Mainframe Senior Architect – Performance & Capacity Management

Highmark Health; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

enGen seeks a seasoned Mainframe Senior Architect to lead performance and capacity management for IBM z/OS systems in a Parallel Sysplex environment. You will forecast hardware growth, tune WLM, and optimize costs, working with RMF/SMF data and executive dashboards.

Ideal candidates have 10+ years in mainframe domains, strong JCL/REXX skills, and deep knowledge of z/OS, DB2, CICS, IMS, and MQ. This role reports to the Mainframe Platform Services team in Salt Lake City.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of mainframe systems experience in large, multi-LPAR Parallel Sysplex z/OS environments.
• Real-time mainframe performance monitoring and capacity management expertise.
• Deep experience with RMF, SMF, WLM, and other mainframe performance tools.
• Strong hands-on skills in REXX and JCL.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
• Mastery of IBM z/OS and IBM Z hardware architecture, PR/SM, and Sysplex clustering.
• Advanced tuning of WLM policies, general processors, and zIIP configurations.
• Ability to read, interpret, and extract metrics from SMF and RMF data records.
• In-depth knowledge of how DB2, CICS, IMS, and MQ consume system resources.

Responsibilities

• Capacity Forecasting & Planning: trend analysis and modeling for future hardware or MIPS growth.
• Performance Tuning & Optimization: tune CICS/Db2 and WLM for low latency.
• Data Analysis & Reporting: create executive dashboards and reports using RMF/SMF tooling.
• Billing & Cost Optimization: manage MSUs and MIPS pricing and SCRT processing.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: communicate findings with teams and leadership.
• Proactive Problem Solving: design preventative strategies for bottlenecks during peak windows.

Skills

z/OS

RMF

SMF

WLM

REXX

JCL

DB2

CICS

IMS

MQ

Sysplex

PR/SM

zIIP

Capacity forecasting

Omegamon

SAS/MXG

SCRT

IntelliMagic

Excel

PowerPoint

Tools

Omegamon

SAS/MXG

SCRT

IntelliMagic

REXX

JCL

Excel

Job description

Company :

enGen

Job Description :

JOB SUMMARY

CANDIDATE MUST BE US Citizen (due to contractual/access requirements)

Highmark is seeking a highly motivated Mainframe Senior Architect to join the Mainframe Platform Services team . This role is accountable for the performance and capacity management of Highmark’s IBM enterprise mainframe environment , ensuring optimal system efficiency, scalability, and cost-effectiveness . The position requires deep technical expertise across core mainframe technologies , including z/OS, Db2, IMS, CICS, MQ , and related subsystems. Responsibilities include proactively monitoring system resource utilization (CPU, memory, storage), analyzing workload trends, and forecasting future infrastructure requirements to prevent performance bottlenecks and support business growth. This role operates within a Parallel Sysplex environment , balancing system performance with financial efficiency. A strong understanding of IBM mainframe pricing models, including MSUs and MIPS , is essential to support effective cost optimization while maintaining high service levels.

Day to day job responsibilities include:

• Capacity Forecasting & Planning: Performing detailed trend analysis, usage modeling, and predicting hardware or MIPS growth based on business cycles to ensure infrastructure readiness.

• Performance Tuning & Optimization: Proactively tuning applications, middleware (CICS, Db2), and Workload Manager (WLM) policies to optimize enterprise hardware and software, ensuring low latency during peak workloads.

• Data Analysis & Reporting: Leveraging tools like RMF, SMF, SAS/MXG, and Omegamon to interpret and extract key performance metrics, and creating executive dashboards and operational reports.

• Billing & Cost Optimization: Managing IBM mainframe pricing models, including MSUs and MIPS, through Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool (SCRT) processing and aligning infrastructure capacity with financial constraints.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Communicating technical findings and collaborating effectively with application, database, and DevOps teams, as well as executive leadership.

• Proactive Problem Solving: Designing preventative strategies and providing root-cause diagnostic capabilities to resolve real-time performance bottlenecks during critical high-volume business windows.

What You Bring:

• 10+ years of mainframe systems experience in large, multi-LPAR, Parallel Sysplex z/OS environments.

• Expertise in real-time mainframe performance monitoring and capacity management.

• Deep experience with RMF, SMF, WLM, and other mainframe performance tools.

• Strong hands-on skills in REXX and JCL.

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.

• Proven ability to troubleshoot and optimize mainframe workloads in real time.

• Mastery of IBM z/OS and IBM Z hardware architecture, logical partition (PR/SM) configuration, and Sysplex clustering.

• Advanced tuning of Workload Manager (WLM) policies, general processors, and zIIP (IBM z Integrated Information Processor) configurations.

• Ability to read, interpret, and extract metrics from SMF (System Management Facility) and RMF (Resource Measurement Facility) data records.

• In-depth knowledge of how major workloads like DB2, CICS, IMS, and MQ consume system resources and impact transaction response times.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Experience with ZPCR, Macro4 Freezeframe, BMC Thruput Manager, TADz, and IntelliMagic.

• Experience working with highly transactional, large-scale data systems.

• Ability to create executive dashboards and operational reporting tools.

• Ability to code SAS for generating reports.

• Proficiency in reporting and data modeling languages/tools such as SAS/MXG, Microsoft Excel, REXX, or specialized tools like IntelliMagic and OMEGAMON. (This is partially redundant with 'Must-haves' but adds a broader toolset emphasis).

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Take a lead role to provide strategic consultation to business customers in defining or designing more complex business processes, functions and organizational structures, as well as in researching, identifying and internally marketing enabling technologies based on customer capability requirements. Facilitate development of more complex enterprise business solutions that combine knowledge of particular business processes and issues, general technological options, and process facilitation techniques. Participate in more complex enterprise strategy development, including environmental analysis, opportunity identification, value cases and business innovation portfolio development.
• Take a lead role to specify and design large or more complex systems, solutions, networks, infrastructure elements, or processes. Select appropriate design standards, methods and tools and ensure that they are applied effectively. Review others’ system design to ensure selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology. Establish policy for selection of more complex architecture components. Evaluate and undertake impact analysis on more complex major design options. Ensure that the system architecture balances functional, service quality and systems management requirements.
• Use appropriate tools, including models of components and interfaces, to contribute to the development of more complex architectures. Take a lead role to produce detailed component requirements, specifications and translates these into detailed solutions/designs for implementation using selected products. Provide advice on technical aspects of system development, integration (including requests for changes, deviations from specifications, etc.) and processes. Ensure that relevant technical and business strategies, policies, standards and practices are applied correctly.
• Select and use more complex tools and methods to establish, clarify, and communicate the functional and non-functional requirements of system users, their characteristics, and tasks. Take a lead role to identify the technical, organizational, and physical environment in which more complex products or systems will operate. Identify, propose, initiate, and lead significant improvement programs, taking responsibility for the quality