About the Role
The Project Lead Scrum Master works closely with the development team and product owner, and is responsible for coordinating and supporting the smooth running of agile processes, ensuring team productivity, removing obstacles, and ensuring compliance with CWS operational and administrative policies.
This role ensures the effective coordination of the 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.
Key Responsibilities
Agile Facilitation & Coordination
- Coordinate Stakeholders: Invite SMEs to refinement sessions, clarify non-functional requirements, and resolve conflicting priorities.
- Coach the Product Owner (PO): Coach the PO to own and prioritize the backlog; ensure the PO clearly articulates value, acceptance criteria, and priority.
- Facilitate Backlog Refinement: Lead backlog refinement sessions so items become clear, small, and estimable (splitting epics, defining acceptance criteria, and surfacing dependencies).
- Enforce Definitions: Enforce the Definition of Ready (DoR) and Definition of Done (DoD) so the team only pulls sprint work that is actionable and testable.
- Promote Testable Requirements: Encourage 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. Keep meetings time-boxed and outcome-focused.
- Run Daily Unblock Huddles: Create escalation paths, map dependencies, and assign owners to resolve blockers.
Coaching & Focus Protection
- Coach Team and Stakeholders: Teach Scrum rules, provide servant-leadership, and drive continuous improvement. Mentor individuals on collaboration and self-organization.
- Protect Team Focus: Shield the team from scope creep, unnecessary meetings, and ad-hoc requests. Help the Product Owner refine and prioritize the backlog.
- Remove Impediments: Identify technical, organizational, and external blockers; resolve them or escalate with clear ownership and resolution timelines. Mediate disagreements and foster 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). Manage stakeholders through clear reporting.
Compliance & Stakeholder Engagement
- Ensure Compliance: Adhere strictly to the DOS/PRM, USCIS, RPC, and CWS Africa policies, guidelines, and procedures.
- Processing Guides: Ensure development, implementation, dissemination, monitoring, and adherence to Processing Guides for processing refugees eligible for the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Conduct Observations: Perform job function observations to ensure compliance, identifying areas for improvement or training needs.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Maintain effective relationships with RSC implementing partners, including PRM, IOM, UNHCR, RPC, and domestic Resettlement Agencies.
- Represent CWS: Represent CWS/RSC Africa's values and policies to staff, partners, and applicants. Ensure staff professionalism in all external engagements.
Qualifications and Experience
- Education: Bachelor’s Degree in IT, Business, or a related field, or four (4) additional years of work experience in lieu of a bachelor’s degree.
- Certification: Certified Scrum Master (PSM I/II, CSM certification).
- 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 is required.
- Language: Strong verbal and written English language communication skills.
- Technical Skills: Experience with Jira, Confluence, or similar. Competence in Microsoft Office packages (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) is required as this position requires the use of laptops at all times.
Key Competencies & Abilities
- Understands enough of the product/tech stack to remove technical blockers.
- Prioritizes team needs, removes obstacles, and protects team focus.
- Ability to work under pressure with competing priorities.
- Ability to analyze and solve complex problems and make sound decisions.
- Ability to work with minimal supervision and independently.
- Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.
- Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Active alertness to child safeguarding and PSEAH risks.
Special Requirements
- Willing and able to travel extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, often in difficult conditions, on short notice.
- Must have proof of Yellow Fever vaccination before traveling.
- Must undergo a background check including references, educational, and criminal checks.
- A valid passport with enough pages is required.
