Mainframe Tech Lead for Cards & Payments (Hybrid)

Cognizant; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 117,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Paid holidays

401(k) plan

Disability insurance

Parental leave

Employee stock purchase

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Lead Developer – Mainframe to design, develop, and optimize enterprise-scale mainframe applications for Cards and Payments. The role demands strong COBOL, DB2, VSAM, and JCL skills and a track record of delivering high-performance financial systems.

The position is hybrid, requiring 3 days per week in a Cognizant office in Dallas, TX, with emphasis on system stability, lifecycle leadership, and continuous improvement in a client-facing environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of hands-on experience in Mainframe application development within large-scale financial or transaction processing environments.
• Strong expertise in COBOL, DB2, VSAM, and JCL, including performance tuning, batch processing, and database optimization.
• Proven experience supporting Cards and Payments systems, including transaction processing, authorization, clearing, settlement, and dispute management.
• Strong troubleshooting, debugging, and root-cause analysis skills with the ability to provide sustainable solutions for production issues.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and enhancement of mainframe applications using COBOL, DB2, VSAM, and JCL for large-scale financial transaction processing systems.
• Analyze business requirements and translate them into scalable technical solutions that improve transaction accuracy, system performance, and operational efficiency.
• Design and optimize batch and online processing components supporting high-volume Cards and Payments transactions.
• Review and enhance existing application architecture, COBOL programs, DB2 queries, and VSAM file structures to improve maintainability and performance.
• Develop and maintain efficient JCL processes, including job scheduling, recovery mechanisms, error handling, and performance optimization.

Skills

COBOL

DB2

VSAM

JCL

Job description

Cognizant is seeking a Lead Developer – Mainframe to design, develop, and optimize enterprise-scale mainframe applications for Cards and Payments. The role demands strong COBOL, DB2, VSAM, and JCL skills and a track record of delivering high-performance financial systems.

The position is hybrid, requiring 3 days per week in a Cognizant office in Dallas, TX, with emphasis on system stability, lifecycle leadership, and continuous improvement in a client-facing environment.