Senior Customer Solutions Engineer - IMS Professional Services

It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing!

Job Description Summary:

The Senior Customer Solutions Engineer brings creativity, curiosity and passion to the role working with our modernization products. They are technically versatile and deliver differentiated exceptional customer experiences to Rocket’s customers.

This role will be in our IBM System Z Professional Services team working on customer engagements to help install, configure, implement, and provide training for the IBM IMS Tools product family and various other IBM Mainframe products. The ideal candidate will have deep technical knowledge of IMS and related IBM z Systems technologies, strong communication skills, and a passion for helping clients achieve operational excellence.

Core Technical Skills:

• Install, configure and manage IMS in a parallel sysplex environment
• IMS systems programming
• Establishing policies and procedures pertaining to database management, DR, security, maintenance and utilization
• Reviewing new versions of IMS for functionality, advising how they benefit the client
• Evaluating change requests and determine impact to assigned clients
• Vendor consultations for problems and questions
• DR recovery of application objects
• Troubleshooting and solving production database issues
• Demonstrated ability to respond quickly and effectively to support requests from multiple clients
• Supporting multiple customer for after hours on-call

Database Skills:

• Database Administration
  • Knowledge of IMS database organization using access methods of VSAM and OSAM
  • Full function database organization types
  • HSAM, HISAM, SHISAM, HDAM, HIDAM, INDEX, GSAM
  • Definition and use of LOGICAL databases
  • HALDB (partitioned):  PHDAM, PHIDAM, ILDS, PSINDEX, etc.
  • Fast Path databases (DEDBs)

• Database Design and related utilities
  • DBD source coding and DBDGEN
  • PSBGEN source coding and PSBGEN
  • How databases are processed using secondary indexes (PROCSEQ=)
  • Correct usage of PROCOPT= to minimize database locking
  • ACBGEN
  • Online Change
  • IMS commands related to ACB and FORMAT changes

• Database monitoring
  • Space management
  • Database dataset space reporting for proactive outage avoidance.
  • How to immediately fix an out of space condition for a VSAM database dataset

Integration Skills:

• Coding and usage of IMS reorganization utilities (including IBM, BMC, CA)
  • Unload
  • Prefix resolution
  • Reload
  • Prefix update
  • Secondary index build
  • Image copy
  • Pointer checker

• Support planned (disaster recovery) and unplanned (emergency) database recovery activities
  • Knowledge of log archive and change accumulation utilities
  • How to perform a log archive on demand                  
  • Knowledge of IMS DB recovery utility
  • How to use DBRC to generate JCL for forward recovery and point-in-time database recovery

• Identification and resolution of performance issues
  • Online tracing – Usage of IMS TRACE commands and associated utilities for spot monitoring of online program/transaction activity
  • Extracting information from IMS logs using DFSERA10 and related utilities DFSUTR20 and DFSUTR30
  • Use of DFSDDLT0 utility to access data
  • Program/transaction monitoring – Familiarity with usage of IBM’s IMS performance Analyzer product is a plus

• Using DBRC to monitor database activity

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree, or equivalent experience
• 8 + years as a Systems Programmer or other similar position
• 4+ years customer facing consulting experience
• Development, application lifecycle or change management experience is a plus

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven critical thinking, analytical and troubleshooting skills
• Excellent interpersonal, relationship management and communication skills.
• Excellent time management skills
• Previous customer facing consulting experience

Travel Requirements:  Up to 10%

Information Security:

Information security is everyone’s responsibility.  A fundamental principle of information security at Rocket Software is that all individuals in the organization have a responsibility for the security and protection of company information and IT Resources over which they have control, accor