Remote Manager: Mainframe DB2 for z/OS DBA

BCforward; Indianapolis (IN); Remote; USD 90,000 - 105,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Contract role – 12 months

Job summary

BCforward is seeking a Mainframe DBA Lead/Manager (DB2 for z/OS) to join our team. The candidate will lead enterprise DB2 for z/OS administration, performance tuning, backup and recovery, migrations, and security while mentoring DBA teams.

The role requires strong leadership, modernization initiatives, and collaboration with z/OS, CICS, IMS, MQ, Storage, and Security teams. Remote (US) contract – 12 months.

Qualifications

• Extensive DB2 for z/OS DBA experience, including subsystem management and data sharing.
• Strong knowledge of buffer pools, database design, tablespaces, indexes, and the DB2 catalog.
• Expertise in SQL performance tuning, backup and recovery, and DB2 utilities.
• Proficiency with z/OS, JCL, SDSF, TSO/ISPF, and JES2.
• Experience level: 12-20+ years Mainframe, 8-16+ years DB2 for z/OS DBA, including leadership of upgrades, performance projects, data sharing, DR exercises, major incidents, and standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead administration and support for enterprise DB2 for z/OS environments across Dev, Test, UAT, DR, and Prod.
• Define and maintain database standards, best practices, and engineering procedures to ensure availability, performance, and resiliency.
• Review and approve database architectures including tablespaces, partitioning, indexing, and storage designs for large-scale applications.
• Drive database modernization and optimization initiatives.
• Lead performance engineering including analysis of SQL, access paths, buffer pools, dynamic SQL, distributed workloads, and locking/concurrency; establish baselines and capacity plans.
• Manage and optimize DB2 utilities such as REORG, RUNSTATS, COPY, LOAD, UNLOAD, RECOVER, and REBUILD INDEX; schedule and automate maintenance.
• Define, validate, and test backup, recovery, and DR strategies to meet RTO/RPO; maintain runbooks.
• Lead DB2 version upgrades, subsystem migrations, software maintenance, and PTF implementations; align with vendor currency.
• Serve as L3/L4 escalation for incidents; conduct troubleshooting, RCA, and drive permanent fixes and change governance.
• Ensure security and compliance, including RACF integration, access controls, audits, and regulatory adherence.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring; lead reviews, workshops, and knowledge transfer; establish operational best practices.
• Collaborate with z/OS, CICS, IMS, MQ, Storage, Security, and Application teams to support integration and modernization.

Skills

DB2 for z/OS

SQL tuning

Leadership

z/OS tools

Security/compliance

Tools

BMC DB2 toolsets

DB2 automation frameworks

REXX scripting

Job description

BCforward is seeking a Mainframe DBA Lead/Manager (DB2 for z/OS) to join our team. The candidate will lead enterprise DB2 for z/OS administration, performance tuning, backup and recovery, migrations, and security while mentoring DBA teams.

The role requires strong leadership, modernization initiatives, and collaboration with z/OS, CICS, IMS, MQ, Storage, and Security teams. Remote (US) contract – 12 months.