Associate Vice President - Scrum Master, Everyday Banking - Business Banking Group

Role Overview

Associate Vice President – Scrum Master, Everyday Banking, Business Banking Group at RAK BANK. This is a hands-on product delivery leadership role combining agile delivery facilitation with proxy product ownership for digital onboarding and everyday banking capabilities.

Role Purpose

Act as the number two to the Digital Product Owner for Onboarding and Everyday Banking, driving day-to-day delivery of digital banking capabilities through scrum mastery, backlog management, team facilitation, and product decision-making in the Product Owner's absence. Maintain delivery cadence, protect quality, and enable continuous, predictable delivery of digital banking experiences that meet customer and business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Scrum Facilitation & Team Leadership

• Facilitate sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives for onboarding and everyday banking squads
• Coach and support the delivery team in scrum practices and ceremonies, holding the line on process discipline
• Build strong, self-organising squads and partner closely with the Digital Product Owner
• Facilitate decision-making when stakeholders disagree, keeping momentum without compromising quality or scope

Backlog & Product Management

• Serve as proxy product owner, managing the backlog day to day
• Write and refine user stories with clear acceptance criteria ready for sprint delivery
• Translate product strategy and business objectives into a clear, prioritised backlog with well-defined acceptance criteria
• Navigate ambiguous or evolving requirements, structuring them into clear, actionable user stories and acceptance criteria
• Make pragmatic product decisions in the Product Owner's absence, balancing customer value, technical feasibility, and timelines

Delivery Management & Risk Mitigation

• Remove impediments and unblock delivery teams, coordinating across business, design, technology, and third parties to maintain momentum
• Manage sprint scope, dependencies, and risks, ensuring commitments are realistic and delivery remains predictable
• Manage conflicting priorities across squads and workstreams, sequencing work to maximise value and protect delivery commitments
• Anticipate downstream impacts of product decisions across onboarding journeys, everyday banking features, and integrated systems
• Identify risks, blockers, and quality issues early, driving resolution before they impact delivery
• Coordinate delivery across multiple squads, managing dependencies, risks, and iterative release cycles

Quality Assurance & Release Readiness

• Protect quality through rigorous acceptance testing, UAT coordination, and release readiness reviews
• Maintain a disciplined approach to acceptance criteria definition and validation

Stakeholder Engagement & Reporting

• Deputise for the Digital Product Owner in ceremonies, stakeholder forums, and decision-making when required
• Engage stakeholders across the bank to gather requirements, validate solutions, and keep alignment between business needs and delivered functionality
• Track and report squad performance, delivery metrics, and product KPIs, highlighting risks and trade-offs to the Digital Product Owner
• Report progress and risks to senior stakeholders with clear, structured communication

Strategy & Planning

• Contribute to product strategy, roadmaps, and business cases for onboarding and everyday banking, bringing customer and delivery insight
• Provide clarity under pressure, keeping teams focused and aligned despite tight timelines and changing priorities

Qualifications & Experience

• 8–12 years of experience in digital delivery, product ownership, or agile delivery roles within large-scale digital or technology environments
• Proven experience acting as scrum master and proxy product owner for digital squads, ideally within banking or financial services
• Strong track record of facilitating scrum ceremonies, managing backlogs, and writing user stories with clear acceptance criteria
• Experience delivering digital onboarding, everyday banking, or other customer-facing digital banking products at scale
• Demonstrated ability to deputise confidently for a senior product owner in ceremonies, forums, and decision-making
• Strong exposure to end-to-end customer journeys and process design within digital banking ecosystems
• Experience operating in fast-paced, high-pressure delivery environments with evolving priorities
• Bachelor's degree required

Skills & Competencies

• Agile delivery and scrum mastery: strong command of scrum practices, ceremonies, and team facilitation
• Product ownership: proven ability to manage backlogs, write high-quality user stories, and make confident prioritisation calls
• Onboarding and everyday banking knowledge: understanding of digital onboarding journeys and everyday banking products within a banking context
• Stakeholder engagement and communication: effective with senior stakeholders, technology teams, and squad members alike
• Analytical thinking and problem decomposition: strong capability to break complex problems into structured, deliverable components
• Decision-making under ambiguity: comfortable acting as proxy product owner with incomplete information
• Delivery management: skilled at managing dependencies, risks, and sprint scope to protect predictability
• Quality mindset: disciplined approach to acceptance testing, UAT, and release readiness
• Collaboration and coaching: builds strong, self-organising squads and partners closely with the Digital Product Owner
• Communication and reporting: clear, structured reporting on delivery progress, metrics, and product performance

Additional Information

• Relevant certifications preferred (e.g., PSM, CSPO, SAFe)