Mainframe System Programmer

This is a 6 month contract to hire position, please no H1B or OPT visa candidates. US Citizens and Green Card holders only.

Capstone IT is helping our client to find a Mainframe Systems Programmer – IMS/CICS who will help build, maintain, tune, and troubleshoot a mission-critical IBM z/Server Online Transaction Management environment . The infrastructure consists primarily of IMS (TM/DB) and CICS communicating with DB2 .

This person will work as part of an infrastructure engineering team responsible for ensuring high levels of system availability, performance, optimization, reliability, and security . The role involves installing and configuring systems software, troubleshooting complex platform issues, performance and capacity management, disaster recovery, Level II support, technical documentation, and participation in strategic and architectural planning.

The ideal candidate has at least 5 years of hands-on IMS and CICS systems programming experience , strong SMP/E expertise, and a solid understanding of systems programming and control languages. DB2 is a major plus , as are Assembler, SAS, and PACBASE .

Top 4 Skills

1. IBM IMS (TM/DB) – Installation, maintenance, tuning, configuration, and troubleshooting.
2. IBM CICS – Strong hands-on CICS systems programming and infrastructure support.
3. SMP/E – Strong experience installing and maintaining IBM mainframe software.
4. z/OS Mainframe Systems Programming – Systems software installation, configuration, troubleshooting, performance/capacity management, and production support.

Major plus: DB2 experience.

Responsibilities

• Build, maintain, tune, and troubleshoot IMS and CICS environments.
• Support IMS/CICS connectivity and interaction with DB2.
• Install, configure, modify, test, and maintain complex systems software.
• Diagnose and resolve complex systems software problems.
• Perform system utilization, configuration, capacity, and performance management.
• Evaluate vendor systems software and make recommendations to IT leadership.
• Create and maintain technical documentation.
• Develop and execute disaster recovery procedures.
• Provide Level II technical support for complex production issues.
• Maintain mission-critical infrastructure availability, optimization, reliability, and security.
• Handle both single-domain and moderately complex cross-domain requirements.
• Participate in strategic, tactical, and architectural planning.

Qualifications

• Approximately 5–10 years of relevant professional experience ; equivalent education/experience combinations may qualify.
• At least 5 years installing, maintaining, tuning, and troubleshooting IMS and CICS .
• Strong SMP/E experience.
• Strong understanding of systems programming and control languages.
• Ability to independently troubleshoot complex mainframe systems issues.
• Experience with systems software installation and configuration.
• Capacity and performance-management experience.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Experience supporting highly available, mission-critical infrastructure.

Major pluses: DB2, Assembler and SAS coding.

Additional plus: PACBASE.