Mainframe Infrastructure / Architecture Lead

Skills Required

Experience / Education

• 12–15 years in mainframe infrastructure/architecture roles, including decommissioning and dismantling projects.
• Proven record of leading IT service transitions across geographies.
• Bachelor’s/master’s in computer science, Engineering, or related field.
• Certifications: ITIL Expert, IBM z/OS, or cloud/hybrid architecture certifications highly desirable.
  

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Ownership & Optimization
• Own the design, optimization, and lifecycle management of the mainframe infrastructure.
• Evaluate and optimize mainframe capacity (MSU) and LPAR workloads, ensuring balance between performance and cost.
• Oversee datacenter operations, monitoring strategies, middleware (MQ, File Transfer like CFT), firewall/security clearance, and release management.
• Ensure full documentation of designs, optimizations, and lifecycle activities for audit and compliance.
• Cross-Stakeholder Collaboration
• Work closely with stakeholders across locations and India, aligning infrastructure with business and IT objectives.
• Collaborate with application owners, operations teams, and project leaders to provide ongoing technical support.
• Act as the primary liaison with Vendors, IBM and other solution providers, driving technical synergies.
• Lead joint technical discussions with Vendors, ensuring solution alignment with transformation and exit strategies.
• Technical Transformation & Insourcing
• Lead the transition of mainframe responsibilities from other locations to India, ensuring smooth handover and knowledge transfer.
• Build and mentor an India-based managed services team, progressively taking over steady-state operations.
• Develop a structured roadmap for insourcing and governance alignment, balancing compliance, cost, and performance.
• Provide regular technical assistance to project teams, ensuring infrastructure readiness and support.
• KPI Ownership & Reporting
• Define, monitor, and report technical KPIs (capacity, performance, availability, incident management, and cost optimization).
• Deliver regular KPI dashboards and reports to senior management.
• Enforce KPI adherence across both internal teams and external vendors, driving corrective actions where required.
• Decommissioning & Dismantling
• Lead the end-to-end decommissioning of mainframe component s across software, middleware, and hardware.
• Manage license offboarding and termination (e.g., IDMS, CA/Broadcom), ensuring no residual dependencies remain.
• Oversee datacenter hardware dismantling and disposal, ensuring compliance with security and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with security and governance teams to revoke access, certificates, and data securely.
• Create detailed decommissioning playbooks, closure documentation, and audit-ready reports.
• Housekeeping & Lifecycle Management
• Own and manage all housekeeping activities end-to-end (storage cleanup, archival, job scheduling, patching, log retention, etc.).
• Standardize housekeeping routines into clear runbooks, automating where possible.
• Ensure lifecycle management of mainframe systems, from capacity planning to decommissioning.
• Report housekeeping outcomes and ensure alignment with compliance and audit needs.
• Knowledge Continuity & Documentation
• Take full ownership of knowledge transfer from existing responsible teams, leaving no knowledge gaps.
• Establish a structured knowledge base capturing infrastructure, decommissioning, and housekeeping processes.
• Regularly update documentation to reflect system changes, exit milestones, and best practices.
  

Skills & Competencies

• Deep expertise in mainframe optimization (MSU, LPAR), datacenter operations, and middleware integration.
• Hands-on experience in mainframe decommissioning, dismantling, and license termination.
• Strong understanding of housekeeping routines and lifecycle management in mainframe environments.
• Proven ability to lead cross-country transitions (Other locations to India) and multi-vendor ecosystems.
• Strong vendor and partner collaboration skills.
• Strategic mindset to balance stability, compliance, cost optimization, and modernization.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and executive reporting capabilities.
• Leadership in building, mentoring, and scaling technical teams in a managed services model.