Senior Staff Engineer – Enterprise Middleware Platform & Migration Architecture

American Electric Power•Columbus, OH

About The Position

Part of a larger team delivering high quality technology solutions to the business. Design, develop and install software solutions. Build high-quality, innovative and fully performing software in compliance with internal architecture, development & design standards & best practices. Design, modify, develop, write, implement and troubleshoot software programming applications. Support and/or install software applications. Lead the testing process through test review and analysis, test witnessing and certification of software. Works within a Waterfall or Agile methodology/framework based team. Collaborates heavily with Project Management, Business Analyst and Infrastructure Job Families. We are seeking a highly specialized platform architect to design and build our next-generation multi-tenant middleware platform serving as the strategic integration layer between multiple Customer Information Systems (CIS), z/OS mainframe systems, and modern cloud applications. This platform supports both internal AEP applications and external B2B partner integrations through our syndication architecture, and orchestrates large-scale customer data migrations involving millions of accounts across CIS platforms. This is not a typical microservices development role. The successful candidate must have 10-15 years building product-grade, multi-tenant middleware platforms (not just internal APIs), leading enterprise-scale CIS/billing migrations (1M+ accounts), and integrating mainframe systems at utility-scale transaction volumes. The role requires deep domain expertise across enterprise customer platforms (CIS, billing, payments, identity, field service) typically found in utility, telecom, or financial services industries.

Requirements

10-15 years building enterprise-grade middleware platforms, with at least 5 years architecting multi-tenant platforms designed as reusable products (not just internal APIs) that support both internal applications and external B2B partner integrations.
Proven track record leading large-scale customer data migrations involving 1M+ accounts across CIS, billing, or CRM platforms including data seeding, bi-directional synchronization, reconciliation, and phased cutover execution.
5+ years hands-on experience integrating with z/OS mainframe or legacy backoffice systems (CICS, MQ, IMS) in production environments at utility-scale transaction volumes (100K+ transactions/day).
Proven experience with z/OS integration technologies: z/OS Connect, CICS transactions, MQ messaging, batch processing, EBCDIC/ASCII conversion, copybook parsing, and mainframe-specific error handling patterns.
Deep domain expertise across enterprise customer platforms including at least 4 of: CIS, billing systems, payment processing, identity/authentication, customer care, field service management, or account management platforms in utility, telecom, financial services, or regulated industries.
Deep expertise in Spring Boot 3.X ecosystem (Spring Security, Spring Data, Spring Cloud) with proven ability to architect shared frameworks adopted by multiple teams.
Expertise in multi-tenant architecture patterns: tenant-level routing, security isolation, data segregation, resource quotas, rate limiting, and partner-specific configuration management.
Experience designing abstraction layers normalizing differences across multiple backend systems with dynamic routing logic based on account-level or entity-level attributes.
Extensive experience with distributed systems patterns (circuit breakers, retries, bulkheads, caching, event-driven architecture), container orchestration (Kubernetes/OpenShift), and cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).
Expertise in REST API design for partner-facing platforms: OpenAPI specifications, versioning strategies, backward compatibility management, SLA guarantees.
Hands-on experience with observability tools (APM, logging aggregation, distributed tracing, metrics) and establishing SLO/SLA monitoring for platform services.
Strong knowledge of OAuth2/OIDC, secrets management (Azure Key Vault), and secure coding practices for multi-tenant environments.
Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related technical field is required.
8 years of relevant work experience is required.
An equivalent combination of education and related experience may be considered.
Minimum 5 years building multi-tenant platform products or syndication/B2B integration platforms
Minimum 5 years integrating with mainframe or legacy backoffice systems (z/OS, CICS, MQ, or equivalent)
Minimum 3 years leading or architecting large-scale customer data migrations (1M+ accounts) across CIS/billing/CRM platforms
Minimum 4 years of deep domain expertise across enterprise customer platforms (CIS, billing, payments, identity, field service, or customer care)

Nice To Haves

Experience with Oracle GoldenGate CDC, Informatica, or similar data replication platforms.
Familiarity with specific CIS platforms: MACSS, CC&B, SAP IS-U, Oracle Utilities, Salesforce Energy & Utilities Cloud.
Background in API management platforms (Azure APIM, Apigee, MuleSoft) for partner integration governance.
Experience with Redis caching/routing, Kafka event streaming, Oracle databases, and Resilience4j fault tolerance libraries.
Previous experience with CI/CD automation, GitOps, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/ARM templates).
Certified Credentials Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE Programmer Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Spring Professional Certification Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Responsibilities

Design and implement multi-tenant middleware platform with tenant-level routing, security isolation, and configuration management supporting internal applications and external B2B partners through syndication architecture.
Architect Hybrid CIS Routing Engine with Redis-backed account-level routing enabling dynamic routing between multiple CIS backends (MACSS, partner platforms) based on tenant configuration.
Design abstraction layers across multiple backend CIS systems normalizing differences in customer data models, business rules, and API contracts.
Establish OpenAPI 3.0 specifications and REST API standards suitable for external partner consumption with versioning, backward compatibility, and SLA guarantees.
Lead architecture and implementation of large-scale customer account migration platform supporting multi-million account migrations across CIS/billing systems.
Design and build data seeding/bootstrap, bi-directional synchronization, reconciliation logic, and phased cutover strategies with rollback capabilities for CIS migrations.
Build migration orchestration workflows handling dependencies across customer, billing, payment, identity, and field service domains with data quality validation and discrepancy detection.
Build production-grade integration clients for z/OS mainframe systems using z/OS Connect, CICS transactions, MQ messaging, and batch file exchanges.
Implement resilience patterns for mainframe connectivity including circuit breakers, retries, timeout handling, and graceful degradation supporting utility-scale transaction volumes.
Handle mainframe-specific integration challenges: EBCDIC/ASCII conversion, copybook parsing, fixed-length record formats, transaction coordination, connection pooling, and batching.
Develop core middleware framework built on Spring Boot 3.X+ and Java 21+ with standardized libraries for OAuth2 security, Azure Key Vault secrets management, structured JSON logging, and distributed tracing.
Create CI/CD pipeline templates, Helm chart standards, and blue/green deployment patterns for Kubernetes/OpenShift with horizontal scaling and high availability.
Integrate observability tooling: Splunk, Dynatrace APM, Prometheus/Grafana, Jaeger with SLO/SLA monitoring patterns and runbook templates.
Provide comprehensive documentation, code samples, migration guides, and developer onboarding materials.
Conduct framework design reviews, establish governance standards, and mentor engineers on platform usage and best practices.