Mainframe Senior Architect – Pittsburgh, PA

VetJobs; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

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.

Qualifications

• 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 configurations.
• Ability to read, interpret, and extract metrics from SMF and RMF data records.
• In-depth knowledge of how major workloads like DB2, CICS, IMS, and MQ consume system resources and impact transaction response times.

Responsibilities

• Take a lead role to provide strategic consultation to business customers in defining or designing more complex business processes, functions and organizational structures.
• 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 to contribute to the development of more complex architectures.
• Take a lead role to produce detailed component requirements and translate them into detailed solutions/designs for implementation.

Skills

z/OS

Db2

IMS

CICS

MQ

RMF

SMF

WLM

REXX

JCL

Excel

PowerPoint

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology or closely related field

Tools

Parallel Sysplex

Job description

Job Description

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 and appropriateness of the work performed and the realization of measurable business benefits. Modify existing process improvement approaches and/or develop new approaches to achieve improvement.

Take a lead role to ensure the resolution of a variety of more complex architecture and business problems and serve as a technical or business lead for highly complex project initiatives.

Communicate effectively will all levels of organization.

Manage expectations of customers, partners and management.

Participate in customer walkthroughs and plans; design and technical walkthroughs; and problem resolution and decision making.

Interact with departments across the organization as necessary, including the development and interpretation of highly complex requirements for peers and other staff.

Maintain an in-depth knowledge of specific technical aspects in area of expertise and provides expert advice regarding their application. The area of specific expertise may be any aspect of information or communication technology, technique, method, process, product, or application area of a more complex nature.

Take a lead role in providing leadership and mentoring in the areas of expertise and architecture to their peers, developers, management and business users including technical expertise, coaching, and ad-hoc training by: preparing presentations on more complex issues on the area of expertise and presenting to their peers to ensure consistency to the Organization's strategic direction.

Other duties as assigned or requested.

EDUCATION

Required

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or closely related discipline

Substitutions

None

Preferred

Master's Degree

Experience

Required

5 years in an IT discipline

5 years in a Business discipline

Preferred

Health Insurance Industry business knowledge

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS

Required

None

Preferred

Java Developer

DB2

Cogno

PEGA

Enterprise Architect (SCEA)

Project Management

SKILLS

IMS

DB2

Oracle and Teradata Databases

Data Warehousing

COBAL

Visual Basic

C

C++

SAS

Java/JavaScript Framework

PEGA

CSS3

Mobile

JSON

Cognos

Hadoop

SQL

J2EE

HTML5/XML

Waterfall

Agile

Preferred Skills:

Specialized Tool Experience: Hands-on experience with specific mainframe performance and capacity tools such as ZPCR, Macro4 Freezeframe, BMC Thruput Manager, TADz, and IntelliMagic.

Large-Scale Data Systems Expertise: Experience working with highly transactional, large-scale data systems, particularly in performance analysis and optimization.

Advanced Reporting & Data Visualization: Demonstrated ability to create executive-level dashboards and comprehensive operational reporting tools.

SAS Programming for Analytics: Proficiency in coding SAS for generating complex reports and performing advanced data analysis to derive actionable insights.

Performance & Capacity Consulting: Experience in a consulting or advisory capacity related to mainframe performance and capacity management. (This can be inferred from the ideal skills and would be a strong plus).

Language (other than English)

None

Travel Requirement

0% -25%

PHYSICAL, MENTAL DEMANDS and WORKING CONDITIONS

Position Type Office-Based

Teaches / trains others regularly Frequently

Travel regularly from the office to various work sites or from site-to-site Does Not Apply

Works primarily out-of-the office selling products/services (sales employees) Never

Physical work site required Yes

Lifting: up to 10 pounds Constantly

Lifting: 10 to 25 pounds Rarely

Lifting: 25 to 50 pounds Rarely

Disclaimer: The job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and essential duties and responsibilities of work performed by employees within this job title. It may not contain a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees to do this job.

Compliance Requirement: This position adheres to the ethical and legal standards and behavioral expectations as set forth in the code of business conduct and company policies.

As a component of job