Systems Integration Specialist

Req ID: 392098 

NTT DATA strives to hire exceptional, innovative and passionate individuals who want to grow with us. If you want to be part of an inclusive, adaptable, and forward-thinking organization, apply now.

We are currently seeking a Systems Integration Specialist to join our team in Hyderabad, Telangana (IN-TG), India (IN).

Release Manager & Scrum Master

Role Title: Release Manager & Scrum Master

Function: Group Technology Operations (GTO) – Actuarial Solutions

Location: Hyderabad

Skills Screening Summary

Who are we?

Actuary IT Solutions is Zurich’s global capability within Finance, Investment & Treasury (FIT), responsible for running, stabilising, and evolving shared actuarial platforms that support IFRS and Group Reporting across business units.

We provide a unified and scalable operating model covering service management, platform operations, governance, compliance, and modernisation—so actuarial teams can focus on business outcomes with confidence in platform reliability and control.

Our portfolio includes Zurich’s core actuarial platforms such as Actuarial Solutions (ACE, GNLA, GRAND, and GLAD), operated as shared services with clear ownership, measurable KPIs, and standardised processes. We are actively modernising this landscape—including a major migration to AWS (targeted Go-Live Q1 2027)—to improve resilience, speed, cost efficiency, and long-term sustainability.

India delivery is an integral part of our global model, serving as a fully embedded delivery and capability hub. Teams work alongside global partners to support run operations, change, and transformation initiatives, contributing to scalability, resilience, and cost efficiency across the actuarial ecosystem.

Why you’ll love working here

• Enterprise-critical impact – Work on platforms that underpin IFRS and Group Reporting across Zurich
• Complex, meaningful delivery – Coordinate releases across a sophisticated, multi-component actuarial platform used globally
• Transformation at pace – Play a central role in Zurich’s AWS migration programme for actuarial systems
• AI-enabled ways of working – AI-first engineering, testing, operations, and knowledge management
• Clear ownership and accountability – Well-defined service models, KPIs, and decision rights
• Global collaboration – Work with diverse, highly skilled teams across Hyderabad, Barcelona, and multiple global locations
• Ownership culture – Trusted to make decisions, solve real problems, and deliver tangible outcomes

If you want to operate at the intersection of release excellence and agile delivery leadership—working on platforms that truly matter to Zurich’s financial reporting and regulatory outcomes—Actuary IT Solutions is the place to do it.

Role Purpose

The Release Manager & Scrum Master is responsible for orchestrating the end-to-end release lifecycle for the ACE actuarial platform while simultaneously leading agile ceremonies and delivery rhythm for a geo-dispersed team. The role is dual-purpose: ensuring that every release is controlled, traceable, and production-ready, while also embedding a high-performing agile culture through effective Scrum facilitation. The role operates as a critical bridge between Hyderabad and global stakeholders, requiring strong ownership, proactive communication, and the ability to manage complexity under pressure.

Key Accountabilities

Release Management

• Own the end-to-end release process for the ACE platform: planning, scheduling, coordination, and deployment across complex, multi-environment, multi-component releases.
• Define and maintain the release calendar, change windows, and release trains in alignment with business and regulatory timelines.
• Coordinate release readiness across Engineering, Testing, and Business stakeholders—ensuring sign-off gates, test evidence, and change management processes are completed before every deployment.
• Manage hotfixes, emergency releases, and production incidents with structured communication and minimal disruption.
• Maintain a clear audit trail of all releases through Azure DevOps, ensuring traceability from work item to deployment.
• Act as the single point of accountability for release quality, risk, and go/no-go decisions.
• Produce and maintain a complete release artefact pack for every deployment — including release notes, test evidence sign-off, go/no-go decision record, change request documentation, and deployment confirmations — structured to satisfy internal audit and Group Reporting governance requirements.

