About the position
A leading Banking institution (based in Johannesburg north) is offering an exceptional career opportunity for a seasoned Mainframe Technical Engineer/Specialist with 3 years’ minimum experience in mentoring and guiding mainframe engineers to spearhead its enterprise mainframe environment operationally, technically and strategically. Must have 10 to 12 years’ minimum experience in a Mainframe Technical Engineer/Specialist role. This role is ideal for a highly skilled technical professional who is passionate about large-scale, high-availability systems including AI, Automation, Cloud and wants to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of core banking technology.
Main job function:
- The successful candidate will lead and optimise our client’s IBM Z mainframe platform running z/OS as the core operating system, ensuring stability, performance, security and continuous improvement.
- The environment includes traditional enterprise mainframe technologies such as DB2, CICS, MQ and IMS, supporting mission-critical banking workloads.
- This position requires strong hands-on technical expertise, architectural insight, and the ability to drive strategic direction while maintaining operational excellence.
Governance, risk & compliance (require knowledge of):
- ITIL processes.
- Change governance (CAB).
- Disaster recovery & high availability design.
- RPO/RTO strategy.
- Security-by-design in financial systems.
- Audit readiness.
- AI governance awareness.
Leadership experience required:
- Lead cross-functional technical teams.
- Mentor junior engineers.
- Crisis leadership during P level incidents.
- Executive reporting capability (CIO / CTO level).
Strategic skills required:
- Ability to define 3–5 year mainframe roadmap.
- Cost optimisation of MIPS usage.
- Capacity forecasting.
- Vendor management (IBM & ISVs).
- Automation strategy alignment with business risk appetite.
Minimum Requirements:
Qualifications required:
- IT Degree or IT Diploma (preferred).
- Certifications required: IBM z/OS Mainframe Practitioner Professional Certificate / IBM Mainframe Systems Administrator Certificates / IBM Mainframe Technical Manager Certificate / IBM Advanced Professional – Db2 for z/OS Master Class.
- ITIL Foundation Certificate.
Advantageous certifications:
- IBM Mainframe Systems Programmer Certificates
- IBM Mainframe RACF Security Administrator Certificate
- PRINCE2, PMI-ACP, PMP (advantageous)
Technical skills and experience required:
- IBM Z platform running z/OS as the core operating system.
- Enterprise mainframe technologies: DB2, CICS, MQ, IMS, and batch systems.
- COBOL with integrations into modern API-driven services.
- Automated testing and CI/CD integration.
- DevOps Tools, DevOps Integration & Pipeline Automation (Kobee, Wazi, Zowe).
- Artificial Intelligence.
- Performance and monitoring tools.
Desired Skills:
- IBM Mainframe Engineer
- IBM Mainframe Specialist
- Mainframe Technical Specialist
