Mainframe (Cobol, PL-1) Lead Developer (Only W2)

Title: Mainframe (Cobol, PL-1) Lead Developer

Location: Milwaukee, WI

Duration: Permanent

Salary: 100K Gross MAX

Job Description:

The Mainframe Lead Developer will serve as the primary technical expert and liaison between the client stakeholders and the offshore development team. This role requires a blend of deep technical expertise in legacy systems, hands-on programming in COBOL and PL/I, and strong leadership skills to guide application development, maintenance, and production support.

Core Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Lead design sessions to translate business requirements into robust technical specifications.
• Review code and architecture to ensure alignment with client standards and performance optimization.
• Drive application modernization initiatives, including APIs, cloud integration, or data migration.
• Resolve complex technical blockers in high-volume batch processing and online transactions.

Onsite-Offshore Coordination

• Act as the primary point of contact for client product owners and business analysts.
• Gather and clarify requirements before converting them into actionable tasks for the team.
• Manage daily sprint tasks and deliverables for the offshore development team.
• Ensure seamless handover of support tickets and development items across time zones.

Development & Production Support

• Write and maintain clean code for critical system modules, specifically targeting PL/I and COBOL structures.
• Oversee production deployments and provide technical validation during go-live windows.
• Lead root cause analysis (RCA) for critical production incidents and system outages.
• Tune performance of long-running batch jobs, PL/I routines, and high-CPU consuming DB2 queries.

Must have Technical Skills

• Core Languages: PL/I, COBOL, JCL, CICS, and CA-7 / Control-M.
• Database Systems: DB2, VSAM, and IMS DB/DC.
• Tools & Utilities: SyncSort, SPUFI, Changeman / Endevor, File-Aid, and Xpediter / IBM Debugger.
• Modern Integration: Experience with IBM MQ, Changeman ZDD, or Mainframe-to-Cloud data streaming.

Good To have:

• Java, Springboot, Microservices

Required Soft Skills & Experience

• Experience: 8+ years in Mainframe development with a strong focus on PL/I application maintenance, and 2+ years in a Lead/Onsite role.
• Communication: Exceptional verbal and written skills to communicate technical issues to non-technical business clients.
• Methodologies: Strong experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.