Independent Contractor Mainframe Mq Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Hello There,

My name is Himanshu Sharma, and I serve as the Recruitment Lead at Kanak-IT INC. I am reaching out to share an excellent career opportunity for the role of Mainframe MQ Consultant with our esteemed client. If you are interested then please share your updated resume at Himanshu01@kanakits.com .

Job Description

Position           : Mainframe MQ Consultant

Location          : Plano, TX, Columbus, OH, or Jersey City, NJ Onsite

Duration         : long term contract

we are looking to hire two contractors to support IBM MQ — a core middleware product used to securely move messages (data) between applications in a mainframe environment.

• These are contractor roles 
• Both are focused on MQ, but serve different purposes:
  • One is a broad support and admin role (12-month).
  • One is a deep performance tuning and reporting role (6-month or shorter).

Contractor Role #1 – Mainframe MQ Systems Programmer (12-month contract)

This person will be the hands-on MQ expert handling day-to-day operations, upgrades, admin tasks, and some development/support work across the MQ platform on the z/OS (mainframe) environment.

Core Responsibilities:

• Set up and maintain MQ and IIB (Integration Bus) systems on zSeries (IBM mainframes).
• Administer MQ for multiple business applications — ensuring connectivity, performance, and uptime.
• Handle software installs, upgrades, patches, and configuration changes.
• Add queue managers to MQ clusters for load balancing and failover.
• Understand security controls via RACF or ACF2.
• Work with SYSPLEX, a clustering technology for z/OS for high availability.
• Collaborate with other teams across the lifecycle (design → implementation → support).

Ideal Background:

• Fluent in IBM MQ (queues, queue managers, channels).
• MQ/IIB administration on z/OS.
• Bonus if they have coding experience in JCL, REXX, Python, Java, Go, Ansible, etc.
• Knowledge of cloud, APIs, virtualization is a plus.
• Familiar with agile/lean methods.
• Soft skills: critical thinking, clear communication, teamwork.

Contractor Role #2 – Mainframe MQ Tuning Specialist (6-month contract)

This is a deep-dive technical role focused on performance tuning and capacity optimization of MQ systems.

Core Responsibilities:

• Optimize MQ Bufferpools and Pagesets — which affect how fast and efficiently messages are read/written.
• Resize and rationalize Coupling Facility (CF) structures for MQ (used in SYSPLEX clustering).
• Create and analyze SMF (System Management Facility) reports to spot usage patterns, spikes, bottlenecks, etc.
• Identify when queues need resizing based on depth trends.
• Use Cognos/JPM reporting tools to generate MQ health dashboards.
• Bonus: Knowledge of MQ certificate management, and scripting in zOSMF to automate MQ builds.

Ideal Background:

• Strong with SMF record analysis for tuning.
• Knows how MQ components are stored and how to tweak them.
• Experienced with reporting tools for long-term performance tracking.

Simplified Comparison of the Two Roles

Attribute

Contractor #1 (MQ Admin/Engineer)

Contractor #2 (MQ Performance Tuning)

Duration

12 months

6 months (or until budget ends)

Focus

MQ setup, support, upgrades, and system-level ops

MQ tuning, performance analysis, long-term scaling

Key Tasks

Administer MQ & IIB, support apps, configure MQ

Tune MQ Bufferpools, Pagesets, CF structures

Technical Stack

MQ/IIB, JCL, REXX, Python, Java, Ansible, etc.

SMF, Cognos, JPM tools, zOSMF scripting

Bonus Skills

Agile, SYSPLEX, RACF/ACF2, APIs, cloud knowledge

MQ certs, reporting automation