Senior Middleware/Messaging Engineer

Cognizant; Hartford (CT); On-site; USD 114,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Senior Middleware / Messaging Engineer with deep expertise in IBM WebSphere MQ on the z/OS mainframe. You will administer, operate, and continuously improve enterprise messaging and integration services to meet contracted SLOs within a managed-services model.

The role bridges the Integration & Runtime Services scope with the mainframe, supporting Connect:Direct, security, and scheduling, while contributing to containerization and AI-driven observability for modernization

Qualifications

• Experience administering IBM WebSphere MQ on z/OS.
• Deep knowledge of mainframe messaging and integration services.
• Familiarity with scheduling, security, and file transfer on mainframe.
• Experience with incident resolution and root-cause analysis.

Responsibilities

• Administer, operate, and maintain IBM WebSphere MQ on z/OS – queue managers, queues, channels, clustering, and connectivity to distributed MQ.
• Perform MQ lifecycle activities including patching, upgrades, and capacity planning across mainframe environments.
• Operate and tune messaging flows on z/OS with security controls (RACF, SOX/audit).
• Monitor MQ and mainframe runtime platforms; provide incident resolution and RCA.

Skills

MQ on z/OS

Mainframe

Autosys

JCL scripting

Tools

Connect:Direct

CA7

RACF

Job description

Cognizant is seeking a Senior Middleware / Messaging Engineer with deep expertise in IBM WebSphere MQ running on the z/OS mainframe to administer, operate, and continuously improve enterprise messaging and integration services. The role ensures the stability, availability, performance, and security of mainframe-hosted MQ queue managers and the integration flows they support, delivered to contracted SLOs within a managed-services operating model.

The engineer bridges the Integration & Runtime Services messaging scope with the mainframe (z/OS) environment – operating MQ alongside mainframe scheduling, security, and file-transfer services (Connect:Direct between mainframe and open systems). The role also supports the enterprise modernization direction, contributing to the containerization and consolidation roadmap for runtime and messaging services and to AI-driven monitoring and automation.

Responsibilities

• Administer, operate, and maintain IBM WebSphere MQ on z/OS – queue managers, queues, channels, clustering, and connectivity to distributed MQ – to meet availability, stability, and security targets.
• Perform MQ lifecycle activities including patching, upgrades, currency, and capacity planning across mainframe and connected environments.
• Operate and tune messaging and integration flows on z/OS, applying security and compliance controls across integration points (RACF, SOX/audit).
• Monitor MQ and mainframe runtime platforms to detect and prevent service disruptions; provide incident resolution and root cause analysis for messaging and integration issues.
• Support and coordinate IBM Connect:Direct file transfers between mainframe and open systems, ensuring reliable and secure data exchange.
• Automate operational tasks using JCL, Autosys, CA7, and mainframe scripting to reduce manual effort and improve resilience.
• Implement backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery practices for MQ and mainframe messaging services, with evidence and runbooks.
• Maintain centralized documentation, standard operating procedures, and best practices for runtime, messaging, and integration services. .
• Collaborate with application, architecture, security, and container-platform teams to align messaging services with enterprise architecture.
• Contribute to the modernization roadmap – containerization and consolidation of runtime/messaging services, and AI-driven observability and automation – while sustaining mainframe BAU.

The salary range for this role is between $114,000 and $130,000 depending on skills and qualifications of the candidate. Applications will be accepted till 10/20/2026.