Mainframe Architect

Experience / Education

•12–15 years in mainframe infrastructure/architecture roles, including decommissioning and dismantling projects.

•Proven record of leading IT service transitions across geographies.

•Bachelor's/master's in computer science, Engineering, or related field.

•Certifications: ITIL Expert, IBM z/OS, or cloud/hybrid architecture certifications highly desirable.

Key Responsibilities

1. Platform Ownership & Optimization

•Own the design, optimization, and lifecycle management of the mainframe infrastructure.

•Evaluate and optimize mainframe capacity (MSU) and LPAR workloads, ensuring balance between performance and cost.

•Oversee datacenter operations, monitoring strategies, middleware (MQ, File Transfer like CFT), firewall/security clearance, and release management.

•Ensure full documentation of designs, optimizations, and lifecycle activities for audit and compliance.

1. Cross-Stakeholder Collaboration

•Work closely with stakeholders across locations and India, aligning infrastructure with business and IT objectives.

•Collaborate with application owners, operations teams, and project leaders to provide ongoing technical support.

•Act as the primary liaison with Vendors, IBM and other solution providers, driving technical synergies.

•Lead joint technical discussions with Vendors, ensuring solution alignment with transformation and exit strategies.

1. Technical Transformation & Insourcing

•Lead the transition of mainframe responsibilities from other locations to India, ensuring smooth handover and knowledge transfer.

•Build and mentor an India-based managed services team, progressively taking over steady-state operations.

•Develop a structured roadmap for insourcing and governance alignment, balancing compliance, cost, and performance.

•Provide regular technical assistance to project teams, ensuring infrastructure readiness and support.

1. KPI Ownership & Reporting

•Define, monitor, and report technical KPIs (capacity, performance, availability, incident management, and cost optimization).

•Deliver regular KPI dashboards and reports to senior management.

•Enforce KPI adherence across both internal teams and external vendors, driving corrective actions where required.

1. Decommissioning & Dismantling

•Lead the end-to-end decommissioning of mainframe components across software, middleware, and hardware.

•Manage license offboarding and termination (e.g., IDMS, CA/Broadcom), ensuring no residual dependencies remain.

•Oversee datacenter hardware dismantling and disposal, ensuring compliance with security and regulatory requirements.

•Collaborate with security and governance teams to revoke access, certificates, and data securely.

•Create detailed decommissioning playbooks, closure documentation, and audit-ready reports.

1. Housekeeping & Lifecycle Management

•Own and manage all housekeeping activities end-to-end (storage cleanup, archival, job scheduling, patching, log retention, etc.).

•Standardize housekeeping routines into clear runbooks, automating where possible.

•Ensure lifecycle management of mainframe systems, from capacity planning to decommissioning.

•Report housekeeping outcomes and ensure alignment with compliance and audit needs.

1. Knowledge Continuity & Documentation

•Take full ownership of knowledge transfer from existing responsible teams, leaving no knowledge gaps.

•Establish a structured knowledge base capturing infrastructure, decommissioning, and housekeeping processes.

•Regularly update documentation to reflect system changes, exit milestones, and best practices.

Skills & Competencies

•Deep expertise in mainframe optimization (MSU, LPAR), datacenter operations, and middleware integration.

•Hands-on experience in mainframe decommissioning, dismantling, and license termination.

•Strong understanding of housekeeping routines and lifecycle management in mainframe environments.

•Proven ability to lead cross-country transitions (Other locations to India) and multi-vendor ecosystems.

•Strong vendor and partner collaboration skills.

•Strategic mindset to balance stability, compliance, cost optimization, and modernization.

•Excellent communication, documentation, and executive reporting capabilities.

•Leadership in building, mentoring, and scaling technical teams in a managed services model.