and opportunities for growth.

Protect the team from interruptions and distractions to maximize productivity and create flow of work

Identify and facilitate the resolution of identified impediments

Help the team make achievable sprint commitments with the use of velocity data and team availability

Help the team members communicate, co‑ordinate and meet their delivery goals

Ensure the team / stakeholders adhere to Definition of Ready (DoR) / Definition of Done (DoD)

Highlight risks and dysfunctions where the DoR / DoD is not met

Ensure the team uses the standardized reference story for estimating

Ensure understanding of the Agile principles and Scrum process, across teams and stakeholders

Ensure adherence to the Agile principles and Scrum process and help resolve any deviations

Raise issues that are putting delivery at risk as soon as they arise

Help facilitate delivery solutions and manage expectations

Responsible to produce the following artefacts (Weekly Sprint Reports, Release projection / Burndown) to create visibility and transparency of the progress and status of the systems delivery

Continually grow and share Agile knowledge.

Personal Attributes and Skills

Behavioral Skills

Stress Management

Time management and prioritization

Learning orientation

Innovation

Bias for action

Teamwork and co‑operation

Strong management skills

Technical Skills

Knowledge and / or experience of Kanban

Knowledge of the software development life cycle

Essential you are fully proficient at Jira administration, for example :

Understand the JIRA data model

Create and maintain workflows, transitions, post actions, etc.

Plugin evaluation

Project administration

Create and maintain Users and Security Groups

Proficient in writing JQL queries

Create and maintain fields and field configurations, screens and screen configurations

Excellent communication skills in English in written and spoken form

Working with ServiceNow IT Business Management (ITBM) advantageous

Other

Overtime may be required from time to time

Education and Experience

Education :

Matric

Certified scrum master / scrum practitioner

Tertiary degree (B. Engineer, B.Com, BSC) advantageous

Experience :

At least 2-4 years’ experience working in a Scrum Master role

At least 2 years’ experience working in an agile environment, preferably in a variety of situations

Experience working within Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) advantageous

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.

#J-18808-Ljbffr