Description

Introduction

A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You'll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you'll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You'll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.

Your role and responsibilities

Must currently play a leadership or decision maker role on one or more technical teams, evaluating technologies or design patterns and overseeing their implementation from concept to working product. Responsible for hands-on technical delivery of mainframe modernization engagements including legacy code analysis, cloud-native microservices architecture, database migration, batch processing migration, Kubernetes deployment, and CI/CD automation. Must be able to independently analyze legacy COBOL/JCL/VSAM systems, design and implement modern Java/Spring Boot replacements, build and manage relational database schemas, deploy to cloud Kubernetes environments, and troubleshoot end-to-end across the full modernization stack. Support marketing activities for related offerings. Assist with technical write-ups for proposal responses. Participate in weekly and monthly team meetings. Other similar professional duties may be assigned as needed. Support delivery of mainframe modernization engagements.

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Must possess at time of hire and have the ability to maintain a Secret Clearance
• Provide methods, tools, techniques expertise related to mainframe modernization. Lead hands-on technical delivery of legacy mainframe-to-cloud migration projects including COBOL/JCL inventory analysis, cloud-native microservices development, relational database schema design, Kubernetes deployment, and CI/CD pipeline engineering.
• Ability to read, analyze, and decompose production COBOL programs, JCL jobs, VSAM datasets, copybooks (COPY/COPYLIB), and embedded SQL. Understand mainframe batch processing patterns including sequential file I/O (QSAM), KSDS/ESDS/RRDS VSAM operations, SORT/MERGE utilities, IDCAMS, IEBGENER, and conditional step execution via return codes and COND parameters. Map legacy data structures (PIC clauses, COMP-3 packed decimal, EBCDIC encoding, implied decimals, overpunch signs, binary COMP fields) to modern equivalents. Understand JCL PROC parameterization, GDG management, and JES job scheduling.
• Design and implement microservices using modern frameworks (Spring Boot, Spring Batch, or equivalent). Build batch processing jobs that replicate mainframe batch pipelines including chunk-oriented processing, database-driven paging readers, step-scoped components, and job parameterization. Implement ORM entity mappings with correct schema qualification, data type precision/scale for financial numeric types, and JSON column mappings. Build REST APIs for job triggering and operational status.
• Design and maintain relational schemas across multiple database schemas. Write and debug complex SQL including multi-table JOINs, window functions, aggregations, and conditional filtering. Manage database initialization scripts, ALTER TABLE migrations for running databases, and schema drift detection by comparing ORM entity definitions against actual database DDL dumps. Handle UUID primary keys, generated columns, partial indexes, sequence management, and schema-level isolation for batch vs. transactional data.
• Deploy containerized microservices to Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE, or OpenShift). Build Helm charts with ConfigMaps, Secrets, Ingress, and service definitions. Configure managed relational database services, object storage, and container registries. Understand government cloud constraints including hardened base images, service account authentication, and restricted registry access. Troubleshoot pod failures, resource limits, and cross-service connectivity.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or equivalent) with multi-stage builds. Automate container image builds, database schema setup, multi-service builds (10+ services), and Helm deployments. Handle air-gapped and restricted environments requiring image mirroring and alternative build tooling (BuildKit, Kaniko).
• Translate mainframe batch job flows (JCL PROC chains with COND parameters, multi-step jobs) into modern batch processing pipelines with steps, tasklets, and chunk processing. Implement data converters for packed decimal (COMP-3), signed numeric (overpunch), implied decimal, and EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation. Build fixed-width file readers/writers that map COBOL copybook field layouts to modern data structures. Design staging table patterns for transaction processing pipelines. Replace mainframe utilities (IDCAMS, DFSORT, IEBGENER) with programmatic equivalents.
• Diagnose and fix runtime errors across the full modernization stack: SQL grammar errors from column/table mismatches, ORM entity mapping failures, data type truncation errors, missing column errors from schema drift, and ambiguous column references in JOINs. Compare production database DDL dumps against application code (entity definitions and native SQL queries) to identify and resolve discrepancies. Generate targeted database migrations for running systems without downtime.
• Decompose monolithic mainframe applications into bounded-context microservices. Design service boundaries based on mainframe program groupings and functional domains. Implement shared libraries with COBOL data converters, VSAM-equivalent database readers, mainframe utility replacements, and report writers that replicate mainframe print output (SYSPRINT/SYSOUT). Manage cross-service dependencies and shared schema access patterns.
• Experience with containerization (Docker/Podman), container orchestration (Kubernetes), object storage (S3/MinIO), message brokers (Kafka), caching (Redis), API gateways, monitoring and observability (Prometheus/Grafana), distributed tracing (Jaeger), workflow orchestration (Airflow), and identity management (Keycloak/OAuth2). Understand infrastructure-as-code for cloud-native deployments. Assist the Tech Lead coordinate tasks
• Proficiency using AI coding assistants (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent) to accelerate mainframe modernization tasks including legacy code analysis, schema reconciliation, test generation, and bulk code migration. Ability to effectively direct AI tools for complex multi-file refactoring, cross-service debugging, and documentation generation.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience with government mortgage-backed securities or similar federal financial systems (3+ years)

• Experience with IBM mainframe z/OS, TSO/ISPF, JES2/JES3 (3+ years)

• Knowledge of financial industry file formats and electronic payment processing (2+ years)

• Frontend development (React/TypeScript) for admin dashboards or terminal emulators (2+ years)

• Experience with API mocking frameworks for service virtualization during migration

• Knowledge of FedRAMP/FISMA compliance requirements for government cloud deployments

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Consulting is IBM's consulting and global professional services business, with market leading capabilities in business and technology transformation. With deep expertise in many industries, we offer strategy, experience, technology, and operations services to many of the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Our people are focused on accelerating our clients' businesses through the power of collaboration. We believe in the power of technology responsibly used to help people, partners and the planet.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you'll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you'll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM's greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we're also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it's time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

- Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being

- Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs

- Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law

- Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals

- Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

US Citizenship Required.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

Job Title

Mainframe Modernization SME

Date posted

06-May-2026

Job ID

113377

City / Township / Village

Hampton, Annapolis Junction, ALEXANDRIA, Chantilly, WASHINGTON, Reston, McLean, Herndon, Bethesda, Catonsville, Frederick, Ashburn

State / Province

Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia

Country

United States

Work arrangement

Hybrid

Area of work

Infrastructure & Technology

Employment type

Regular

Contract type

Regular

Projected Minimum Salary per year

140,000.00

Projected Maximum Salary per year

180,000.00

Position type

Professional

Travel required

Up to 20% or 1 day a week

Company

(0147) International Business Machines Corporation

Shift

General (daytime)

Is this role a commissionable/sales incentive based position?

No



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