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Mainframe Director Jobs in Madison, WI (NOW HIRING)

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Mainframe Director information

See Madison, WI salary details

$10

$53

$72

How much do mainframe director jobs pay per hour?

As of Aug 8, 2026, the average hourly pay for mainframe director in Madison, WI is $53.79, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $47.45 and $61.06 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the typical daily responsibilities of a mainframe director?

A Mainframe Director typically oversees the overall health and performance of mainframe environments, managing a team of system administrators and engineers. Daily tasks may include reviewing system performance metrics, scheduling maintenance or upgrades, coordinating with IT leadership on strategic initiatives, and ensuring compliance with security policies. The role often involves troubleshooting high-impact incidents, leading project meetings, and communicating with stakeholders across business units. Effective Mainframe Directors also engage in capacity planning and roadmap development to align mainframe capabilities with evolving business needs.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a mainframe director?

To thrive as a Mainframe Director, you need deep expertise in mainframe technologies, enterprise IT infrastructure management, and extensive experience leading technical teams, usually with a relevant bachelor's degree or higher. Familiarity with IBM z/OS systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools, security frameworks, and certifications like IBM Certified System Administrator are highly valuable. Outstanding leadership, strategic thinking, and excellent communication skills help in overseeing complex projects and motivating multidisciplinary teams. These combined capabilities are crucial for ensuring operational reliability, optimizing system performance, and driving business continuity in large organizations reliant on mainframe operations.

What is a mainframe director?

A Mainframe Director is responsible for overseeing the operation, maintenance, and security of an organization's mainframe computing environment. They manage teams of system administrators, ensure high availability and performance, and develop strategic plans for system upgrades and integrations. The role involves coordinating with IT leadership to align mainframe operations with business goals while ensuring compliance with security and regulatory requirements.

What are the most commonly searched types of Mainframe jobs in Madison, WI? The most popular types of Mainframe jobs in Madison, WI are:
What are popular job titles related to Mainframe Director jobs in Madison, WI? For Mainframe Director jobs in Madison, WI, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Mainframe Director jobs in Madison, WI look for? The top searched job categories for Mainframe Director jobs in Madison, WI are:
Mainframe Director jobs near you
Infographic showing various Mainframe Director job openings in Madison, WI as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 83% Full Time, 13% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 92% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 5% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $111,873 per year, or $53.8 per hour.

Application Architect -cobal

Novalink Solutions LLC

Madison, WI • On-site

$78 - $85/mo

Full-time

Posted yesterday

New

Job description

Under the general supervision of the Development, DBA, & MiddleWare Section supervisor, this
position provides architectural and big picture oversight for development of new or enhanced
software products. This position is responsible for ensuring quality and consistency of the software
architecture across the system and providing day-to-day technical guidance to teams comprised of
software developers, database modelers, data staff middleware staff, and other technical and
business support staff. This position performs work in all phases of the systems development life
cycle, which includes requirements gathering, design, development, testing, implementation,
enhancements, and maintenance. An Application Architect defines the system, technical, and
application architectures for major areas of development, and recommends course of action to
maintain cost effectiveness and business realization.
Further, this position should work well both as a member of development teams under the direction
of the project manager, or as directed to function as the Scrum Master. When acting as a Scrum
Master, the role will be responsible for agile development oversight and operations management
for highly complex, multi-platform mainframe and web-based applications and systems. The Scum
Master is responsible for ensuring that agile teams follow established processes, efficiently
deliver new software, and effectively provide enhancements and support for existing software. In
addition, this position ensures that development and project teams are compliant with ETF
development policies, procedures, and standards as well as enterprise-wide standards. The Scrum
Master leads and monitors the work of development teams to achieve daily, sprint, and project
goals.
In addition, this position may fulfill the role of project manager. When acting as a project manager,
the role will be responsible for planning and leading projects. Projects will be technical but could
be either development or infrastructure in nature. The project manager will follow agile project
management practices while providing project oversight and management for complex, multi-
platform mainframe, database, and web-based applications and systems. As a project manager, he
leads and monitors the work of project teams ensuring the delivery of project milestones and goals.
This position helps ensure that we meet our operational deliverables, while enhancing and
modernizing ETF application systems.
This position works closely with business users and product owners to make sure that acceptance
criteria is clear and meets users’ needs. In addition, this position provides direction, expertise,
and consultation to business users and technical staff on agile development processes. The
Application Architect provides consultation to the Office of Enterprise Initiatives (OEI), ETF
business areas, external business partners and users to deliver high quality software solutions
across the organization.
This position is required to have extensive experience in analysis, design and coding principles
and concepts, in addition to developing an in-depth knowledge of the customers’ business
processes. The principal development tools currently include Java, React, Jira, ChangeMan,
BulkMailer, GitHub, DB2, COBOL, CICS, and JCL. An Application Architect stays up to date
Application Architect II
Page 2
on business initiatives and objectives, particularly as these relate to infrastructure and development
architecture issues, research, and implements best practices frameworks/capability models that will
control costs, provide higher quality, and/or increase predictability of service delivery and research
new technology and development tools to remain abreast of current and emerging technology.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
1. Expert knowledge of the uses and applications of the COBOL Java, and/React programming
language.
2. Expert knowledge of Agile principles, Scrum methodology, and Scrum Master
responsibilities and activities.
3. Expert knowledge of Agile project management, processes, and project management
responsibilities and activities. PMP certification would be beneficial.
4. Knowledge of the uses and applications of CICS.
5. Knowledge of the uses and applications of stored procedures.
6. Knowledge of structured application development and design methods.
7. Knowledge of relation database concepts, including technologies such as DB2 or similar.
8. Knowledge of the uses and applications of the SQL programming language and concepts.
9. Knowledge of development and scheduling tools such as Jira, BulkMailer and Control-M.
10. Knowledge of Knowledge of application systems, multi-tier technologies.
11. Knowledge of code repository technologies such as ChangeMan, Git and GitHub.
12. Ability to facilitate multiple scrums at the same time.
13. Knowledge of mechanisms that can be used to scale agile processes across an organization.
14. Knowledge of problem tracking software technologies.
15. Knowledge of application development life cycle processes.
16. Knowledge of business analysis and application design techniques and prototyping.
17. Knowledge of application test methodologies and procedures.
18. Knowledge of application documentation methods.
19. Knowledge of custom application development and design methods.
20. Ability to coach, lead, and coordinate staff at all levels of responsibility and authority
throughout the organization.
21. Ability to collaborate with business partners, employers, third-party administrators, external
vendors, management, technical developers, colleagues at other state agencies, etc.
22. Ability to understand requirements, refine requirements, and develop acceptance criteria.
23. Ability to recommend, negotiate, direct, and implement change.
24. Knowledge of good security practices for all phases of application development.
25. Ability to manage time and handle competing priorities.
26. Ability to organize complex information into comprehensive parts.
27. Knowledge of project management methodologies and deliverables.
28. Effective oral communication skills.
29. Effective written communication skills

Requirements
Top Skills & Years of Experience:
1. Expert knowledge of the uses and applications of the COBOL Java, and/React programming language.
2. Expert knowledge of Agile principles, Scrum methodology, and Scrum Master responsibilities and activities.
3. Knowledge of the uses and applications of CICS.
4. Knowledge of the uses and applications of stored procedures.
5. Knowledge of structured application development and design methods.
6. Knowledge of relation database concepts, including technologies such as DB2 or similar.

Nice to Have:
1. Effective oral communication skills.
2. Effective written communication skills.