Principal Application Support Engineer (IBM z/OS Platform)

Company Description

ATPCO is the world's primary source for air fare content, holding over 200 million fares across 160 countries. Every day, the travel industry relies on ATPCO's technology and data solutions to help millions of travelers reach their destinations efficiently. Join us and contribute to the development of innovative applications that power global travel. ATPCO is everywhere people buy flights.

We’re not just shaping the future of air travel– we’re redefining how and where great work happens. At ATPCO, we believe in flexibility, trust, and a culture where your wellbeing comes first

Why Join Us?​

✅ Remote-First Culture – Flexibility to work from home in your country of hire​

✅ “Leave Your Way” PTO– Take the time you need, when you need it​

✅ 401(k) with Generous Employer Match– Invest in your future​

✅ Comprehensive Benefits– Medical, dental, vision, & mental health​

✅ Global Tuition and Gym Reimbursement– Learn and grow on us​

✅ Standby Flight Program– Explore the world​

✅ Inclusive, Collaborative Culture– Be seen, heard, and valued​

Our Culture:​

We’ve built a remote-first culture rooted in trust, transparency, and belonging. With open-door leadership, weekly 1:1s, and real-time recognition, we keep our people connected and valued—no matter where they work.​

Our cultural pillars of Collaboration, Empowerment, Innovation, Learning, Transparency, and Trust guide how we show up for one another and grow together.

Job Description

As a Principal Application Support Engineer (IBM z/OS Platform) at ATPCO, you will be responsible for the implementation, enhancement, and maintenance of a wide range of ATPCO applications and services. In this role, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and develop software solutions that align with business objectives, ensuring high performance, scalability, and reliability. You'll also play a critical role in improving existing applications, integrating new features, and maintaining system functionality to meet evolving business needs. 

Roles and Responsibilities. 

• Provide 24x7 Tier 2 support for all ATPCO applications and systems during both day and night oncall rotations, including weekends and holidays 

• Serve as the technical lead for diagnosing and resolving critical production incidents in mainframe and distributed applications. 

• Proactively resolve complex technical issues, managing multiple tasks while ensuring timely and quality results. 

• Act as a technical mentor and resource for engineering teams, providing guidance on best practices and fostering team collaboration. 

• Stay current with emerging technologies, driving continuous improvements in development processes and application delivery. 

• Collaborate cross-functionally to meet business objectives, ensuring smooth communication between teams and stakeholders 

• Share knowledge with peers and the wider organization, contributing to a culture of continuous learning and improvement. 

• Develop proactive monitoring, alerting, and self-healing capabilities for applications and APIs. 

• Analyze operational trends, volume surges and application logs to anticipate issues before they impact customers. 

• Manage Severity 1 and 2 incidents and outages—from initial troubleshooting, vendor engagement, and outage communication to escalation and bridge management—ensuring effective internal and external communication and customer satisfaction. 

• Provide support during business hours for non-production environments. 

• Perform application and database maintenance activities such as MPM data uploads, historical data migrations, back-door data fixes, and addressing customer subscription data processing issues. 

• Maintain and update COBOL programs and JCL. 

• Maintain a deep understanding of the ATPCO enterprise environment to quickly diagnose and resolve issues, while staying informed about changes to ATPCO applications and technologies 

• Collaborate with PSS Tier 1 to maintain and optimize Control-M/EM batch processing jobs. 

• Monitor systems such as ServiceNow, Splunk On-Call, application alerts, and group emails, and respond to issues in a timely manner. 

• Monitor scheduled Applications performance metrics and prepare ad hoc reports for IT management using DB2 SQL and other tools as needed. 

 Technical Skills Requirements: 

IBM DB2 skills (SQL queries, stored procedures, performance tuning), Redis, Neo4J, MySQL, MongoDB, IBM Job Control Language (JCL), Shell scripting, COBOL, CICS, J2EE, Java batch, Control-M/EM Enterprise Scheduler, Linux, z/OS (TSO/ISPF), VMware, MQ Series, WebSphere, J2EE Applications  structure familiarity, ServiceNow, Monitoring Tools: (Grafana, Splunk, Dynatrace, site24x7, SolarWinds,  AWS CloudWatch),  XML, JDBC, experience in parsing Linux logs, $AVRS, BMC MainView,  

Professional Skills and experience: 

• Minimum of 8 years of IBM mainframe and distributed web/cloud-based application support experience in a 24x7 environment, including nights, weekends, and holidays 

• Proven track record in IT Operations and Application Production Support within complex enterprise environments. 

• Ability to build rapport with team members, developing trust within the immediate team 

• Accepts and integrates constructive feedback positively. 

• Cooperatively engages with peers to achieve shared goals. 

• Requires understanding and general application of concepts, theories, and principles to the area of work.         

• Absorbs new information systematically and applies it effectively. 

• Engage in informal coaching and knowledge-sharing with colleagues and contribute to a collaborative and growth-oriented work environment. 

• Background in Applications development and programming. 

• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills. 

• Excellent oral and written communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders. 

• Strong business acumen with the ability to quickly understand operational and business incident impact. 

• Ability to take full ownership of production problems, anticipate and mitigate risks, escalate appropriately, and deliver workarounds under pressure. 

• Proven ability to multi-task and prioritize urgent issues to meet SLA and KPI requirement 

• Strong knowledge of DB2 (SQL queries, stored procedures, Application SQL performance tuning). 

• Strong knowledge in JCL (Job Control Language) 

• Proficiency with TSO/ISPF/SDSF 
   

Salary Range:  USD $143,600 – $161,211

*The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for applicable geographic differential associated with the United States*

Additional Information

At ATPCO, we are deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our supportive policies promote work-life balance through flexible work arrangements, and we cultivate a workplace where every employee feels valued, respected, and a true sense of belonging.

We consider qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, gender, age, color, religion, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, protected military/veteran status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, or any other legally protected factor

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.