Senior Software Engineer

Manulife; Southwestern Ontario; Hybrid; CAD 113,000 - 163,000; Full time

Job summary

Manulife invites a Senior Software Engineer to join the Affinity Life technology team in Waterloo, Ontario. The role bridges COBOL/mainframe expertise with modern stack, delivering mission-critical enterprise applications on IBM z/OS.

You will drive modernization, API integration, and DevOps practices, while mentoring others and improving reliability, security, and performance across production systems.

Qualifications

• Significant software engineering experience building, maintaining, and supporting enterprise-scale mainframe applications.
• Strong knowledge of COBOL, JCL, DB2, CICS, and IBM z/OS.
• Experience with VSAM or related mainframe data technologies.
• Experience with incident troubleshooting, performance tuning, and reliability improvements in production systems.
• Experience with application modernization or API integration between mainframe and distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, unit test, and integrate new features for enterprise mainframe applications.
• Build and maintain solutions using COBOL, JCL, DB2, CICS, and IBM z/OS technologies.
• Support production applications, troubleshoot issues, and improve reliability and performance.
• Lead technical design and implementation of complex backend and mainframe solutions.
• Contribute to application modernization and API integration between mainframe and distributed systems.
• Conduct architecture and code reviews with focus on scalability and quality.
• Promote Agile principles and documentation throughout the lifecycle.
• Mentor engineers and share knowledge across the team.

Skills

COBOL

JCL

DB2

CICS

IBM z/OS

VSAM

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

COBOL

JCL

DB2

CICS

IBM z/OS

VSAM

Job description

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Affinity Life technology team. In this hands‑on role, you will design, develop, modernise, and support mission‑critical enterprise applications running on IBM z/OS.

You will work at the intersection of proven mainframe technology and modern software engineering, helping evolve critical applications through API integration, automation, DevOps practices, and modernization. You will also play an important role in production support and operational reliability, ensuring our applications remain secure, resilient, performant, and available.

This opportunity is well suited to an experienced engineer who is able to bridge COBOL/mainframe expertise to modern stack, enjoys solving complex production issues, and is motivated by modernization, technical collaboration, and mentoring others!

Position Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, unit test, and integrate new features and enhancements for enterprise mainframe applications.
• Build and maintain solutions using COBOL, JCL, DB2, CICS, and IBM z/OS technologies.
• Support mission‑critical production applications, troubleshoot complex issues, perform root‑cause analysis, and improve system reliability, security, resiliency, and performance.
• Lead the technical design and implementation of complex backend and mainframe solutions.
• Contribute to application modernization, API integration, and connectivity between mainframe applications and distributed systems.
• Conduct architecture, design, and code reviews with a focus on scalability, reliability, maintainability, and engineering quality.
• Apply modern engineering practices, including automated testing, source control, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with engineering leaders, architects, product owners, software engineers, and business stakeholders to design solutions that deliver meaningful business outcomes.
• Promote Agile principles and contribute to quality‑focused engineering practices within the team.
• Mentor engineers through technical guidance, knowledge sharing, code reviews, and collaborative problem‑solving.
• Maintain clear technical, deployment, operational, maintenance, and support documentation throughout the software development lifecycle.

Required Qualifications:

• Significant software engineering experience building, maintaining, and supporting enterprise‑scale mainframe applications.
• Strong knowledge and/or experience with COBOL, JCL, DB2, CICS, and IBM z/OS.
• Experience with VSAM or related mainframe data technologies.
• Experience developing and supporting high‑volume, mission‑critical production systems, including incident troubleshooting, performance tuning, root‑cause analysis, and reliability improvements.
• Experience with application modernization, API integration, or connectivity between mainframe and distributed systems.
• Understanding of Agile development practices and end‑to‑end software development lifecycle delivery.
• Experience with source control, CI/CD, and modern mainframe development tools. Familiarity with technologies such as GitHub, Jenkins, Endevor, Zowe, or IBM Developer for z/OS (IDz) is beneficial.
• Experience contributing to solution design, technical decision‑making, architecture or code reviews, and engineering quality.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly and collaborate effectively with engineering and business stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring engineers and sharing technical knowledge across a team.

Preferred Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience contributing to or leading mainframe modernization or digital transformation initiatives.
• Experience integrating mainframe applications with distributed platforms using technologies such as REST APIs or z/OS Connect.
• Experience with modern mainframe development or AI‑assisted engineering tools, including Zowe, IDz, GitHub integration, or comparable technologies.
• Experience working with Life Insurance applications, products, or business processes.
• Exposure to mainframe‑to‑cloud integration or migration initiatives.

When you join our team:

• We’ll empower you to learn and grow the career you want.
• We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well‑being and inclusion are more than just words.
• As part of our global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see.

The role being advertised is an existing vacancy.

About Manulife and John Hancock

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.

Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At Manulife/John Hancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy‑related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law.

It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact [e-mail].

Referenced Salary Location

Waterloo, Ontario

Working Arrangement

Hybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$113,000.00 CAD - $163,000.00 CAD

• Manulife offers eligible employees a wide array of customizable benefits, including health, dental, mental health, vision, short- and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance coverage, adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits, and employee/family assistance plans.
• We also offer eligible employees various retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources.
• Our generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence.
• If you are applying for this role in the U.S., please contact [e-mail] for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.

We use data and analytics technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and automated processing tools, to analyze and process the information you provide to us or third parties in the application process. For more information, please refer to our personal information collection statement.