Senior Mainframe Developer- Cards & Payments (Hybrid)

Cognizant; Brooklyn (OH); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 94,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Paid holidays & PTO

401(k) plan and contributions

Stock Purchase Plan

Parental Leave

Job summary

Cognizant in the United States is seeking a Senior Mainframe Developer to lead design, development, and optimization of high-volume card payments systems. You will work with analysts, product owners, and infra teams to deliver secure, scalable mainframe solutions.

The role emphasizes performance tuning, security, and data integrity in financial services, with hybrid work (3 days in Brooklyn, OH office). Applicants must have 6+ years in mainframe, JCL, and IBM utilities, and mentoring experience.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in Mainframe environments.
• Hands-on experience with IBM mainframe technologies and JCL.
• Experience supporting cards, payments or financial services applications.
• Strong understanding of secure development practices and regulatory requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of scalable mainframe solutions for card payments.
• Collaborate with business/product teams to translate requirements into technical solutions.
• Drive stability and performance optimization, incident resolution, and RCA.
• Review security, audit, and data integrity deliverables for financial services.
• Mentor engineers and promote best practices across the team.

Skills

IBM mainframe

JCL

Incident troubleshooting

Leadership

Tools

IBM mainframe utilities

Batch scheduling

Debugging tools

Data management processes

Job description

Senior Mainframe Developer- Cards & Payments

About the role

As a Senior Mainframe Developer, you will make an impact by leading the design, development, and optimization of business-critical mainframe applications that support high-volume payment and card processing environments. You will be a valued member of the technology team and work collaboratively with business analysts, product owners, infrastructure teams, quality engineering teams, and other stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and resilient solutions.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the design and delivery of scalable mainframe solutions that support complex transaction processing and align with enterprise technology standards.
• Partner with business and product teams to translate cards and payments requirements into reliable technical solutions and system enhancements.
• Drive application stability and operational excellence through performance optimization, proactive monitoring, incident resolution, and root cause analysis.
• Review technical deliverables to ensure compliance with security, audit, and data integrity requirements in financial services environments.
• Mentor team members and promote development best practices, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement across the mainframe engineering organization.

Work model

We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is a hybrid position requiring 3 days a week in a client or Cognizant office in Brooklyn, OH. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs.

The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you’re engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.

Cognizant cannot provide sponsorship for this role now or in the future.

What you need to have to be considered

• Strong hands-on experience with IBM mainframe technologies, including batch processing, transaction processing, and enterprise application development.
• 6 + years of experience in Mainframe.
• Proven expertise with IBM mainframe utilities, Job Control Language (JCL), debugging tools, and data management processes.
• Experience supporting cards, payments, banking, or other financial services applications.
• Strong understanding of secure development practices, data protection principles, and regulatory requirements within financial systems.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex technical issues, troubleshoot production incidents, and drive long-term system improvements.
• Experience leading technical initiatives and collaborating effectively with distributed teams and stakeholders.

These will help you stand out

• Deep knowledge of card processing, payment transaction lifecycles, authorization, clearing, and settlement processes.
• Experience optimizing mainframe performance, batch scheduling, and resource utilization in high-volume environments.
• Strong background in technical architecture, solution design, and modernization initiatives.
• Experience defining and supporting testing strategies, including functional, integration, and performance testing.
• Proven ability to mentor junior engineers and lead technical discussions across cross-functional teams.

Salary and Other Compensation:

Applications will be accepted until October 28th, 2026.

The annual salary for this position is between $ 60,000 to $93,500 depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law

Applicants may be required to attend interviews in person or by video conference. In addition, candidates may be required to present their current state or government issued ID during each interview.