We are seeking a highly skilled and seasoned IBM IMS Expert to join our core infrastructure team.
In this critical role, you will be responsible for the engineering, configuration, performance tuning, and 24/7 reliability of our enterprise IMS environments (encompassing both IMS DB and IMS TM).
You will work closely with application development teams, database administrators, and security officers to ensure seamless, high-performance transaction processing and hierarchical database management for mission-critical banking systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Architecture and Engineering: Design, implement, and maintain complex IBM IMS DB/DC environments, control regions, message processing regions (MPR), batch message processing (BMP), and supporting z/OS infrastructure to meet rigorous enterprise availability (99.999%) and performance standards.
- Performance Tuning and Diagnostics: Monitor IMS system performance using tools such as OMEGAMON for IMS, SYSVIEW, and IMS Performance Analyzer. Analyze system dumps, trace logs, log records (such as 01/02 log records), and abends, and perform deep-dive troubleshooting to resolve complex database deadlocks, resource contention, and storage bottlenecks.
- Security and Compliance: Ensure all IMS configurations and database access controls comply with strict financial regulatory standards and corporate security policies, collaborating with RACF/ACF2 administrators for secure resource definition, PSB/DBD security, and user access control. Proactively identify and remediate security vulnerabilities in the IMS environment.
- Integration and Connectivity: Manage and optimize connectivity between IMS and other enterprise tiers, including DB2, CICS, IBM MQ, TCP/IP, and modern web services/APIs for cross-platform channel integration.
- Upgrades and Maintenance: Plan and execute z/OS and IMS software maintenance, PTF implementations, database reorganizations (REORG), migrations, and regular health checks with minimal disruption to production workloads.
- L3 Support and Mentorship: Act as the ultimate escalation point (Level 3) for major incident management, providing root-cause analysis (RCA) and sharing domain knowledge with junior systems programmers and operations teams. Foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture and actively mentor team members to build technical depth across the group.
- Stakeholder and Vendor Coordination: Liaise with application development teams, business stakeholders, and third-party software vendors to coordinate complex change implementations, resolve interdependencies, and ensure alignment with business priorities.
Qualifications And Technical Competencies
- Experience: Minimum of 8-10+ years of hands-on experience in IBM Mainframe systems programming, with a deep, specialized focus on IBM IMS DB/DC administration, definition, and tuning in a large-scale enterprise environment. Financial services experience is preferred but not mandatory; experience in other high-volume transaction processing industries is also valued.
Core Technical Skills
- Expert-level knowledge of IMS control blocks, DBD, PSB, and ACB generation, DBRC (Database Recovery Control), and IMSplex management.
- Strong proficiency in z/OS operating system commands, JCL, SMP/E, RACF, and utilities (e.g., DFSDNTX0, Image Copy, Database Reorganization).
- Proven track record in analyzing dump data (IPCS, IMS dumps), log records, and resolving complex lock contentions or database corruption issues.
- Experience integrating IMS with DB2, IBM MQ, and modern API/REST interfaces.
- Hands-on experience with mainframe tools such as OMEGAMON, SYSVIEW, IMS Performance Analyzer, and File Manager for IMS.
- Familiarity with application programming languages and interfaces (COBOL, PL/I, DL/I, SQL) to facilitate effective troubleshooting and collaboration with development teams.
- Working knowledge of DevOps toolchains (GitHub, Jenkins) and Agile practices (Scrum, JIRA, Confluence) is preferred.
- Experience with disaster recovery planning, IMS database recovery procedures, testing, and execution for z/OS environments.
Soft Skills
- Exceptional problem-solving and analytical capabilities under high-pressure incident scenarios.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to articulate technical risks clearly to senior stakeholders and business sponsors.
- Proven ability to coordinate across cross-functional teams, including application developers, DBAs, security, and external vendors.
- Proactive mindset, identifying systemic issues that hinder team performance and developing practical solutions.
- Commitment to fostering an inclusive, knowledge-sharing team culture and mentoring junior engineers.
(ref:hirist.tech)
