IT Systems Administrator - AS400

Almo•Philadelphia, PA

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

The IBM i (AS/400) Systems Administrator is responsible for the stability, security, performance, and continuity of the IBM i platform hosting our customized, mission-critical RPG-based ERP/WMS ecosystem. This role ensures high availability of core business processes, manages reliable Disaster Recovery (DR) replication using Maxava, and oversees our hybrid infrastructure spanning on-premises IBM Power Systems and IBM PowerVS Cloud environments.

Requirements

5+ years administering IBM i (AS400, iSeries, System i) in 24/7 production environments.
Demonstrated success with OS/PTF upgrades, HA/DR, BRMS, and performance tuning.
Prior experience migrating or operating on new-generation Power Systems (Power9/Power10/Power11).
IBM i Administration: LPAR/HMC/VIOS, device/IFS management, system values, service tools.
Backup & Recovery: BRMS, SAV/RST strategies, encryption, restore drills, and media/VTL governance.
HA/DR: PowerHA for i, MIMIX/iTera (or equivalent), replication design, DR runbooks/testing.
Security: QAUDJRN, object authorities, exit points, TLS/SSL and certificate lifecycle (DCM), vulnerability patching.
Automation: CL, QShell, PASE; familiarity with Python/Rexx for ops scripting.
Database (Db2 for i): SQL tuning, indexes/access paths, journaling, commitment control, reorgs, Visual Explain.
Scheduling & Monitoring: IBM i scheduler or enterprise tools (Robot, Control M), Collection Services/Navigator/ACS, and third party performance tools.
Networking: TCP/IP stack, DNS/routing, ACS/ODBC, SFTP/FTPS/SSH; exposure to MQ is a plus.
ITSM process maturity (ServiceNow/Jira) and CMDB hygiene.

Nice To Haves

Experience migrating on-premises IBM i workloads to PowerVS Cloud.
Exposure to modern DevOps/automation tools on IBM i.
Formal IBM Certifications (e.g., IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i).
Experience supporting major IBM i ERPs or WMS platforms.
Hands-on with Power11 capacity planning, shared processor pools, and dynamic LPAR moves.
Firmware/HMC/VIOS lifecycle planning aligned to IBM best practices for newest hardware generations.
Storage acceleration experience (flash/NVMe), SAN zoning/NPIV, and performance troubleshooting across the I/O stack.
PowerHA advanced scenarios (IASP, multi site), Precisely MIMIX tuning and audit, or storage based replication.
Security add ons (e.g., Fortra Powertech), SIEM integration, and MFA for IBM i.
DevOps awareness: RDi, RPG free format exposure, Git based deployment tooling, TurnOver/ARCAD/X Analysis.
Hybrid/Cloud DR patterns (IBM PowerVS), cloud based backup targets, or cross site orchestration.
Observability integrations (Robot Monitor/Navigator SQL Services, and hooks to enterprise APM/alerting).
Bilingual (EN/FR) communication is an asset.
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i (or equivalent experience).
HA/DR vendor certifications (Precisely/Rocket).
Security: CompTIA Security+, CISSP (plus) or IBM Security specialties.
ITIL v4 Foundation.

Responsibilities

Administer IBM i environments (LPARs, HMC, hardware/storage).
Manage the OS/PTF lifecycle, monitor subsystems, batch operations, advanced job scheduling, and system housekeeping.
Own the DR strategy end-to-end.
Operate and tune Maxava replication, manage the IBM PowerVS Cloud DR environment, and execute regular, validated failover testing.
Architect and maintain the backup strategy utilizing BRMS, ensuring data integrity and successful restore testing.
Provide infrastructure-level support for the RPG-based ERP/WMS.
Coordinate application deployments, change management, and troubleshoot across application, database, and OS layers.
Tune CPU, memory, and disk I/O.
Optimize batch jobs and Db2 for i database performance using modern IBM i SQL services.
Manage user profiles, object authority, system values, audit logging (QAUDJRN), and ensure compliance with security frameworks.
Maintain network connectivity, secure protocols (SFTP, APIs), and EDI integration flows.
Automate routine administration tasks using CL and QShell/bash.
Maintain rigorous SOPs, runbooks, and configuration management (CMDB).