Senior Software Mainframe Engineer (Production Support)

We are excited to announce an opportunity for a Senior Software Mainframe Engineer. As a permanent member of the Mainframe Production Support Team, you will be working at the heart of our core banking platform. You will be supporting applications that underpin our Retail and SME customer product suite, as well as functionality which is fundamental to the running of the Bank. In this role, you will be responsible for providing day-to-day support and development to our Command-and-Control services, with a specific focus on the mainframe element of the solution. The successful candidate will play a critical role in ensuring the smooth functioning of mission-critical applications in a 24x7 environment and contribute to software enhancements as necessary.

Responsibilities

• Providing front-line technical support to the Business & end-users, as well as triage and resolution of batch jobs which have terminated abnormally.
• Providing service stability and resilience - responding to issues related to incident/problem management, release deployment and Operational readiness on the Bank’s z/OS Mainframe platform.
• Developing and deploying code fixes for repeat incidents and known system issues.
• Develop a good technical understanding of applications running on the Mainframe, in order to provide subject matter support as well as guidance for technical queries and questions from the business regarding process and data flow.
• Problem management and incident resolution (providing front-line technical support of the Bank’s Mainframe hub).
• Offer comprehensive support to end users, promptly identifying and resolving issues related to interfaces between various system components.
• Utilize your strong mainframe skills, particularly in COBOL/CICS development, to effectively troubleshoot, maintain, and enhance the existing applications.
• Experience performing design, build & test activity utilising COBOL/CICS on a Mainframe solutions environment would be highly favoured.
• Maintaining service stability - responding to issues related to incident/problem management, release deployment and Operational readiness on the Bank’s z/OS Mainframe platform.
• Service Delivery: Apply your technical expertise within a service delivery environment, balancing technical solutions with operational effectiveness to meet client needs and maintain the stability of supported systems. A good understanding of ITIL framework is advantageous.
• Repair of known and repeated incidents and root cause analysis of relevant risk events.
• The successful candidate will be required to provide out-of-hours incident support on a rota basis (e.g. Production batch support).
• Good communicator, able to effectively articulate ideas in words as well as write clearly & concisely (transforming business concepts into technical specifications).
• Able to identify and justify opportunities for reducing the number of incidents raised and associated cost of change, helping lead the Bank toward efficient change delivery.
• On-Call Support: Participate in an out-of-hours on-call rota to ensure 24x7 availability for application support.
• Mentor and coach junior team members as well as participate in activity which helps transfer knowledge across team members to increase technical skills within the Mainframe CoE.

• Evidence of experience in a previous role as an Application/Production support Analyst in a z/OS Mainframe environment.
• Excellent problem solving and workload prioritisation process.
• Background in IBM Mainframe development (COBOL/CICS), ideally within Banking or Financial Services environment.
• Technical competencies sought; z/OS, Enterprise COBOL, CICS, VSAM File Manipulation, JCL, TSO, ISPF, SDSF, FILE-Manager, Fault Analyzer, Endevor (Change Management), SQL, Datacom, Assembler.
• Experience and capability in batch job abend triage, systems analysis and problem determination.
• Experience leading others and working with third parties to determine root cause analysis of risk events and able to perform corrective action for repeat incidents and known issues which can be repaired programmatically or via JCL changes.
• Understanding of Mainframe integration with internal & external systems as well as the ability to understand technical code and processes.
• Knowledge of z/OS Connect & RESTful API integration would be an advantage.
• Experience in mentoring and instructing individuals on development and delivery disciplines and / or support and incident resolution would also be an advantage.
• A self-starter who can deliver high quality work and adapt to new challenges, either on their own and as part of a wider team.