Senior Software Engineer - Mainframe

Overview 

Responsible at the expert level for mainframe software engineering, technical solution delivery, and technical requirements definition. Serves as an individual-contributor technical lead for critical mainframe applications and platforms. 

Primary Responsibilities: 

Technical Leadership & Engineering Delivery 

• Lead technical design, development, enhancement, and support of mainframe applications while ensuring SDLC governance. 

• Own technical decisions and delivery quality for assigned platforms, workstreams, or application domains. 

• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to align delivery with priorities, requirements, risk controls, and enterprise standards. 

Software Engineering Excellence 

• Deliver secure, efficient, maintainable, and resilient code using enterprise mainframe technologies. 

• Lead mainframe design, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and support across batch and online processing. 

• Establish coding standards, development practices, and quality expectations for maintainability, performance, security, and resiliency. 

SDLC, DevOps & Quality Engineering 

• Review and approve solution designs, pull requests, code changes, peer reviews, source control practices, and deployment readiness. 

• Define test strategy for mainframe changes, including batch validation, regression testing, data reconciliation, performance checks, and implementation verification. 

• Promote CI/CD, functional automation, standardization, and DevOps practices to improve productivity and reduce manual effort. 

Technical Requirements & Solution Design 

• Ensure requirements, solution designs, and implementation plans are complete, feasible, scalable, secure, and aligned with business and technical standards. 

• Guide architecture, integration patterns, modernization, engineering processes, and technical decision-making across mainframe and connected platforms. 

• Translate complex mainframe constraints into business, delivery, risk, and operational impacts while resolving technical blockers. 

Operational Excellence & Modernization 

• Drive mainframe modernization, including API enablement, data integration, DevOps adoption, technical debt reduction, and incremental refactoring. 

• Own technical health by improving resiliency, reducing defects, addressing technical debt, and guiding remediation plans. 

• Ensure production readiness for batch schedules, online transactions, restart/recovery, monitoring, support documentation, and reliability improvements. 

• Apply AI-assisted engineering and automation responsibly across SDLC and operational processes where appropriate. 

Communication & Collaboration 

• Communicate architecture, technical decisions, progress, risks, and challenges clearly to technical and business stakeholders. 

• Influence technical decisions across teams without direct authority and present solutions in architecture reviews, forums, and knowledge-sharing sessions. 

• Maintain documentation and partner across business, product, architecture, infrastructure, security, operations, risk, and audit teams. 

• Ensure technical changes comply with company risk, regulatory, policy, change management, security, data protection, access control, and operational risk standards. 

• Escalate risk-related issues as needed and address audit and regulatory items on time. 

• Support a culture of belonging, reflect the M&T Bank brand, maintain internal controls, and complete other assigned duties. 

Scope of Responsibilities 

• Serve as an individual-contributor technical lead accountable for technical direction, design quality, code review, modernization guidance, and production stability; this role does not include direct people management. 

• Own technical outcomes for assigned mainframe applications, platforms, workstreams, or domains, including solution design, delivery quality, operational readiness, and risk remediation. 

• Influence engineers, architects, product, operations, security, infrastructure, risk, and audit partners through technical expertise, documentation, standards, and collaboration. 

Education & Experience Required: 

• Associate’s degree and a minimum of 5 years’ systems analysis and/ or application development work experience or Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 3 years’ systems analysis and/ or application development work experience. In lieu of degree, a combined minimum of 7 years’ education and/or relevant work experience, including a minimum of 3 years’ systems analysis and/or application development work experience

Required Technical Skills 

• IBM z/OS, COBOL, CICS, JCL, VSAM, DB2 for z/OS, TSO/ISPF, SDSF, and Easytrieve+. 

• GitLab for source control, change management, and CI/CD pipeline management. 

• Mainframe debugging and analysis tools such as File-AID, Abend-AID, Xpediter, InterTest, or equivalent. 

• Batch scheduling and enterprise integration experience with CA7, Control-M, MQ, or equivalent. 

Required Leadership & Delivery Experience 

• Expert analytical skills specific to software engineering and application development. 

• Experience leading technical initiatives, project deliverables, or engineering workstreams as an individual-contributor technical lead. 

• Experience reviewing solution designs, technical requirements, code changes, and implementation approaches. 

• Strong understanding of SDLC, testing, deployment, resiliency, security, and change management practices. 

Education & Experience Preferred: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a minimum of 5 years of systems analysis and/or application development experience. 

Preferred Technical Skills 

• Experience supporting mainframe modernization through z/OS Connect, ZDIH, API enablement, event/data integration, technical debt reduction, and platform resiliency. 

• Experience with mainframe DevOps, release readiness, automation testing, and AI-assisted engineering tools where appropriate. 

Preferred Delivery & Collaboration Experience 

• Experience improving production stability, defect reduction, and engineering productivity. 

• Experience influencing technical decisions and presenting to stakeholders across technology and business departments. 

• Experience working within Agile delivery frameworks.