Senior Manager, Mainframe Development & Modernization

adpinternalcareers; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

ADP is hiring a Senior Manager to lead large-scale mainframe development and modernization initiatives in Pasadena, CA. The role combines deep mainframe expertise with strong leadership to drive transformation toward cloud-native architectures and open systems.

The successful candidate will manage multiple programs, mentor diverse teams, and partner with enterprise architects to define roadmaps and govern delivery of enterprise applications.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Engineering or related field.
• 10+ years of hands-on mainframe development experience.
• 5+ years leading mainframe development projects and managing technical teams.
• Strong COBOL, JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM, IMS, IBM MQ, TSO/ISPF skills.
• Experience with Agile, Scrum, SDLC, and DevOps practices.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple mainframe development, enhancement, maintenance, and modernization programs.
• Mentor teams of developers, leads, architects, and project managers.
• Drive planning, execution, quality, and delivery for mission-critical apps.
• Partner with stakeholders to define roadmaps and priorities.
• Establish engineering standards, governance, and metrics.
• Manage budgets, resources, and vendor relationships.

Skills

Mainframe development

Team leadership

COBOL

JCL

CICS

DB2

VSAM

IBM z/OS

Agile/DevOps

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/IT/Engineering

Tools

TSO/ISPF

DB2

IBM MQ

CICS tooling

VSAM utilities

Job description

ADP is hiring a Senior Manager, Mainframe Development & Modernization

• Are you empathetic to client needs and inspired by transformation, impacting the lives of millions of people every day?
• Are you an inspiring leader with a proven track record of success in managing production support teams?
• Are you looking to join a dynamic, inclusive team environment with a culture of collaboration and belonging?

Well, this may be the role for you. Ready to design what's next?

We are seeking an experienced Senior Manager, Mainframe Development & Modernization to lead large-scale mainframe application development, support, transformation, and modernization initiatives. The ideal candidate will bring deep technical expertise in mainframe technologies combined with proven leadership experience managing complex programs, development teams, and modernization roadmaps.

This role requires a strong leader who can drive delivery excellence across mission-critical mainframe platforms while enabling the transition to modern architectures, cloud-native technologies, APIs, and distributed systems. The successful candidate will possess a blend of technical depth, strategic vision, people leadership, and strong stakeholder management skills.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

Here's what you can expect on a typical day:

Leadership & Delivery:

• Lead multiple mainframe development, enhancement, maintenance, and modernization programs.
• Manage and mentor teams of developers, technical leads, architects, and project managers.
• Drive project planning, execution, quality, and operational excellence for mission-critical enterprise applications.
• Partner with business stakeholders, product owners, enterprise architects, and senior leadership to define technology roadmaps and priorities.
• Establish engineering best practices, development standards, governance processes, and delivery metrics.
• Manage project budgets, resource planning, vendor relationships, and delivery commitments.

Mainframe Development & Engineering

• Provide technical leadership for applications running on IBM z/OS and related platforms.
• Oversee solution design, development, testing, deployment, and production support activities.
• Drive continuous improvement in application performance, scalability, reliability, and security.
• Ensure adherence to enterprise architecture standards, compliance requirements, and operational controls.

Mainframe Modernization

• Define and execute mainframe modernization and transformation strategies.
• Lead initiatives involving:
  • Application modernization and refactoring
  • API enablement and integration
  • Service-oriented and microservices architectures
  • Cloud adoption and hybrid platform integration
  • Data modernization and migration
  • Mainframe-to-distributed platform integration
• Evaluate modernization tools, frameworks, and migration approaches.
• Develop future-state architecture roadmaps in partnership with enterprise architects.

Technical Leadership:

• Provide hands-on guidance for architecture reviews, solution design, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
• Champion Agile delivery, DevOps adoption, CI/CD automation, and engineering excellence.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends related to mainframe and modernization initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of hands-on Mainframe application development experience.
• 5+ years of experience leading Mainframe development projects and managing technical teams.
• Proven experience delivering large-scale enterprise application development and modernization programs.
• Strong expertise in COBOL, JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM, IMS, IBM MQ, TSO/ISPF, IBM z/OS
• Experience with Agile, Scrum, SDLC, and DevOps practices.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.
• Experience leading geographically distributed teams and vendor partners.

Mainframe Modernization Experience:

• Proven experience leading enterprise modernization and digital transformation initiatives.
• Expertise in application re-platforming, refactoring, API enablement, and cloud integration strategies.
• Knowledge of IBM Z modernization tools and frameworks.
• Experience integrating legacy platforms with modern distributed and cloud-native ecosystems.

Open Systems Technology Experience:

• Hands-on experience with modern distributed application architectures and open systems technologies.
• Experience with technologies and practices including:
  • Java and/or Python application development
  • RESTful APIs, Microservices, and Event-Driven Architectures
  • Cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS
  • Containerization and orchestration technologies including Docker and Kubernetes
  • Relational and NoSQL databases
  • DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, source control, and automated quality practices
  • Messaging, integration, and streaming platforms