IBM i Strategic Solutions Architect

Programmers.io; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Programmers in the United States seeks an IBM i Strategic Solutions Architect to serve as a senior technical advisor for major IBM i clients. The role is remote and may require occasional onsite visits with strategic accounts.

You will collaborate with client technology and business teams, guide modernization, APIs, and DevOps, ensuring alignment with the client's strategy. You will mentor offshore teams and help grow strategic IBM i accounts.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with the IBM i ecosystem and modernization.
• Ability to translate client needs into architectural strategy.
• Strong communication with senior technology leaders.
• Experience guiding offshore delivery teams.

Responsibilities

• Act as a senior IBM i advisor for strategic accounts.
• Lead onsite visits and remote engagements across US accounts.
• Provide architectural direction for modernization, APIs, and DevOps.
• Mentor offshore teams and align delivery with client strategy.
• Build relationships with client stakeholders and drive account growth.

Skills

IBM i

Strategic architectural leadership

Client engagement

Offshore team leadership

RPG/ILE RPG/COBOL

APIs & REST

DevOps / CI/CD

Architectural guidance

Modernization planning

Job description

One of our leading client is looking for IBM i Strategic Solutions Architect remotely.

Role Overview:

We are looking for a highly experienced IBM i Strategic Solutions Architect based in the United States who can serve as a senior technical advisor for some of our largest and most strategic IBM i clients.

This person will work closely with client technology and business teams, spend time onsite with strategic accounts, understand their IBM i landscape and future priorities, and identify opportunities where we can provide additional value.

The role will also work closely with our offshore IBM i teams, providing architectural guidance, technical direction, and ensuring that our delivery teams remain aligned with the client's technology strategy.

This is not just an architecture or delivery role. We are looking for someone who can build strong relationships with clients, understand their technology challenges, proactively recommend solutions, and help us grow strategic IBM i accounts.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Client Engagement

• Act as a senior IBM i technical advisor and trusted partner for selected strategic accounts.
• Develop strong working relationships with client architects, technology leaders, and key stakeholders.
• Visit strategic clients approximately once per quarter and work onsite for 3-4 days.
• Understand the client's IBM i environment, applications, architecture, technical challenges, roadmap, and business priorities.
• Participate in architecture discussions, technical discovery sessions, and modernization planning.
• Proactively bring ideas and recommendations to clients instead of waiting for requirements.
• Assess existing IBM i application architecture and recommend improvements.
• Provide architectural guidance around application modernization, integration, APIs, DevOps, databases, performance, security, and maintainability.
• Help clients evaluate modernization opportunities while protecting their existing investment in IBM i.
• Provide technical leadership for complex IBM i initiatives and architecture decisions.
• Guide teams on modernization of legacy RPG and COBOL applications where appropriate.

Offshore Team Leadership

• Work closely with offshore architects, technical leads, developers, and delivery teams.
• Translate client strategy and onsite discussions into clear technical direction for offshore teams.
• Conduct architecture and solution reviews with the offshore team.
• Mentor senior IBM i developers and technical leads.
• Help offshore teams better understand the client's business, architecture, and long-term technology direction.
• Act as a bridge between client stakeholders and offshore engineering teams.

Technical Background

The ideal candidate should have strong experience across the IBM i ecosystem, including:

IBM i / AS400 architecture

• RPG, RPGLE, ILE RPG and Free-Format RPG
• CL / CLLE
• COBOL experience or good architectural understanding of COBOL applications
• IBM i application architecture and integration
• APIs, REST services and modern integration patterns
• DevOps and CI/CD concepts for IBM i
• Application analysis, impact analysis and dependency understanding
• Security, performance and system architecture concepts
• Integration of IBM i applications with distributed/cloud applications

Experience with modern UI, Java/.NET integration, cloud integration, AI-assisted modernization, or IBM i modernization products/tools would be an advantage.

What We Are Looking For:

Beyond technical expertise, the individual must be:

• Strongly client-facing and comfortable interacting with senior client technology leaders.
• Able to communicate complex IBM i concepts in simple business language.
• Consultative rather than purely delivery-focused.
• Proactive in finding problems and opportunities.
• Comfortable conducting technical discovery sessions independently.
• Capable of challenging existing approaches constructively and recommending alternatives.
• Strong at working with distributed US and offshore teams.
• Comfortable mentoring architects, leads, and developers.
• Commercially aware and able to recognize account-growth