Senior z/OS Systems Support Engineer
Position Summary The Senior z/OS Systems Support Engineer is responsible for providing technical administration, maintenance, and problem determination for IBM z/OS systems and associated subsystems and software. This position supports a broad range of mainframe technologies and serves as a senior technical resource for internal development and support teams. The role requires strong independent problem-solving skills, sound technical judgment, and the ability to work across multiple systems, subsystems, and technology areas. The position may also provide technical assistance with customer-reported issues, including analysis of diagnostic information supplied from external mainframe environments. The role requires a strong general understanding of the z/OS environment, experience in several major subsystem areas, and the ability to learn and support additional technologies as business and product needs evolve. This is a fully remote position. The primary environment supported by this position is a development and test environment rather than a production-processing environment. As a result, after-hours work is expected to be infrequent and generally limited to unusual technical situations. Essential Duties and Responsibilities Provide administration, maintenance, configuration, and technical support for IBM z/OS operating environments and associated subsystems. Diagnose and resolve operating system, subsystem, storage, communications, security, and software-related problems. Install, configure, maintain, and upgrade IBM and third-party software using vendor-supported processes. Provide support for z/OS subsystems and services, including CICS Transaction Server, CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG), UNIX System Services (USS), JES, TCP/IP, VTAM, DFSMS, DASD and storage management, and security services such as RACF/SAF. Support users with TSO/ISPF, SDSF, JCL, system utilities, started tasks, and general batch-processing environments. Analyze system messages, logs, traces, dumps, performance data, and other available diagnostic information to identify and resolve technical problems, including issues reported from external customer mainframe environments where direct system access may not be available. Apply technical judgment to distinguish product-related issues from operating system, configuration, security, networking, or other environmental causes. Develop and maintain REXX, JCL, and other scripts or procedures used for system administration, diagnostics, and automation. Plan, document, and implement system and subsystem changes, upgrades, and migrations in a controlled manner. Work collaboratively with software development, product support, customers, IBM, and third-party vendors to investigate and resolve technical issues, including direct technical interaction with customers when additional information, diagnostic data, or environment-specific knowledge is required. Create and maintain technical documentation, operating procedures, installation instructions, and support information. Share technical knowledge and participate in cross-training to strengthen team coverage across supported technologies. Support continued development and validation of the company's mainframe test environments as business and product requirements evolve.
Required Qualifications
Professional experience supporting IBM z/OS systems in a systems programming, systems administration, or comparable technical support role. Strong working knowledge of the z/OS operating environment, including TSO/ISPF, JCL, SDSF, and standard system utilities. Experience supporting several major z/OS subsystems or infrastructure areas. Demonstrated ability to independently diagnose complex technical problems using available system and customer-provided diagnostic information, including situations where direct access to the affected environment is not available. Ability and willingness to learn and support additional technologies outside the candidate's primary areas of expertise. This may include training in technologies that support evolving business and product requirements. Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical issues to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Preferred Qualifications
Broad familiarity with IBM Z and mainframe environments, with experience in some of the following technology areas considered an advantage: z/OS storage and system services: DASD, DFSMS, catalogs, USS, and zFS. Mainframe networking and security: TCP/IP, VTAM, PAGENT, RACF, and SAF-based security. CICS technologies: CICS Transaction Server, RDO/CSD configuration, and CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG). IMS technologies: IMS administration, system definitions, and IMS Connect. Mainframe programming and batch processing: JES, JCL, REXX, and Assembler/HLASM. Mainframe databases: Db2 for z/OS. IBM Z operating systems and virtualization: z/VM, Linux on IBM Z, and VSE environments. Mainframe systems management: System upgrades, migrations, and development/test environments such as zPDT and HDISV. Modern integration technologies: API processing, enterprise integration, and cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS. General Role Expectations The Senior z/OS Systems Support Engineer is expected to operate with a high degree of independence and technical judgment. The individual should be comfortable investigating unfamiliar problems, determining which systems or technologies are involved, and developing a practical path toward resolution. The role requires cross-functional troubleshooting across operating systems, subsystems, applications, networking, security, storage, and external interfaces. The engineer should be able to follow an issue across technology boundaries rather than limiting analysis to the component where a symptom is first observed. Customer-originated technical issues may require analysis of logs, traces, dumps, configuration information, and other diagnostic materials supplied by the customer rather than direct access to the affected system. The engineer should be comfortable working with internal support and development teams and interacting directly with customer technical personnel when additional information or environment-specific knowledge is required. The engineer is expected to contribute to the overall capability of the team through documentation, knowledge sharing, cross-training, and continued development of skills in both established mainframe technologies and newer technologies relevant to the company's products and support responsibilities.
Work Environment
This is a fully remote position operating as part of a small technical team where responsibilities may cross traditional systems programming specialties. The individual must be comfortable working independently while collaborating with other technical teams, customers, and vendors.