Principal Application Support Engineer (IBM z/OS Platform)

As a Principal Application Support Engineer (IBM z/OS Platform) at ATPCO, you will be responsible for the implementation, enhancement, and maintenance of a wide range of ATPCO applications and services. In this role, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and develop software solutions that align with business objectives, ensuring high performance, scalability, and reliability. You'll also play a critical role in improving existing applications, integrating new features, and maintaining system functionality to meet evolving business needs. 

Roles and Responsibilities. 

• Provide 24x7 Tier 2 support for all ATPCO applications and systems during both day and night oncall rotations, including weekends and holidays 

• Serve as the technical lead for diagnosing and resolving critical production incidents in mainframe and distributed applications. 

• Proactively resolve complex technical issues, managing multiple tasks while ensuring timely and quality results. 

• Act as a technical mentor and resource for engineering teams, providing guidance on best practices and fostering team collaboration. 

• Stay current with emerging technologies, driving continuous improvements in development processes and application delivery. 

• Collaborate cross-functionally to meet business objectives, ensuring smooth communication between teams and stakeholders 

• Share knowledge with peers and the wider organization, contributing to a culture of continuous learning and improvement. 

• Develop proactive monitoring, alerting, and self-healing capabilities for applications and APIs. 

• Analyze operational trends, volume surges and application logs to anticipate issues before they impact customers. 

• Manage Severity 1 and 2 incidents and outages—from initial troubleshooting, vendor engagement, and outage communication to escalation and bridge management—ensuring effective internal and external communication and customer satisfaction. 

• Provide support during business hours for non-production environments. 

• Perform application and database maintenance activities such as MPM data uploads, historical data migrations, back-door data fixes, and addressing customer subscription data processing issues. 

• Maintain and update COBOL programs and JCL. 

• Maintain a deep understanding of the ATPCO enterprise environment to quickly diagnose and resolve issues, while staying informed about changes to ATPCO applications and technologies 

• Collaborate with PSS Tier 1 to maintain and optimize Control-M/EM batch processing jobs. 

• Monitor systems such as ServiceNow, Splunk On-Call, application alerts, and group emails, and respond to issues in a timely manner. 

• Monitor scheduled Applications performance metrics and prepare ad hoc reports for IT management using DB2 SQL and other tools as needed. 

 Technical Skills Requirements: 

IBM DB2 skills (SQL queries, stored procedures, performance tuning), Redis, Neo4J, MySQL, MongoDB, IBM Job Control Language (JCL), Shell scripting, COBOL, CICS, J2EE, Java batch, Control-M/EM Enterprise Scheduler, Linux, z/OS (TSO/ISPF), VMware, MQ Series, WebSphere, J2EE Applications  structure familiarity, ServiceNow, Monitoring Tools: (Grafana, Splunk, Dynatrace, site24x7, SolarWinds,  AWS CloudWatch),  XML, JDBC, experience in parsing Linux logs, $AVRS, BMC MainView,  

Professional Skills and experience: 

• Minimum of 8+ years of IBM mainframe and distributed web/cloud-based application support experience in a 24x7 environment, including nights, weekends, and holidays 

• Proven track record in IT Operations and Application Production Support within complex enterprise environments. 

• Ability to build rapport with team members, developing trust within the immediate team 

• Accepts and integrates constructive feedback positively. 

• Cooperatively engages with peers to achieve shared goals. 

• Requires understanding and general application of concepts, theories, and principles to the area of work.         

• Absorbs new information systematically and applies it effectively. 

• Engage in informal coaching and knowledge-sharing with colleagues and contribute to a collaborative and growth-oriented work environment. 

• Background in Applications development and programming. 

• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills. 

• Excellent oral and written communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders. 

• Strong business acumen with the ability to quickly understand operational and business incident impact. 

• Ability to take full ownership of production problems, anticipate and mitigate risks, escalate appropriately, and deliver workarounds under pressure. 

• Proven ability to multi-task and prioritize urgent issues to meet SLA and KPI requirement 

• Strong knowledge of DB2 (SQL queries, stored procedures, Application SQL performance tuning). 

• Strong knowledge in JCL (Job Control Language) 

• Proficiency with TSO/ISPF/SDSF 
   

Salary Range:  USD $143,600 – $161,211

*The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for applicable geographic differential associated with the United States*

At ATPCO, we are deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our supportive policies promote work-life balance through flexible work arrangements, and we cultivate a workplace where every employee feels valued, respected, and a true sense of belonging.

We consider qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, gender, age, color, religion, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, protected military/veteran status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, or any other legally protected factor

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.