Mainframe z/OS Systems Programmer

Northwestern MutualMilwaukee, WI
Hybrid

About The Position

This is a mainframe role focused on IBM z/OS environments. While the role exists within the broader Software Engineering family, day‑to‑day responsibilities are exclusively centered on z/OS platform engineering and operations. Experience with distributed systems or cloud technologies is not required for success in this position.

Requirements

  • Deep experience in IBM z/OS systems programming
  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
  • At least 4 years of relevant experience
  • 5+ years of professional IT experience, primarily focused on enterprise mainframe platforms
  • Experience applying DevOps concepts, Agile methodologies, and automation in mainframe environments
  • Experience monitoring and tuning performance of large‑scale systems
  • Working knowledge of scripting or programming concepts for automation
  • Familiarity with authentication, authorization, certificates, and vulnerability management
  • Extensive hands‑on experience as a z/OS Systems Programmer in production environments
  • Strong knowledge of z/OS internals, JES2, RACF, SMP/E, and system libraries
  • Proven expertise in SMF/RMF‑based performance tuning, capacity planning, and problem determination
  • Experience with DASD, tape management, and SAN technologies, including Hyperswap
  • Proficiency with REXX, CLIST, and USS shell scripting (additional languages a plus)
  • Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and communication skills under sustained production pressure
  • Communicates complex technical information clearly across both technical and non‑technical audiences.
  • Designs and supports systems with a strong customer‑first mindset, particularly for mission‑critical platforms.
  • Designs, implements, and maintains enterprise‑class hardware, system software, networks, and data storage platforms.
  • Uses monitoring and performance tools to diagnose, optimize, and stabilize system performance.
  • Demonstrates deep expertise in operating system architecture, internals, and resource management.
  • Develops, maintains, and documents complex programs, scripts, and automation.
  • Resolves complex technical issues and drives alignment on durable solutions in production environments.

Nice To Haves

  • Experience supporting Sysplex and Coupling Facility environments
  • Exposure to subsystems such as CICS, DB2, and MQ and their integration with z/OS
  • Knowledge of PKI/SSL, LDAP integration, Kerberos, and mainframe security hardening
  • Experience with z/OSMF, Ansible, or automation/orchestration tooling for mainframe lifecycle management
  • Familiarity with cloud‑to‑mainframe integration or CI/CD concepts as applied to z/OS

Responsibilities

  • Mentor, enable, and teach peers to be self‑sufficient within the mainframe platform
  • Apply engineering standard methodologies to analyze, design, and maintain z/OS system‑level solutions
  • Leverage established standards, best practices, and automation to support mission‑critical mainframe workloads
  • Identify complex system‑level problems and implement reliable, supportable solutions in a highly regulated production environment
  • Review, verify, and validate system‑level changes, configurations, and automation introduced into production
  • Drive continuous improvement across reliability, availability, performance, security, and operational efficiency
  • Develop, maintain, and execute disaster recovery and redundancy strategies
  • Partners with vendors and enterprise teams on emerging best practices, patterns, and technologies
  • Proactively learn emerging platforms and related technologies
  • Establish and maintain best practices related to compliance, security, privacy, and legal requirements
  • Anticipate deviations from standard practices and determine practical paths forward
  • Track industry trends relevant to the domain and apply them where appropriate
  • Break down complex problems into manageable components and help others do the same
  • Perform hands‑on z/OS system administration including IPLs, system startup/shutdown, parameter tuning, and system recovery
  • Plan, execute, and validate IBM and ISV software installs and upgrades using z/OSMF Software Instances and Workflows
  • Manage SMP/E environments including PTFs, HOLDDATA, USERMODs, and consolidation builds
  • Install, analyze, and modify system exits and USERMODs, including assembler updates when required
  • Build and maintain system‑resident DASD volumes, system libraries, and reproducible system builds
  • Configure and administer JES2
  • Administer RACF security including users, groups, profiles, access controls, and policy enforcement
  • Author, debug, and optimize JCL for batch processing
  • Analyze SMF/RMF data for accounting, capacity planning, and system performance tuning
  • Administer and tune DFSMS components including DFSMShsm and DFSMSrmm
  • Configure and troubleshoot TCP/IP for z/OS and associated services
  • Develop automation and tools using REXX, CLIST, and UNIX System Services scripting
  • Use monitoring tools such as BMC MainView and/or Intellimagic Vision
  • Support mainframe hardware environments including HMC operations, CPC/LPAR configuration, and IBM zSeries platforms
  • Participate in on‑call rotations and ITIL‑aligned incident, change, and problem management
  • Coordinate with vendors and ISVs for licensing, problem determination, and PTF coordination
  • Create and maintain documentation, runbooks, SOPs, and operational procedures
  • Mentor and train junior staff on z/OS engineering and operational practices

Benefits

  • Compensation and benefits could be applicable

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What This Job Offers

Job Type

Full-time

Career Level

Mid Level

Education Level

Associate degree

Number of Employees

1,001-5,000 employees

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