Senior CICS System Programmer

Job d:

Location:

Eden Prairie, Minnesota, United States Salary: $91,700 - $163,700/year

Job Area:
Technology Company:
United Health Group Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities.

Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together. As a Senior I O Engineer specializing in CICS System Programming, you will play a critical role in maintaining and optimizing the CICS environment on IBM z/OS systems. In this role, you will apply deep technical expertise in system integration, software maintenance, and performance tuning across multi-LPAR, Parallel Sysplex environments.

Our operational environment is continuously evolving, and you will leverage enterprise-approved AI productivity and diagnostics tools to analyze capacity data, summarize complex team communications, and streamline documentation. Working alongside cross-functional automation and application teams, you will help implement proactive health check systems, manage CICS regions, and guide disaster recovery planning to sustain operational resilience on a global scale.

You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute
* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

Configure, maintain, and optimize CICS environments on IBM z/OS across multi-LPAR, Parallel Sysplex environments to ensure high system resilience

Create and manage CICS regions, support application teams with resource definitions, and troubleshoot stability issues

Diagnose and resolve system incidents independently using monitoring tools such as BMC/AMI Mainview, Splunk, and MXG, as well as Omegamon, Sysview, and Abend-aid Support the integration of z/OS Connect APIs and contribute to automated deployments using tools like XL Deploy and Artifactory Use enterprise-approved AI tools to streamline workflows, automate tasks, analyze capacity planning metrics, and drive continuous operational improvement

Evaluate emerging technology trends to inform environment design, strategic optimization, and intelligent automation strategies

Partner with external vendors to compile diagnostic documentation, troubleshoot technical issues, and manage support tickets

Perform disaster recovery planning, performance optimization, and region decommissioning initiatives

Support 24x7 critical operations as part of a scheduled on-call rotation

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear directions on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

5+ years of system programming experience including z/OS skills with TSO, JCL, started tasks, and RACF5+ years of CICS system programming experience including upgrades and applying RSUs to the CICS product and related ISV products5+ years of experience working with multiple z/OS file types and file systems, including PDS/PDSE, VSAM, and zFS (including allocation and related Unix commands)5+ years of experience with IT Service Management (ITSM) processes, including Incident, Change, and Release management5+ years of experience utilizing metric and monitoring tools to evaluate system health3+ years of CPSM (CICS Plex System Manager) experience

Ability to work on-call to support 24x7 operations as part of a scheduled rotation

Preferred Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field

Experience using enterprise-approved productivity tools (such as Microsoft 365 Copilot) to draft technical communication and recap collaborative sessions

Experience utilizing AI-driven tools or intelligent analytics to analyze capacity planning data, system logs, or automated alerts

Experience with Java and JVM Administration on z/OS and/or CICSExperience with IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM) or Mainframe Configuration Managers Ability to work independently with minimal supervision while mentoring junior team members

Experience utilizing metric and monitoring tools (such as…