Principal Mainframe Software Engineer

Overview

The Principal Mainframe Software Engineer will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for designing, modernizing, and ensuring the reliability, performance, and scalability of high-volume, business-critical mainframe systems. This role requires deep expertise in mainframe technologies, strong architectural leadership, and the ability to deliver end-to-end technical solutions while mentoring teams and driving engineering excellence across hybrid and modernized platforms.

• Develop deep understanding of the enterprise mainframe ecosystem, including core applications, data flows, integrations, and end-to-end processing
• Lead and contribute to architecture design initiatives for mainframe and hybrid-platform solutions
• Define and implement application- and system-level architectures for high-performance, resilient environments
• Design, engineer, and optimize batch and online mainframe applications
• Lead modernization efforts integrating legacy mainframe systems with distributed or cloud architectures
• Ensure production readiness, system performance, quality assurance, and compliance with enterprise standards
• Recommend and implement development tools, testing frameworks, and engineering methodologies
• Author and maintain technical documentation including architecture diagrams, integration specifications, and modernization playbooks
• Lead full project lifecycle planning and execution for large-scale, cross-platform initiatives
• Identify engineering risks and implement mitigation strategies to ensure system resilience
• Serve as senior technical liaison to business and technology partners
• Proactively monitor, diagnose, and resolve production issues, perform root-cause analysis, and ensure 24/7 system reliability
• Mentor and influence teams in Agile and iterative SDLC environments

• Strong hands-on expertise with COBOL, JCL, VSAM, CICS, IOM
• Required 10+ years of experience candidate.
• Experience with batch and online processing on mainframe systems
• Enterprise batch scheduling experience with Control-M
• Strong database skills with IBM DB2 (preferred);
  Oracle and Postgre
  
  SQL experience acceptable
• Strong SQL skills for data analysis and performance debugging
• Strong analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills
• Experience working in Agile / Iterative SDLC environments
• Excellent cross-functional collaboration and communication skills

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience

Minimum 8 years of hands-on mainframe development experience using COBOL