COBOL Developer

Watershed Consulting; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Watershed Consulting seeks an experienced COBOL Developer to support and maintain critical legacy applications on Power9 UNIX and AIX 7.1 environments.

This is a 12-month contract in Cape Town with a hybrid model (4 days onsite, 1 day remote). You will perform development, enhancements, production support, and issue resolution using COBOL and related tech across cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of COBOL development and production support.
• Experience with VSAM file processing and Micro Focus Server Express (COBOL V5.1).
• Strong SQL development and optimization skills.
• Hands-on with Power9 UNIX and AIX 7.1 platforms.
• Experience in production support, debugging, and root-cause analysis.
• Legacy system modernization projects preferred; WMS (Triceps) knowledge a plus.
• Excellent communication; able to work onsite in Cape Town four days weekly.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and enhance COBOL applications using COBOL V5.1 and VSAM.
• Design and support VSAM file processing and related COBOL modules.
• Analyze requirements and translate into technical solutions.
• Develop and optimize SQL queries and DB interactions.
• Support and administer applications on Power9 UNIX and AIX 7.1.
• Perform impact analysis, debugging, and root-cause analysis for incidents.
• Ensure stability, performance, and coding standard compliance.
• Participate in testing, deployment, and release management.
• Prepare clear technical documentation and collaborate with teams.

Skills

COBOL

VSAM

Micro Focus Server Express

SQL

Power9 UNIX

AIX 7.1

UNIX

Shell scripting

Debugging

Root cause analysis

Performance tuning

Application support

Release management

Production support

Legacy modernization

WMS (Triceps)

Technical documentation

Tools

VSAM

Micro Focus Server Express

Power9 UNIX

AIX 7.1

Job description

Cobol Developer

Description

We are seeking an experienced COBOL Developer to support and maintain business-critical legacy applications running on Power9 UNIX and AIX 7.1 environments.

This is a 12-month contract role based in Cape Town with a hybrid working model (4 days per week onsite, 1 day remote).

The successful candidate will perform application development, enhancements, production support, and issue resolution using COBOL and related technologies. Strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams are essential.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and enhance applications using COBOL and Micro Focus Server Express (COBOL V5.1).
• Design, implement, and support VSAM file processing applications.
• Analyze business requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Develop and optimize SQL queries and database interactions.
• Support and administer applications hosted on Power9 UNIX and AIX 7.1 platforms.
• Perform impact analysis, debugging, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis for production incidents.
• Ensure application stability, performance, and adherence to coding standards and best practices.
• Participate in testing, deployment, and release management activities.
• Prepare and maintain clear technical documentation.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, business users, and support teams to meet project objectives and SLAs.
• Provide ongoing production support and incident resolution within defined SLAs.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in COBOL application development and support.
• Proven experience with VSAM file processing and Micro Focus Server Express (COBOL V5.1).
• Strong SQL development and optimization experience.
• Hands‑on experience with Power9 UNIX and AIX 7.1 platforms.
• Experience in production support, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis for legacy systems.
• Experience in legacy application maintenance and modernization projects is desirable.
• Domain knowledge of WMS (Triceps) is preferred.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work onsite in Cape Town four days per week.

Skills

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following technical and professional skills:

• COBOL
• VSAM
• Micro Focus Server Express
• SQL
• Power9
• AIX
• UNIX
• Shell scripting
• Debugging
• Root cause analysis
• Performance tuning
• Application support
• Release management
• Production support
• Legacy system modernization
• WMS (Triceps)
• Technical documentation