MAINFRAME ARCHITECT

Role: Mainframe Architect Location: New Jersey, NJ Key Responsibilities Assessment & Modernization Strategy Conduct detailed discovery and assessment of existing mainframe workloads including COBOL, JCL, DB2, VSAM, IMS, and CICS. Define and recommend modernization approaches such as Rehost, Replatform, Refactor, Retire, or Replace. Develop end-to-end migration roadmaps, including risk mitigation strategies and rollback plans. Architecture & Design Design target-state architectures for rehosted or modernized applications on cloud or distributed platforms. Ensure architectures meet security, performance, high availability, and disaster recovery standards. Create detailed architectural blueprints covering migration patterns and system integrations. Data Migration Design and oversee ETL processes for migrating mainframe data (Datacom) to SQL Server. Ensure data integrity, consistency, and minimal downtime during migration activities. Leadership & Collaboration Act as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for mainframe modernization initiatives. Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and guidance to engineering and migration teams. Communicate architectural vision, risks, and progress effectively to stakeholders and executive leadership. Operational & Migration Support Participate in code migration and data transformation activities during rehosting. Collaborate closely with architects and cloud teams supporting GCP-based modernization efforts. Support batch job execution, console monitoring, and production control activities. Provide critical inputs and guidance to migration teams throughout the project lifecycle. Maintain strong understanding of interfacing systems and concurrent modernization initiatives. Required Skills & Experience Strong experience in legacy mainframe application development using technologies such as: COBOL, CICS, JCL, VSAM, Easytrieve, IDEAL/Datacom, RPG, ASM, MQ (experience in some or most is acceptable). Proven experience in mainframe modernization, migration planning, and execution. Strong architectural, analytical, and problem-solving skills. Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Created: 2026-03-10