Mainframe z​/OS Systems Programmer

About the Job

This is a mainframe role focused on IBM z/OS environments.

While the role exists within the broader Software Engineering family, daytoday responsibilities are exclusively centered on z/OS platform engineering and operations. Experience with distributed systems or cloud technologies is not required for success in this position.

What Youll Do

• Mentor, enable, and teach peers to be self sufficient within the mainframe platform

• Apply engineering standard methodologies to analyze, design, and maintain z/OS system level solutions

• Leverage established standards, best practices, and automation to support mission critical mainframe workloads

• Identify complex system level problems and implement reliable, supportable solutions in a highly regulated production environment

• Review, verify, and validate system level changes, configurations, and automation introduced into production

• Drive continuous improvement across reliability, availability, performance, security, and operational efficiency

• Develop, maintain, and execute disaster recovery and redundancy strategies

• Partners with vendors and enterprise teams on emerging best practices, patterns, and technologies

• Proactively learn emerging platforms and related technologies

• Establish and maintain best practices related to compliance, security, privacy, and legal requirements

• Anticipate deviations from standard practices and determine practical paths forward

• Track industry trends relevant to the domain and apply them where appropriate

• Break down complex problems into manageable components and help others do the same

Mainframe / z/OSFocused Responsibilities

• Perform handson z/OS system administration including IPLs, system startup/shutdown, parameter tuning, and system recovery

• Plan, execute, and validate IBM and ISV software installs and upgrades using z/OSMF Software Instances and Workflows

• Manage SMP/E environments including PTFs, HOLDDATA, USERMODs, and consolidation builds

• Install, analyze, and modify system exits and USERMODs, including assembler updates when required

• Build and maintain system resident DASD volumes, system libraries, and reproducible system builds

• Configure and administer JES2

• Administer RACF security including users, groups, profiles, access controls, and policy enforcement

• Author, debug, and optimize JCL for batch processing

• Analyze SMF/RMF data for accounting, capacity planning, and system performance tuning

• Administer and tune DFSMS components including DFSMShsm and DFSMSrmm

• Configure and troubleshoot TCP/IP for z/OS and associated services

• Develop automation and tools using REXX, CLIST, and UNIX System Services scripting

• Use monitoring tools such as BMC Main View and/or Intellimagic Vision

• Support mainframe hardware environments including HMC operations, CPC/LPAR configuration, and IBM zSeries platforms

• Participate in oncall rotations and ITILaligned incident, change, and problem management

• Coordinate with vendors and ISVs for licensing, problem determination, and PTF coordination

• Create and maintain documentation, runbooks, SOPs, and operational procedures

• Mentor and train junior staff on z/OS engineering and operational practices

What Youll Bring to the Role

Note: This position requires deep experience in IBM z/OS systems programming. Candidates whose background is primarily AWS, Linux, Windows, or distributed/cloud platforms without substantial mainframe experience are unlikely to be a fit.

• Bachelors degree or equivalent experience

• At least 4 years of relevant experience

• 5+ years of professional IT experience, primarily focused on enterprise mainframe platforms

• Experience applying Dev Ops concepts, Agile methodologies, and automation in mainframe environments

• Experience monitoring and tuning performance of large scale systems

• Working knowledge of scripting or programming concepts for automation

• Familiarity with authentication, authorization, certificates, and vulnerability management

Required z/OS / Mainframe Experience

• Extensive handson experience as a z/OS Systems Programmer in production environments

• Strong knowledge of z/OS internals, JES2, RACF, SMP/E, and system libraries

• Proven expertise in SMF/RMFbased performance tuning, capacity planning, and problem determination

• Experience with DASD, tape management, and SAN technologies, including Hyperswap

• Proficiency with REXX, CLIST, and USS shell scripting (additional languages a plus)

• Experience supporting Sysplex and Coupling Facility environments (preferred)

• Exposure to subsystems such as CICS, DB2, and MQ and their integration with z/OS

• Knowledge of PKI/SSL, LDAP integration, Kerberos, and mainframe security hardening

• Experience with z/OSMF, Ansible, or automation/orchestration tooling for mainframe lifecycle management

• Familiarity with cloudtomainframe integration or CI/CD concepts as applied to z/OS

• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and communication skills under sustained production pressure

Skills You Have

The hiring team will assess candidates against the following skills:

• Communicates complex technical information clearly across…