Principal Software Engineer – IBM z/OS Connectivity

Redwood Software

About The Position

As a Software Engineer – Principal, IBM z/OS Connectivity, you will help build a new connectivity agent that extends Redwood RunMyJobs (RMJ) natively onto IBM z/OS, enabling Redwood to support some of the largest enterprise automation environments in the market. You will work on systems-level engineering spanning custom wire protocols, cryptography, and a native platform bridge into JES, RACF/SAF, SMF, TSO, and z/OS UNIX System Services (USS), delivered as a Java agent that integrates with the Redwood platform through clean, versioned extension points. This position is open across levels from Software Engineer to Principal as we build out the team.

Requirements

10+ years of professional software engineering experience with strong Java 8+ skills; IBM Semeru or z/OS Java experience is a plus.
Hands-on z/OS systems integration experience, including JES2/JES3, TSO, RACF/ACF2/Top Secret, SMF, and USS.
Strong working proficiency in C.
Low-level network protocol experience, including socket programming, custom binary framing, character-encoding conversion, and TLS/keyring security.
Hands-on experience implementing cryptographic primitives to specification using standard libraries such as Java JCE, including key exchange and symmetric cipher modes, rather than designing cryptographic protocols.
Strong concurrency and multithreading skills, with experience building resilient, long-running daemon processes.
Ability to work effectively from primary technical sources, including IBM manuals and RACF/SMF references, rather than relying solely on tutorials or unverified AI-generated output.
Experience with modern DevOps practices and technologies, including Git, CI/CD, Docker, and Kubernetes.
Fluency with AI tools in a production engineering environment.
Strong code judgment, including the ability to identify plausible but incorrect AI-generated recommendations involving specialized mainframe APIs.
Proficiency in prompting AI tools, combined with the judgment to recognize when a task is too specialized for AI-assisted approaches.
Ability to maintain an architectural focus, abstracting from individual protocol and bridge details to shared platform-integration designs.

Nice To Haves

IBM Semeru or z/OS Java experience
Experience with workload automation products such as Tidal, CA-7, Control-M, Stonebranch, BMC, or RunMyJobs
Experience with Sysplex/Parallel Sysplex clustering or z/OSMF REST APIs
Experience with CA-Panvalet, CA-Librarian, or other JCL library tooling
Experience with z/OS Assembler, particularly as relevant to future authorized-code or SMF-exit work
Mainframe migration or modernization project experience

Responsibilities

Design, develop, test, and maintain native software supporting connectivity and integration with IBM z/OS mainframe environments.
Build integrations with core mainframe technologies, including C/JNI, JES2/JES3 job submission and monitoring, TSO command execution via background TMP, and SMF-based event monitoring.
Integrate security and per-user authorization while extending Redwood’s existing identity and credential management capabilities.
Develop and maintain systems-level capabilities involving custom wire protocols, cryptography, and native z/OS platform integration.
Troubleshoot complex system-level issues across mainframe, Unix, and Java environments.
Improve the reliability, performance, security, and scalability of Redwood’s mainframe solutions.
Partner with product managers, architects, and engineers to translate customer requirements into effective technical solutions.
Participate in architecture discussions, design reviews, code reviews, testing, and release planning.
Leverage agentic AI to accelerate codec, testing, and documentation work while independently verifying correctness against authoritative IBM z/OS references.
Document protocols, security models, and platform prerequisites for field and support teams.
Validate technical assumptions on live LPARs and contribute to architectural decisions where modern documentation may be limited.
Contribute to team success through clear communication, shared responsibility for quality, and accountable ownership of goals and delivery commitments in a fast-paced, iterative agile environment.