KE-Technical Scrum Master (National)

The Project Lead Scrum Master, working closely with the development team and product owner is responsible for coordinating and supporting the smooth running of agile processes, ensuring team productivity, removing obstacles and compliance with operational and administrative policies.

This role ensures the effective coordination of IT Software Development Team and Program engagement to meet programmatic goals and compliance standards. The Scrum Master leads cross-functional teams, drives process improvements, and serves as the secondary liaison with PRM, USCIS, and other stakeholders for efficient delivery.

Experience:

• A minimum of six years’ relevant paid work experience is required with hands‑on coaching and measurable team outcomes.
  
• Proven experience supporting software teams in Agile / Scrum environments.
  

Skills:

• Strong communication and facilitation skills; experience with Jira, Confluence, or similar
  
• Strong verbal and written English language skills.
  
• Demonstrated computer skills, especially Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
  
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
  

Education & Certifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in IT, Business, or related field, or four (4) additional year’s work experience in lieu of a bachelor’s degree.
  
• Certified Scrum Master (PSM I/II, CSM certification)
  

Requirements Specification

• Coordinate stakeholders: invite SMEs to refinement, clarify non‑functional requirements, and resolve conflicting priorities.
  
• Coach the Product Owner (PO) to own and prioritize the backlog; ensure the PO articulates value, acceptance criteria, and priority.
  
• Facilitate Backlog Refinement sessions so items become clear, small, and estimable (split epics, define acceptance criteria, surface dependencies).
  
• Enforce Definition of Ready (DoR) and Definition of Done (DoD) so the team only pulls sprint work that’s actionable and testable.
  
• Promote testable requirements by encouraging acceptance tests, using relevant scenarios to reduce ambiguity and defects.
  

Facilitate Scrum Ceremonies

• Plan and run Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective and Backlog Refinement.
  
• Run daily unblock huddles; create escalation path; map dependencies; assign owners.
  
• keep meetings time‑boxed and outcome‑focused.
  

Coach Team and Stakeholders

• Teach Scrum rules, provide servant‑leadership, and continuous improvement.
  
• Mentor individuals on collaboration and self‑organization.
  
• Communicate progress, risks, and dependencies to managers, developers, and business stakeholders.
  

• Shield team from scope creep, unnecessary meetings, and ad‑hoc requests.
  
• Help Product Owner prioritize backlog. Help refine backlog, clarify acceptance criteria, and ensure user stories are ready for sprint planning.
  
• Establishing and tracking relevant metrics.
  

• Identify blockers (technical, organizational, external) and either resolve them or escalate with clear owner and resolution timelines.
  
• Mediates disagreements and fosters psychological safety.
  

Track and Report

• Track metrics (velocity, cycle time, sprint predictability, blocked time) and run experiments to improve them.
  
• Track readiness metrics: percent of sprint backlog meeting DoR at planning; number of rework items due to unclear requirements.
  
• Stakeholder Management through reporting.
  

• Ensures all functions strictly adhere to the DOS/PRM, USCIS, RPC, CWS Africa policies, guidelines, and procedures.
  
• Ensures development, implementation, dissemination, monitoring and adherence to Processing Guides for processing of refugees eligible for the US Refugee Admissions Program in sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• Conducts job function observations to ensure compliance is met and identifies any areas of improvement or training needs.
  

• Maintains effective relationships with RSC implementing partners, including PRM, IOM, UNHCR, RPC and domestic Resettlement Agencies.
  
• Ensure professional, timely, and proactive communication with partners.
  
• Represent CWS/RSC Africa’s values and policies to staff, partners, and applicants.
  
• Ensure staff professionalism in all external engagements
  

• Perform other duties as assigned to enhance program quality and efficiency.