We are seeking a dedicated Migration/Solution Architect (Mainframes) to join our team. In this role, you will be pivotal in designing and leading complex modernization and migration initiatives for enterprise clients, with a strong focus on legacy modernization, mainframe transformation, application replatforming. Location: Canada is desired but we also consider other locations with occasional business trips to Toronto, ON. Engagement type: part-time on pre-sales activities, discovery phase; full-time as more load appears. Contract agreement.
What you will be doing: — Lead architecture and discovery phases for IBM mainframe modernization programs, covering application, data, batch, transaction, and infrastructure domains. — Assess existing IBM z/OS environments, including COBOL, JCL, CICS, Db2, IMS, VSAM, GDG, flat files, MQ, and related integrations, to define modernization scope, risks, dependencies, and migration waves. — Design end-to-end modernization strategies for legacy workloads, including replatforming, refactoring, decomposition, phased migration, and coexistence patterns. — Define migration strategies across different modernization paths such as rehost, replatform, refactor, decomposition, and phased transformation. — Lead technical assessments of legacy applications, including static and dynamic analysis, dependency mapping, batch/job flow analysis, transaction boundary analysis, schema conversion strategy, and business logic extraction. — Design migration approaches for Db2 and IMS-backed data landscapes, including schema conversion, data transformation, CDC-based migration, reconciliation, archive/retention strategy, and cutover planning. — Define modernization patterns for transactional systems, batch processing, event-driven architectures, API-led integration, and hybrid environments. — Facilitate workshops and architecture discussions with customer stakeholders, delivery teams, and leadership, translating complex legacy platform constraints into practical modernization roadmaps. — Prepare architecture documents, migration plans, discovery outputs, estimates, proposals, and solution narratives for IBM mainframe transformation engagements. — Provide governance and architectural oversight throughout project delivery, helping teams make sound decisions during implementation, testing, cutover, and hypercare. — Contribute to pre-sales and solutioning activities for mainframe modernization opportunities, including technical qualification, delivery assumptions, risk framing, and modernization roadmap creation.
A successful candidate will have: — 5+ years of experience in solution architecture, cloud architecture, or technical leadership roles. — Proven track record of designing and delivering complex migration or modernization solutions in enterprise environments. — Strong understanding of IBM mainframe application landscapes, including: COBOL, JCL, CICS, Db2, IMS. — Experience designing architectures for enterprise applications, distributed systems, and data platforms. — Good understanding of legacy modernization challenges, including monolith decomposition, batch processing migration, data migration, and integration with on-premises systems. — Experience working with relational databases and migration strategies, including schema conversion, data validation, CDC-based migration, and cutover planning. — Ability to identify delivery risks, architecture trade-offs, and mitigation strategies early in the project lifecycle. — Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical topics in a structured and business-friendly way. — English — C1/C2. — Possibility to travel to Toronto, Canada if other location.
Will be a plus: — Familiarity with modernization and migration tools such as AWS SCT, AWS Transform, AWS Blu Age, CAST Imaging, vFunction, or similar assessment/refactoring platforms. — Experience with modernization of batch workloads, job orchestration, and migration of online transactional systems. — Familiarity with observability and APM platforms such as Datadog, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, OpenTelemetry, or similar tools. — Experience in regulated industries such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, or public sector.
