Mainframe Modernization Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

Overview
Navy Federal Credit Union currently does not provide sponsorship for this role. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.
The Mainframe Systems Programming Manager I leads a highly experienced team of engineers responsible for supporting and evolving NFCU's foundational mainframe infrastructure. This role provides leadership, support, direction, and technical guidance to ensure the team delivers secure, reliable, and resilient mainframe services that support mission-critical core banking infrastructure hosting requirements.
This role is responsible for developing technical talent, aligning resources to organizational & department priorities, managing workload & delivery commitments, and removing obstacles that impede team success. In partnership with technology leaders, business stakeholders, vendors, and auditors, this role helps drive operational excellence, risk management, platform modernization, and continuous improvement across the mainframe infrastructure hosting service portfolio. The manager supports engineers at all experience levels by fostering professional growth, enabling senior technical staff to maximize their impact, and creating opportunities for the team to solve complex problems and deliver measurable business outcomes.
The ideal candidate combines strong leadership skills with a solid foundation in mainframe technologies and a demonstrated ability to lead and enable high-performing teams, facilitate resolution of complex technical challenges, and foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and continuous improvement. The successful candidate will be inquisitive, thoughtful, and decisive when required, using sound judgment and risk-based decision making to balance operational stability, business priorities, and technology objectives within a mission-critical 24x7x365 technology environment.
This position is eligible for the TalentQuest employee referral program. If an employee referred you for this job, please apply using the system-generated link that was sent to you.
Responsibilities
Management Responsibilities

• Collaborate with senior IT leaders, engineers, vendors, auditors, and risk consultants to align technology initiatives with organizational objectives.
• Strong ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with all levels of staff, management, stakeholders, and vendors.
• Influence technology vendors to prioritize NFCU's requirements for enhancements and fixes.
• Participate and support the department's annual budgeting, planning, & roadmap processes.
• Maintain vendor software support contracts and assist with the renewal processes.
• Solve complex problems with significant impact on strategic IT priorities and measurable business outcomes.
• Serve as a credible expert advisor to peers and internal/external partners, act as a trusted advisor to leadership.
• Foster skills development through coaching and mentoring of both experienced and junior mainframe engineers.
• Partner with IBM and other vendors to evaluate emerging technologies and negotiate support agreements.
• Exercise advanced relationship-building, influencing, negotiation, and facilitation skills when necessary.
• Lead staff in defining project scope, plans, deliverables, cost projections, and implementation timelines.
• Contribute to strategic and tactical business initiatives in collaboration with technical leaders and experts across the enterprise.
• Drive staffing decisions, including interviewing and evaluating candidates for mainframe engineering roles.
• Implements leadership development and succession planning, reskilling/upskilling team members for future growth.

Technical Leadership Responsibilities

• Lead NFCU's mainframe Foundational Infrastructure Engineering team, providing technical leadership in the following areas:
  • Configuration, maintenance, and lifecycle management of core mainframe infrastructure such as hardware, network, storage, and resiliency/HA technology.
  • Oversee policy adherence for mainframe infrastructure & related technical solutions to include fostering standards and engagement with audit stakeholders.
  • Installation, administration, and support of z/OS features, fixes, & various third-party mainframe software products.
• Drive resolution of complex hardware and software issues to maintain system stability and performance.
• Define and enforce architectural standards for the mainframe platform, ensuring alignment with NFCU security and enterprise architecture policies.
• Implement and maintain processes for mainframe configuration management and drift control.
• Oversee patching and vulnerability remediation to maintain a secure and compliant environment.
• Ensure robust privileged access management practices to safeguard sensitive system resources.
• Collaborate with operations and delivery teams to integrate new functionality without compromising performance or stability.
• Drive modernization initiatives to optimize performance, scalability, and supportability.
• Maintain and champion comprehensive documentation of mainframe technical standards and procedures.
• Develop long-term strategies for mainframe infrastructure, including capacity planning and technology refresh cycles.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, including summarizing complex technical information and identifying key patterns and relationships.
• Effective technical presentation skills for conveying findings, conclusions, root cause analysis, and to include clear recommendations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, or equivalent experience.
  • Minimum 10 years of experience in mainframe engineering or related mission-critical infrastructure technologies
  • Minimum 5 years in IT management or a technical leadership role.
• Intermediate knowledge of IBM Mainframe, z/OS, and associated hardware/software technologies, with a focus on:
  • z/OS & core subsystems
  • Mainframe compute & DS8k storage architecture
  • GDPS (Metro Mirror, Global Mirror, & LCP), HyperSwap
  • Parallel Sysplex, SMP/E, USS, OMVS, & REXX
  • Capacity planning, WLM, SCRT, & Flexible Capacity
  • HSM, SMS/disk and tape management
  • Mainframe hardware & peripherals (CPC, DASD, VTS, HMCs)
• Demonstrated knowledge of IBM mainframe industry trends, best practices, & popular 3 rd party z/OS software products.
• Willingness to be on-call and available to support after-hours & weekend events as needed.

Desired Qualifications

• Advanced understanding of z/OS configuration, RACF, and security standards.
• Proven experience leading and coaching senior engineering staff.
• Experience managing distributed technical teams across multiple locations and time zones.
• Extensive experience supporting financial services and/or core banking technology environments with mission-critical 24/7/365 requirements.
• Familiarity with cloud computing, network, storage, middleware, firewall, and file transmission technologies.
• Experience with ADO, Kanban, Ansible, GitHub, and/or ServiceNow.
• Certifications: PMP, ITIL, Agile, and/or DevOps.
• Experience with encryption technologies (at-rest, TLS, GSKLM, & pervasive)
• Familiarity with NFCU operations, processes, and procedures.

Additional Information
Hours:

• Monday - Friday, 8:00AM - 4:30PM

Location:

• 820 Follin Lane, Vienna, VA 22180
• 5510 Heritage Oaks Drive, Pensacola, FL 32526

About Us
Navy Federal provides much more than a job. We provide a meaningful career experience, including a culture that is energized, engaged and committed; and fierce appreciation for our teams, who are rewarded with highly competitive pay and generous benefits and perks.
Our approach to careers is simple yet powerful: Make our mission your passion.
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