Senior COBOL Developer

ZipStaff Inc.; Freeport (ME); On-site; USD 96,000 - 172,000; Full time

Job summary

ZipStaff Inc. is seeking a Senior COBOL Developer to support a mainframe decommission initiative within the Marketing technology landscape of a leading retail organization.

The role focuses on moving, improving, or removing workloads as the company modernizes off the mainframe and leverages cloud platforms where appropriate. Ideal candidates bring strong COBOL/mainframe depth plus practical cloud skills to migrate and improve applications rather than simply maintain legacy code.

Qualifications

• 7–8+ years of hands-on COBOL/mainframe development experience.
• Experience supporting mainframe maintenance, enhancement, or migration.
• Ability to analyze legacy programs and decide to move, improve, or remove.
• Strong troubleshooting, analysis, and documentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Analyze existing COBOL/mainframe applications for Marketing processes.
• Support decommission planning by identifying workloads to migrate or retire.
• Design and implement changes to move functionality off the mainframe.
• Improve or remediate COBOL apps that remain in production.
• Partner with stakeholders to preserve Marketing capabilities during transition.
• Contribute to modernization work leveraging cloud platforms where appropriate.
• Document current-state logic, interfaces, and target-state recommendations.

Skills

COBOL

Mainframe

Cloud

Documentation

Troubleshooting

Tools

JCL

CICS

DB2

VSAM

Job description

Job Title: Senior COBOL Developer – Mainframe Decommission
Location: Freeport, ME (On-site)
Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff)

About the Opportunity

ZipStaff is seeking a Senior COBOL Developer to support a mainframe decommission initiative within the Marketing technology landscape of a leading retail organization.

The focus of this role is to move, improve, or remove existing mainframe workloads as the organization modernizes off the mainframe. Ideal candidates bring strong COBOL/mainframe depth plus practical cloud skills to help migrate and improve applications rather than simply maintain legacy code.

What You’ll Do:

• Analyze existing COBOL / mainframe applications supporting Marketing processes.
• Support decommission planning by identifying workloads to migrate, improve, or retire.
• Design and implement changes required to move functionality off the mainframe.
• Improve or remediate COBOL applications where they must remain temporarily in production.
• Partner with application, architecture, and business stakeholders to ensure Marketing capabilities are preserved during transition.
• Contribute to modernization work that leverages cloud platforms where appropriate.
• Document current-state logic, interfaces, and target-state recommendations.

Required Qualifications:

• 7–8+ years of hands-on COBOL / mainframe development experience.
• Proven experience supporting mainframe application maintenance, enhancement, or decommission/migration work.
• Ability to analyze complex legacy programs and determine whether to move, improve, or remove functionality.
• Strong troubleshooting, analysis, and documentation skills.
• Ability to work on-site in Freeport, ME.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Hands-on cloud experience (AWS, Azure, or GCP) used in support of mainframe modernization or application migration.
• Experience with Marketing, customer, or retail systems on the mainframe.
• Familiarity with related mainframe technologies (JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM, or similar).
• Prior experience on a mainframe exit / modernization program.