Senior Mainframe Systems/Platform Engineer

Huntington National Bank•Columbus, OH

About The Position

The Senior Mainframe Platform Engineer is responsible for the engineering, health, security, resiliency, connectivity, and performance of mission-critical mainframe platforms. The role provides technical leadership across z/OS, CICS, MQ, zCEE, networking, hardware, storage, performance management, and capacity planning within a Parallel Sysplex environment. The engineer leads complex engineering initiatives, develops platform roadmaps, troubleshoots critical incidents, supports technology modernization, and establishes standards to improve platform availability, scalability, and operational efficiency. The role also provides technical direction, education, and mentoring to engineers, programmers, analysts, and technical support associates. The position may be remote or onsite, with specific arrangements provided by the hiring team. It participates in a rotating 24x7 on-call schedule.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Seven or more years of professional experience in z/OS or mainframe systems engineering.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical information to engineers, application teams, vendors, management, and executive stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to prioritize multiple assignments and meet committed delivery dates.
Expert knowledge of IBM Z and related technologies, including z/OS, CICS, CICSPLEX, MQ, zCEE, DB2 for z/OS, Parallel Sysplex, Coupling Facility, and GDPS.
Strong knowledge of TCP/IP, SNA/APPN, TCP, UDP, ICMP, routing, mainframe communications, and z/OS Communications Server.
Experience with Network Configuration Assistant, AT-TLS, IPsec, z/VM SSL Server configuration, encryption technologies, certificate management, and keyring certificates.
Comprehensive knowledge of CICS security, TLS, RACF, and resource-access controls.
Experience with WLM configuration, performance management, tuning, and troubleshooting.
Experience with ICF and zIIP capacity analysis and tuning.
Experience with SMF, SMS, ISPF, REXX, ChangeMan, and mainframe automation.
Experience using performance and capacity-planning tools such as BMC MainView, IBM CICS Interdependency Analyzer, IBM CICS Performance Analyzer, zPCA, SAS/MXG, IntelliMagic, or comparable tools.
Experience reading and analyzing CICS dumps and traces.
Experience with System Reliability Engineering concepts and automation.
Experience establishing roadmaps, processes, standards, and strategies for continuous improvement in monitoring, performance, security, resiliency, business continuity, availability, and scalability.
Knowledge of banking or regulated financial services business processes.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience with one or more of z/OS installation, customization, and maintenance; CICS for z/OS; MQ for z/OS; zCEE for z/OS; mainframe networking; performance management and capacity planning; storage or hardware configuration; or independent software vendor product installation and maintenance.
Three or more years of experience in technical or project leadership, platform road mapping, or KPI development, with demonstrated success guiding technology strategy, owning platforms, planning portfolios, and developing engineering talent.
Advanced experience with SMP/E.
Experience diagnosing, debugging, tuning, and resolving complex mainframe platform issues.
Experience supporting production systems through formal change-management and incident-management processes.
Experience creating detailed technical documentation, procedures, standards, and implementation plans.

Responsibilities

Maintain the health, security, resiliency, availability, connectivity, and performance of z/OS, CICS for z/OS, MQ for z/OS, and zCEE across multiple Sysplexes and central electronic complexes.
Engineer, install, configure, customize, maintain, and support z/OS operating systems, application subsystems, independent software vendor products, and related mainframe technologies.
Support CICS, CICSPLEX, MQ, zCEE, Workload Manager, Coupling Facility, SMF processing, DASD, hardware configurations, channels, IPL processes, storage management, and Parallel Sysplex environments.
Design and support mainframe networking and connectivity, including TCP/IP, SNA/APPN, LU6.2, sockets, EXCI, TCP, UDP, ICMP, routing protocols, AT-TLS, IPsec, and z/VM SSL Server.
Diagnose and resolve complex z/OS and z/VM connectivity, encryption, transmission, performance, and capacity issues.
Execute and analyze packet traces, system dumps, traces, logs, and performance data to identify root causes and restore service.
Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for high-priority CICS, MQ, zCEE, networking, and mainframe platform incidents.
Identify opportunities to eliminate recurring issues, reduce mean time to recovery, and improve monitoring, automation, resiliency, availability, and scalability.
Develop platform roadmaps, technical strategies, reference models, blueprints, implementation playbooks, operating standards, and technology lifecycle plans.
Translate application and business requirements into technical definitions, engineering designs, integration requirements, and implementation plans.
Develop, document, and deliver pre-implementation and post-implementation impact analyses for technology refreshes, hardware changes, software upgrades, and application releases.
Create and maintain platform documentation, operational procedures, workflow diagrams, reports, key performance indicators, capacity plans, and technical support materials.
Review and develop automation solutions that reduce manual, repetitive, or inefficient processes.
Evaluate and prototype new platform features, third-party products, subsystem technologies, and engineering strategies.
Lead or contribute to product evaluations, on-site assessments, proofs of concept, and enterprise adoption recommendations.
Perform software installation and maintenance activities using SMP/E and related mainframe tools.
Apply formal change-control practices within a regulated environment.
Coordinate with application programmers, users, infrastructure teams, security partners, software vendors, and management to identify symptoms and deliver accurate problem resolution.
Provide technical direction, training, and mentoring to engineers, programmers, analysts, and technical support associates.
Influence technical activities and special initiatives without necessarily having direct reports.
Manage multiple priorities and deliver work within established commitments in a complex, rapidly changing environment.
Participate in a rotating 24x7 on-call support schedule.