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Jobs · Virginia

Mainframe Modernization SME/ Secret Clearance

IBM · Chantilly, VA · 2 wk ago
HybridFull-time

Role and Responsibilities

Must currently play a leadership or decision maker role on one or more technical teams, evaluating technologies or design patterns and overseeing their implementation from concept to working product.

Responsible for hands-on technical delivery of mainframe modernization engagements including legacy code analysis, cloud-native microservices architecture, database migration, batch processing migration, Kubernetes deployment, and CI/CD automation.

  • Independently analyze legacy COBOL/JCL/VSAM systems, design and implement modern Java/Spring Boot replacements, build and manage relational database schemas, deploy to cloud Kubernetes environments, and troubleshoot end-to-end across the full modernization stack.
  • Support marketing activities for related offerings.
  • Aid in technical write-ups for proposal responses.
  • Participate in weekly and monthly team meetings.
  • Other similar professional duties may be assigned as needed.

Support delivery of mainframe modernization engagements.

Education and Technical Expertise

Preferred Education: Bachelor's Degree Required

Technical and Professional Expertise:

  • Methods, tools, techniques expertise related to mainframe modernization.
  • Lead hands-on technical delivery of legacy mainframe-to-cloud migration projects including COBOL/JCL inventory analysis, cloud-native microservices development, relational database schema design, Kubernetes deployment, and CI/CD pipeline engineering.
  • Ability to read, analyze, and decompose production COBOL programs, JCL jobs, VSAM datasets, copybooks (COPY/COPYLIB), and embedded SQL.
  • Understand mainframe batch processing patterns including sequential file I/O (QSAM), KSDS/ESDS/RRDS VSAM operations, SORT/MERGE utilities, IDCAMS, IEBGENER, and conditional step execution via return codes and COND parameters.
  • Map legacy data structures (PIC clauses, COMP-3 packed decimal, EBCDIC encoding, implied decimals, overpunch signs, binary COMP fields) to modern equivalents.
  • Understand JCL PROC parameterization, GDG management, and JES job scheduling.
  • Design and implement microservices using modern frameworks (Spring Boot, Spring Batch, or equivalent).
  • Build batch processing jobs that replicate mainframe batch pipelines including chunk-oriented processing, database-driven paging readers, step-scoped components, and job parameterization.
  • Implement ORM entity mappings with correct schema qualification, data type precision/scale for financial numeric types, and JSON column mappings.
  • Build REST APIs for job triggering and operational status.
  • Build relational schemas across multiple database schemas.
  • Write and debug complex SQL including multi-table JOINs, window functions, aggregations, and conditional filtering.
  • Manage database initialization scripts, ALTER TABLE migrations for running databases, and schema drift detection by comparing ORM entity definitions against actual database DDL dumps.
  • Handle UUID primary keys, generated columns, partial indexes, sequence management, and schema-level isolation for batch vs. transactional data.
  • Deploy containerized microservices to Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE, or OpenShift).
  • Build Helm charts with ConfigMaps, Secrets, Ingress, and service definitions.
  • Configure managed relational database services, object storage, and container registries.
  • Understand government cloud constraints including hardened base images, service account authentication, and restricted registry access.
  • Troubleshoot pod failures, resource limits, and cross-service connectivity.
  • Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or equivalent) with multi-stage builds.
  • Automate container image builds, database schema setup, multi-service builds (10+ services), and Helm deployments.
  • Handle air-gapped and restricted environments requiring image mirroring and alternative build tooling (BuildKit, Kaniko).
  • Translate mainframe batch job flows (JCL PROC chains with COND parameters, multi-step jobs) into modern batch processing pipelines with steps, tasklets, and chunk processing.
  • Implement data converters for packed decimal (COMP-3), signed numeric (overpunch), implied decimal, and EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation.
  • Build fixed-width file readers/writers that map COBOL copybook field layouts to modern data structures.
  • Design staging table patterns for transaction processing pipelines.
  • Replace mainframe utilities (IDCAMS, DFSORT, IEBGENER) with programmatic equivalents.
  • Diagnose and fix runtime errors across the full modernization stack: SQL grammar errors from column/table mismatches, ORM entity mapping failures, data type truncation errors, missing column errors from schema drift, and ambiguous column references in JOINs.
  • Compare production database DDL dumps against application code (entity definitions and native SQL queries) to identify and resolve discrepancies.
  • Generate targeted database migrations for running systems without downtime.
  • Decompose monolithic mainframe applications into bounded-context microservices.
  • Design service boundaries based on mainframe program groupings and functional domains.
  • Implement shared libraries with COBOL data converters, VSAM-equivalent database readers, mainframe utility replacements, and report writers that replicate mainframe print output (SYSPRINT/SYSOUT).
  • Manage cross-service dependencies and shared schema access patterns.
  • Experience with containerization (Docker/Podman), container orchestration (Kubernetes), object storage (S3/MinIO), message brokers (Kafka), caching (Redis), API gateways, monitoring and observability (Prometheus/Grafana), distributed tracing (Jaeger), workflow orchestration (Airflow), and identity management (Keycloak/OAuth2).
  • Understand infrastructure-as-code for cloud-native deployments.
  • Assist the Tech Lead coordinate tasks.
  • Proficiency using AI coding assistants (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent) to accelerate mainframe modernization tasks including legacy code analysis, schema reconciliation, test generation, and bulk code migration.
  • Ability to effectively direct AI tools for complex multi-file refactoring, cross-service debugging, and documentation generation.

Preferred Experience

  • Experience with government mortgage-backed securities or similar federal financial systems (3+ years)
  • Experience with IBM mainframe z/OS, TSO/ISPF, JES2/JES3 (3+ years)
  • Knowledge of financial industry file formats and electronic payment processing (2+ years)
  • Frontend development (React/TypeScript) for admin dashboards or terminal emulators (2+ years)
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration
  • Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration

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