Job Description & Details
This is a heavy-duty infrastructure operations role keeping enterprise IBM mainframe environments humming. If you enjoy managing complex legacy systems, handling critical system consoles, and collaborating directly with system programmers, this 12-month contract in Downey gives you a chance to run massive workloads.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
You will spend your days managing the health of IBM mainframe systems, which includes starting and stopping system tasks, handling major subsystems like CICS and IMS, and monitoring system consoles for anomalies. When scheduled maintenance or unexpected issues pop up, you'll execute orderly shutdowns and restarts, keeping workloads on track. You'll act as the central hub of communication between system programmers and production control analysts to troubleshoot problems and verify that production jobs finish cleanly.
The Core Tech Stack
You need deep fluency with IBM z/OS, JCL, and JES2, alongside scheduling tools like CONTROL-M and output management systems like CA Spool or ESF. The environment also heavily utilizes database and transaction processing tech like CICS, IMS, DB2, and ADABAS, plus security tools like ACF2. If you don't know your way around an HMC or aren't comfortable parsing console messages for obscure error codes, you'll struggle here. They also mix in some Linux, Unix, and distributed hardware, making this a true hybrid enterprise operations gig.
Interview Expectations
Expect the hiring manager to throw a scenario at you about a hung subsystem or a cascading batch job failure, asking: "Walk me through your exact troubleshooting steps from checking the JES2 log to escalating with system programmers." They are testing your operational temperament under pressure and your systematic approach to root-cause analysis. They might also ask about your experience with restart/recovery procedures in CICS or IMS, looking to see if you can execute high-stakes interventions without breaking production data.
Application Advice
Your resume needs to skip the generic IT fluff and lean heavily into your hands-on mainframe chops. Make sure acronyms like z/OS, JCL, CICS, IMS, and CONTROL-M are front and center, ideally tied to metrics or the scale of the environment you managed. ATS filters for this role are tuned strictly to the specific toolset listed in the JD, so explicitly detail your experience with console monitoring, subsystem cycling, and cross-functional coordination with sysprogs to prove you can hit the ground running.