Mainframe Systems Programmer

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Candidates must reside within 3 hours away from Cleveland, OH and be willing to go onsite to support critical efforts as needed. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit, Akron are okay.

Client is NOT willing to provide sponsorship.

Relocation available for ideal candidates!

Job Description

We are seeking a Mainframe Systems Programmer who is responsible for the engineering, operations, and strategic planning of the IBM z/OS mainframe environment, including IBM and third-party software. This role serves as the primary technical authority for the mainframe platform, providing expert guidance to application support, scheduling, and data center operations teams. You will partner closely with IT leadership to develop long-term strategies that optimize performance, availability, security, and cost-effective use of the mainframe.

As the lead Systems Programmer, you will oversee mainframe storage, tape management, disaster recovery, and capacity planning, ensuring the recoverability and resilience of all critical applications. The role also includes leading technical initiatives, upgrades, and infrastructure projects to deliver reliable, high-quality outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the subject matter expert for the enterprise mainframe platform.
• Provide technical leadership and support to infrastructure, application, and third-party teams.
• Plan, install, configure, customize, and maintain IBM z/OS and third-party software (e.g., TopSecret, CA-1, CA-Disk, BMC AMI Storage, Endevor, MIM, VPS).
• Perform and support CICS administration.
• Lead capacity planning, performance monitoring, tuning, and resource optimization for mainframe, storage, and tape environments.
• Support disaster recovery planning and execute annual DR testing for mainframe and storage replication services.
• Identify and plan adoption of new technologies, including Linux and cloud-ready capabilities, to optimize mainframe utilization.
• Develop and maintain operational standards, procedures, and documentation.
• Plan and deliver software upgrades, system maintenance, patching, and hardware refresh initiatives.
• Manage service delivery disciplines with operations teams, including incident, change, and problem management.
• Review technical solutions to ensure compliance with mainframe security standards and best practices.
• Provide engineering support for enterprise scheduling tools, including training and documentation for operations teams.
  
  

Required Experience And Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience as a Systems Programmer supporting large, complex mainframe environments.
• Expert-level knowledge of IBM z/OS administration, installation, upgrades, patching, and performance tuning.
• Strong expertise in IBM mainframe hardware, including installations, upgrades, firmware maintenance, and lifecycle planning.
• Extensive knowledge of mainframe storage and tape management systems, including replication technologies.
• Deep experience with CICS administration.
• Strong understanding of mainframe security, workload management tools, and methodologies.
• Knowledge of mainframe database concepts, particularly IDMS database administration.
• At least 5 years of experience providing technical leadership to infrastructure engineers and administrators.
• Hands-on experience installing IBM mainframe hardware, operating systems, and major third-party software (e.g., CA, BMC, LRS, Information Builders).
• Experience designing, implementing, and operating enterprise-wide mainframe and server infrastructure in highly virtualized environments.
• Proven experience leading large, complex initiatives such as hardware refreshes, major software upgrades, architecture changes, and multi-site consolidations.
• Experience supporting mission-critical services in large, global organizations with 24x7 operational requirements.