Mainframe Operations Technical Leader

Plano, TX - USA

Monthly Salary: Not Disclosed

Posted on: 13 hours ago

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Must Have Technical/Functional Skills

The Mainframe Operations Technical Leader is responsible for the run-and-maintain stability resilience and compliance of enterprise mainframe platforms (z/OS DB2 IMS CICS MQ). This role leads the technical operations team orchestrates incident/problem/change workflows ensures product currency with vendor-supported levels and drives operational excellence via automation observability and proactive maintenance. The leader partners with Delivery Application Infrastructure and Security teams to minimize risk optimize performance and meet regulatory/audit expectations.

Required Qualifications

10 years in Mainframe Operations/System Programming (z/OS DB2 IMS CICS MQ).

Proven leadership of major incidents platform upgrades and audit-compliant change management.

Expertise in IBM tooling: SMP/E PARMLIB/PROCLIB ISPF RACF SDSF JES2/3 OMEGAMON/IBM Z Observability IWS/TWS/IWA ChangeMan.

Solid understanding of performance tuning workload management (WLM) CAP/DR and security hardening.

Strong scripting/automation skills (Rexx JCL; optional: Python on z/OS Ansible for z/OS).

Excellent communication-able to produce executive-level summaries and detailed runbooks/RCAs.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with IBM z16 deployments and hardware migrations.

DB2 V12 V13 and IMS upgrade experience with fallback/ERLY code handling.

Knowledge of MQ clustering message routing DLQ handling and transmit queue backlogs resolution.

Exposure to DevOps for mainframe CI/CD pipelines (ChangeMan integrations) and observability platforms.

Certifications: IBM z/OS DB2 CICS MQ; ITIL COBIT; ISO/PCI/SOX compliance exposure.

Success Metrics (KPIs/OKRs)

Availability & SLA: 99.9% for critical regions; batch SLA 98%.

Incident Performance: MTTR reduced by 20 30%; fewer repeat incidents.

Change Quality: 1% failed changes; 100% artifacts captured for audit.

Currency & Risk: 0 unmitigated HIPER exposure beyond defined window; timely RSU/PTF adoption.

Efficiency: 25% reduction in manual toil via automation; measurable batch window improvements.

Compliance: 100% control evidence traceable; zero audit findings.

Tools & Environment

OS & Subsystems: z/OS DB2 IMS CICS MQ.

Scheduling: IBM Workload Scheduler / Workload Automation.

Source/Change: ChangeMan SMP/E.

Security: RACF (or ACF2/Top Secret) SIEM integration.

Monitoring: OMEGAMON RMF/SMF IBM Z Observability custom dashboards.

Automation: Rexx/CLIST JCL Ansible for z/OS (if applicable).

Roles & Responsibilities

Operational Leadership

Own 24x7 availability and SLA adherence for z/OS DB2 IMS CICS MQ JES2/3 RACF IWS/TWS scheduling and related tooling.

Lead major incident management (bridge triage comms) direct technical recovery steps and oversee post-incident RCAs with corrective actions and prevention plans.

Govern problem management (trend analysis chronic issues defect elimination countermeasures KEDBs).

Chair/drive Change Advisory Board (CAB) readiness for mainframe changes; enforce runbooks backout plans and artifact capture for audit.

Platform Currency & Upgrades

Plan and execute vendor-supported upgrades (e.g. z/OS DB2 IMS COBOL compiler MQ IBM Workload Scheduler/Workload Automation) including fallback strategies and regression validation.

Maintain software currency and security compliance (PTFs RSU HIPER/APARs) coordinate with vendors and validate interdependencies across subsystems.

Reliability Performance & Capacity

Establish SRE-aligned practices (SLIs/SLOs error budgets resiliency testing performance tuning for DB2 buffer pools IMS PSBs/DBDs CICS regions MQ channels/queues).

Drive capacity planning (CPU memory DASD logs/journals queue depths batch windows); optimize WLM.

Reduce toil via automation (Rexx/CLIST JCL Ansible for z/OS if applicable IWS/TWS) observability and auto-remediation.

Governance Risk & Compliance

Ensure audit readiness: define Artifacts to Capture (change evidence logs command transcripts approvals test results).

Enforce access controls (RACF/ACF2/Top Secret) segregation of duties and policy conformance (SOX/ISO).

Maintain configuration baselines DR runbooks and conduct BCP/DR exercises (full and component-level recovery DB2/IMS recovery drills).

Delivery & Stakeholder Management

Translate platform strategy into quarterly OKRs operational roadmaps and executive-ready summaries (status risk business impact investment asks).

Partner with Application teams for batch optimization cutover planning and data integrity (log/archive handling reprocessing).

Mentor System Programmers and Operations engineers; standardize procedures and promote continuous improvement.

Incident/Request/Change Execution (Day-to-Day)

Triage incidents (e.g. MQ transmit queue backlogs DB2 locking IMS region abends CICS transaction spikes) execute WTOR-confirmed commands when required.

Review and approve service requests (dataset allocations RACF changes scheduler modifications).

Perform routine health checks (channel states buffer pools log utilization queue depths JES backlog batch SLAs).

Validate backup/restore success (DFSMSdss tape/VTL HSM) ensure recovery points and retention policies are met.

Base Salary Range: $130000 - $150000 per annum

TCS Employee Benefits Summary:

Discretionary Annual Incentive.

Comprehensive Medical Coverage: Medical & Health Dental & Vision Disability Planning & Insurance Pet Insurance Plans.

Family Support: Maternal & Parental Leaves.

Insurance Options: Auto & Home Insurance Identity Theft Protection.

Convenience & Professional Growth: Commuter Benefits & Certification & Training Reimbursement.

Time Off: Vacation Time Off Sick Leave & Holidays.

Legal & Financial Assistance: Legal Assistance 401K Plan Performance Bonus College Fund Student Loan Refinancing.

Must Have Technical/Functional Skills The Mainframe Operations Technical Leader is responsible for the run-and-maintain stability resilience and compliance of enterprise mainframe platforms (z/OS DB2 IMS CICS MQ). This role leads the technical operations team orchestrates incident/problem/change w...