IBMi Applications Architect

Giant Tiger•Ottawa, ON

1d•CA$107,600 - CA$157,600•Remote

About The Position

This is a fully remote role. The incumbent may be asked to come onsite to our Ottawa, Ontario Home Office on a quarterly basis. The role involves developing and testing an on-boarding process including required training for individuals with knowledge and experience to take on the accountabilities of this role as part of succession planning. It also includes developing and testing an on-boarding process including required training for both, individuals with existing IBMi and RPG development skills, as well as for individuals new to IBMi and RPG development. The role provides technical leadership for IBMi application development by serving as the senior escalation point for complex design, performance, and integration challenges; leading technical discussions with developers and cross-functional partners; translating architectural direction into practical standards and solutions; and mentoring developers to foster technical growth, innovation, and consistent engineering practices. It encourages continuous improvement through modern IBMi techniques, tooling, and AI-assisted development where appropriate. It promotes knowledge sharing and reusable patterns across the team. Testing methodologies exist to ensure applications are designed for optimal performance and these are being followed by your team. Modernization techniques are implemented to ensure the existing RPG code base and database are following current IBM development standards and are designed to function at optimal performance. Documentation standards are implemented for the design of new applications, database tables, indexes, etc. and ensure these are being adhered to across IBMi development teams. Issue management processers are in place and followed by IBMi Software Engineers in the prioritization, escalation, resolution and communications of issues in a timely manner. The role provides technical leadership and ownership of issues across IBMi platform and integrated technologies. It advocates for automation, CI/CD improvements, and enhanced monitoring. A 5yr plan for application and database improvements required to keep the platform functioning optimally will be developed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology or a related degree
Minimum 8+ years IBMi software development with expertise in IBMi development including but not limited to CL, RPG/RPGLE, true ILE components, 100% RPG Free statement formats, Procedures, Modules, Service programs, activation groups, Binding directories, Binder Language, SQL, Embedded SQL, API’s, DDL, Data Queues, Database Triggers.
5+ years application architecture, design, and customization experience in IBMi JDA MMS (merchandise management) software.
5+ years IBMi systems and security administration experience
Experience implementing ILE and ILE best practices in a large IBMi RPG application environment.
Experience administering and supporting large IBMi JDA MMS application environments with 7x24 operations and >1000 users
Experience implementing and using VS Code for IBMi, RDi (Rational Developer), ARCAD, iNavigator, and ACS.
Experience leading a team of IBMi systems engineers.
Experience defining, implementing and enforcing processes and standards that follow IBMi RPG,SQL and database best practices.
Experience with IBMi DR/BCP including backup recovery, powerHA and iASP's.
Experience with IBMi performance tools and using them to identify and solve RPG/SQL application performance issues.
Experience implementing and managing user/application security in a large IBMi environment and knowledge of IBM best practices in these areas.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience with Arcad source code management tool.
Previous experience with Bob, Claude, Codex or other AI tools.
Previous experience implementing and supporting NodeJS on the IBMi.
Previous experience with formal project management and corresponding tools such as MS Project, Asana, Smartsheet, etc
Experience with and defining and enforcing new processes and standards
Experience with Profound UI software

Responsibilities

Develop and test an on-boarding process including required training for individuals with knowledge and experience to take on the accountabilities of this role as part of succession planning.
Develop and test an on-boarding process including required training for both, individuals with existing IBMi and RPG development skills, as well as for individuals new to IBMi and RPG development.
Provide technical leadership for IBMi application development by serving as the senior escalation point for complex design, performance, and integration challenges; leading technical discussions with developers and cross-functional partners; translating architectural direction into practical standards and solutions; and mentoring developers to foster technical growth, innovation, and consistent engineering practices.
Encourage continuous improvement through modern IBMi techniques, tooling, and AI-assisted development where appropriate.
Promote knowledge sharing and reusable patterns across the team.
Ensure testing methodologies exist to ensure applications are designed for optimal performance and these are being followed by your team.
Implement modernization techniques to ensure the existing RPG code base and database are following current IBM development standards and are designed to function at optimal performance.
Implement documentation standards for the design of new applications, database tables, indexes, etc. and ensure these are being adhered to across IBMi development teams.
Ensure issue management processers are in place and followed by IBMi Software Engineers in the prioritization, escalation, resolution and communications of issues in a timely manner.
Provide technical leadership and ownership of issues across IBMi platform and integrated technologies.
Advocate for automation, CI/CD improvements, and enhanced monitoring.
Develop a 5yr plan for application and database improvements required to keep the platform functioning optimally.