Ab Initio Architect/Subject Matter Expert

Infinitive Inc • Mclean, VA

10d • $124,000 - $190,000

About The Position

Infinitive is seeking a highly technical Ab Initio Subject Matter Expert to analyze and reverse-engineer legacy Ab Initio applications, interpret their business logic, and document how data is processed. The role involves understanding GDE graphs, DML, metadata, EME, Control Center, reusable components, and batch execution patterns, then translating those findings into clear documentation that enables engineering teams to recreate, modernize, or migrate the processes.

The position works with business, data, risk, finance, operations, technology, migration, QA, and engineering stakeholders. It supports end-to-end lineage and dependency discovery, production and performance analysis, migration to platforms such as Databricks, Spark, Snowflake, and cloud-native data pipelines, and guidance on Ab Initio best practices and repeatable assessment standards.

Requirements

• At least 7 years of hands-on Ab Initio experience in complex enterprise environments.
• Deep knowledge of GDE, Co>Operating System, EME, Control Center, DML, XFR, plans, sandboxes, multifile systems, and reusable components.
• Ability to interpret and explain complex Ab Initio graphs independently of the original developers.
• Strong understanding of batch processing, parallelism, partitioning, component behavior, metadata, and dependency management.
• Experience with production support, scheduling, logs, restarts, and operational controls.
• Experience deconstructing legacy Ab Initio applications and documenting their functional logic.
• Ability to identify embedded business rules in transformations, joins, lookups, filters, and aggregations.
• Strong source-to-target mapping skills and ability to create specifications for recreation, modernization, or migration.
• Experience working with incomplete documentation and legacy systems with fragmented or tribal knowledge.
• Strong SQL skills and experience analyzing large datasets.
• Experience with enterprise data warehouses or platforms such as Teradata, Oracle, Snowflake, Hadoop, or Databricks.
• Strong Unix/Linux skills, including shell scripting with KSH, Bash, or similar.
• Familiarity with job orchestration, file movement, batch controls, data reconciliation, and exception handling.
• Ability to compare source and target outputs and support functional validation.
• Strong communication, documentation, and analytical skills, including the ability to explain technical logic to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work with business teams to validate process intent and expected outcomes and bridge legacy, modern engineering, QA, and business teams.
• Strong problem-solving skills and comfort working through ambiguity.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in Financial Services, Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance, or another highly regulated industry.
• Experience supporting migration from Ab Initio to Databricks, Spark, Snowflake, cloud platforms, or modern data engineering frameworks.
• Knowledge of AWS, Azure, or GCP data environments.
• Experience with Ab Initio Metadata Hub, Acquire>It, Query>It, Continuous Flows, ICFF, or meta-programming.
• Understanding of data governance, lineage, auditability, and regulatory reporting requirements.
• Familiarity with financial services data domains such as customer, account, transaction, payments, risk, AML, KYC, fraud, finance, or regulatory reporting.
• Experience creating migration assessment documents, graph inventories, complexity scoring, and modernization roadmaps.

Responsibilities

• Analyze Ab Initio applications, graphs, plans, DML, XFRs, parameter sets, sandbox structures, and metadata to understand data sources, transformations, validation, enrichment, and delivery.
• Deconstruct graph logic to identify datasets, transformations, business rules, data quality rules, exceptions, dependencies, downstream consumers, and operational controls.
• Create source-to-target mappings, metadata summaries, graph walkthroughs, transformation documentation, lineage maps, functional specifications, and test and reconciliation scenarios.
• Explain the business purpose and outcomes of data processes to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Use EME, Metadata Hub, Control Center, repositories, scripts, schedules, logs, and documentation to discover lineage and upstream and downstream impacts.
• Support migration or recreation of Ab Initio logic on modern data platforms while preserving business rules, controls, and data outcomes.
• Help determine whether processes should be translated as-is, simplified, optimized, or redesigned.
• Analyze graph design, execution patterns, partitioning, data volumes, component usage, and runtime behavior to identify performance bottlenecks and operational risks.
• Interpret logs, failures, restart logic, dependencies, Control Center executions, and environmental scripts to understand production operation.
• Guide development, migration, and QA teams on Ab Initio practices, graph interpretation, metadata management, testing, and documentation standards.
• Help establish repeatable approaches for Ab Initio assessment, reverse engineering, documentation, and migration readiness.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: No Education Listed