Mainframe Dev Lead (Migration)

Were looking for an experienced Mainframe Development Lead to take ownership of a focused migration program transitioning legacy FOCUS-based reporting and data processing workloads to COBOL JCL and SORT/ICETOOL on the mainframe. The ideal candidate brings expert-level mainframe fundamentals proven migration experience and the ability to guide development teams through structured legacy transformation.

What youll do

• Act as technical lead for the migration of FOCUS applications to COBOL JCL SORT and ICETOOL solutions
• Own end-to-end design decisions ensuring functional parity performance efficiency and operational stability
• Analyze existing FOCUS programs reports and data flows to define and execute migration strategies
• Map FOCUS logic to optimized COBOL batch processing and SORT/ICETOOL utilities
• Identify opportunities to simplify consolidate or optimize legacy logic during migration
• Review and approve technical designs migration approaches and coding standards
• Perform or review COBOL JCL DB2 and VSAM development as needed
• Support data validation reconciliation and parallel run activities to ensure migration accuracy
• Partner with QA and operations teams for system testing performance tuning and production readiness
• Assist with post-migration stabilization and defect resolution
• Communicate technical risks dependencies and progress clearly to program leadership
• Support knowledge transfer and documentation for long-term supportability
• Provide hands-on guidance and mentoring to development teams during build and testing phases

What you bring

• Strong experience in mainframe application development and technical solution architecture
• Expert-level skills in COBOL and JCL including SORT and ICETOOL
• Solid experience with DB2 SQL batch integration and performance considerations
• Working knowledge of VSAM including KSDS ESDS and RRDS
• Proven experience on legacy application migration or modernization programs
• Ability to interpret and re-engineer complex legacy logic into maintainable batch solutions
• Strong problem-solving analytical and documentation skills
• Eligibility for a mandatory background check

Nice to have

• Working knowledge of FOCUS or SAS in reporting or data extraction contexts
• Prior experience migrating FOCUS applications to COBOL SORT or ICETOOL
• Exposure to mainframe performance tuning scheduling and batch optimization
• Experience working in financial services environments

Work setup

• Onsite in Toronto ON 4 days per week (non-negotiable)
• In-person interview may be required
• 4 month contract
• English proficiency required