Senior Principal Mainframe z/OS Engineer

Job Title: Principal Mainframe z/OS Engineer - Lead / Architect / Principal levelJob Type: ContractExp: 18+ yearsLocation: New JerseyIndustry: Capital Markets, Asset Servicing, Investment ManagementRole OverviewThis role is for Principal-level Mainframe z/OS Engineer to take end-to-end ownership of critical trading, valuation, and fund accounting platforms. These systems directly support portfolio valuation, financial reporting, and regulatory obligations where accuracy and reliability are non-negotiable.This role involves designing and managing core financial processing logic across:End-to-end trade lifecycle (capture through settlement)Fund accounting and investment book of recordDaily/monthly NAV computation and financial closeAudit replay, historical restatement, and regulatory correction workflowsThe ideal candidate brings deep domain expertise in capital markets, strong batch engineering capabilities, and a track record of delivering highly accurate, high-volume financial systems under strict regulatory oversight.Required Skills & Experience18+ years of hands-on mainframe application developmentAdvanced expertise in:Enterprise COBOL (high-precision financial calculations, packed decimal handling)DB2 for z/OS (complex SQL tuning, performance engineering)CICS TS and/or IMS TM transaction processingJCL, PROCs, and enterprise batch processing frameworksStrong experience across:Trading and post-trade processing systemsInvestment accounting and fund administration platformsNAV calculation and valuation enginesDemonstrated ownership of production-critical financial applicationsExpertise in:Accounting close cycles and NAV processingReconciliation workflows and break resolutionCorporate actions lifecycle managementMulti-currency valuation and FX rate applicationExperience with scheduling and deployment tools:Control-M, CA-7, or Tivoli Workload SchedulerEndevor, Changeman (or similar SCM tools)Hands-on exposure to:Audit replay and historical data restatement frameworksLarge-scale asset manager or custodian environmentsKey ResponsibilitiesLead the architecture and development of Enterprise COBOL applications supporting:Trade capture, settlement, and lifecycle processingPosition, holdings, and cash accounting systemsDaily, monthly, and ad-hoc NAV calculationsTake full ownership of financial accuracy and data integrity across systemsDesign and implement restartable, checkpoint-driven batch frameworks for financial close processes, including:Multi-currency valuation and FX conversionsIncome accruals, amortization, and distribution calculationsCorporate actions such as dividends, splits, and mergersBuild systems capable of reprocessing historical data for audit, reconciliation, and regulatory correctionsTroubleshoot and resolve NAV breaks and accounting discrepancies within strict reporting deadlinesDesign and optimize DB2 data models for:High-volume trade, position, and pricing datasetsHistorical valuation and reporting dataPerform advanced performance engineering:EXPLAIN plan analysisAccess path tuningIndex strategy optimizationAddress production challenges including locking issues, batch overruns, and data skewDevelop scalable batch processing solutions with parallel execution capabilities for EOD/EOM cyclesOptimize COBOL programs for performance, focusing on CPU utilization, I/O efficiency, and consistent processing windowsBuild and maintain integration layers using IBM MQ for:Trade and pricing feedsMarket data ingestionDownstream accounting and reporting systemsDeliver data feeds for risk management systems and regulatory reporting platformsSupport API enablement initiatives via z/OS Connect EEAct as the technical owner for high-impact financial components and lead root-cause investigations for:Financial inconsistenciesReconciliation breaksBatch and online processing failuresSupport SOX, SEC, and internal audits by ensuring complete traceability and replay capability of financial processing logic