Scrum Master & Agile Delivery

• Facilitate all Scrum ceremonies: sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and backlog refinement sessions.
• Remove impediments, protect the team from scope creep, and ensure sprint commitments are realistic and delivered.
• Track and report on velocity, sprint health, and delivery metrics—escalating risks proactively to stakeholders.
• Coach the team on agile principles and continuously improve delivery processes and team dynamics.
• Partner with Product Owners to maintain a healthy, well-ordered backlog with clear acceptance criteria.
• Enforce Definition of Ready and Definition of Done standards — ensuring every User Story carries complete acceptance criteria, linked test cases, and post-sprint artefacts (test evidence, business sign-off) before closure. This is a compliance requirement, not a best-practice aspiration.
• Foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement in a distributed team environment.

Azure DevOps (ADO) Ownership

• Own and optimise the Azure DevOps environment: boards, pipelines, repositories, release pipelines, and test plans.
• Configure and maintain ADO work item hierarchies, sprint boards, and reporting dashboards for senior stakeholder visibility.
• Ensure end-to-end traceability from requirements to test evidence to deployment through ADO.
• Drive adoption of ADO best practices across the team and onboard new team members to ADO workflows.

Stakeholder Communication & Governance

• Provide regular, clear release and delivery status updates to global stakeholders across Hyderabad, Barcelona, and Switzerland.
• Prepare release notes, deployment plans, and post-release reports.
• Represent delivery status in governance forums and steer committees, highlighting risks, decisions needed, and upcoming milestones.
• Serve as the Hyderabad focal point for all release and sprint-related queries from global team members.

AI-First & Continuous Improvement

• Apply an AI-first mindset to release and delivery processes: use AI tools to improve sprint reporting, release documentation, risk identification, and status communications.
• Continuously identify and drive process improvements to reduce release cycle time, increase predictability, and improve sprint delivery rates.
• Act as a critical thinker: validate AI outputs and apply professional judgement before adoption.

Skills & Experience

Required Experience

• Minimum 7 years of experience in Release Management, Delivery Management, or Agile Scrum roles.
• Proven experience managing releases for large, complex enterprise applications with multiple integrated components.
• Strong hands-on experience as a Scrum Master on a delivery team—not just a supporting role, but as the primary facilitator and impediment remover.
• Experience working in financial services, insurance, banking, or other regulated/complex domain is strongly preferred.

Technical Skills

• Advanced, hands-on experience with Azure DevOps (ADO): boards, pipelines, release management, test plans, and dashboards. This is a non-negotiable requirement—basic ADO exposure is not sufficient.
• Experience with release tooling and deployment coordination (CI/CD pipelines, change management processes, ITSM tools).
• Familiarity with cloud deployments (Azure or AWS) and how infrastructure changes interact with release planning.
• Competent in tracking and reporting using ADO or equivalent tooling (Jira, ServiceNow).

Certifications — Required

• Active Scrum certification: Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM I or II), or equivalent (SAFe Scrum Master acceptable).
• ITIL Foundation or equivalent release/change management certification is required.

AI & Mindset

• Practical exposure to AI-assisted productivity tools (e.g. Copilot, AI writing assistants, automation tools) is an advantage.
• Demonstrates a learning mindset and openness to evolving ways of working.

Professional Skills

• Excellent communication skills—clear, proactive, and confident across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent releases and sprint streams.
• Structured approach to risk management, escalation, and decision-making under pressure.
• Proven ability to work independently in a geo-dispersed team—self-directing when requirements are ambiguous and proactively communicating status without being prompted.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Candidate Data Privacy Notice

By applying for this position, you acknowledge that Zurich Insurance Group will collect and process your personal data for the purposes of recruitment and selection. Your data will be handled in accordance with applicable data protection laws and Zurich’s privacy policy. Data will be retained for a period consistent with legal requirements and internal policy and will not be shared with third parties without your consent except where required by law. You have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal data by contacting the HR team.

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA is a $30 billion business and technology services leader, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100. We are committed to accelerating client success and positively impacting society through responsible innovation. We are one of the world's leading AI and digital infrastructure providers, with unmatched capabilities in enterprise-scale AI, cloud, security, connectivity, data centers and application services. our consulting and Industry solutions help organizations and society move confidently and sustainably into the digital future. As a Global Top Employer, we have experts in more than 50 countries. We also offer clients access to a robust ecosystem of innovation centers as well as established and start-up partners. NTT DATA is a part of NTT Group, which invests over $3 billion each year in R&D.

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