Support of Mainframe COTS Software

Founded in 2003, IT Concepts’ core values – customer-centricity, teamwork, drive to deliver, innovation, and integrity – ensure we work together to be the best, realize objectives, and positively impact our communities. We intentionally created and sustain our ITC culture that embraces change, experimentation, continuous learning, and improvement. We bring our design thinking problem-solving approach that challenges assumptions, prioritizes curiosity, and invites complexity to deliver innovative, efficient, and practical solutions. As we continue to grow in the support of our government customers, we are looking for driven and innovative individuals to join our team.

IT Concepts, Inc. (ITC) seeks experienced support for Support of Mainframe COTS Software. The Mainframe Infrastructure Branch (MIB) supports installations and maintenance of more than 70 mainframe vendor software products housed on SSA’s production and testing mainframe environment sysplexes. When the Division of Mainframe Systems Software (DMSS) builds new mainframe system complexes (sysplexes) or upgrades z/OS operating systems, MIB must build, test, and maintain associated vendor software production and test environments. These environments consist of 77 logical partitions (LPARS).

This task will provide SSA with onsite COTS installation support through expert-level direction and support for vendor systems software products. This support will provide increased performance and stability for the mainframe operations environment required for our business application to function and user support utilities that allow our Development Community the means to build and maintain business applications.

The contractor will review systems and application code, including system dumps and logs, to identify and resolve availability and performance issues. The contractor will also provide performance tuning and problem determinations in current production applications and new applications being migrated through the software life cycle.

The contractor will provide hands-on technical training to systems and application programmers. An example of this type of training is the development of software installation and the ability to do migration jobs for the management of the system’s mainframe software life cycle environment.

Responsibilities:

• Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) vendor product installations
• Use SMP/E to install the product.
• Test the product to the extent possible before migrating through the system's life cycle.
• Coordinate with IBM and vendor software technical staff to troubleshoot problems.
• Prepare status reports.
• Work with other components to identify and resolve vendor software problems.
• Use SSA ServiceNow to submit change requests, track problems, and document resolutions.
• Maintain Vendor Software Environment
• Analyze, plan, and troubleshoot our mainframe systems.
• Assist with implementing stabilization by keeping the levels of software at the same release levels across mainframe systems.
• Communicate with IBM, Compuware, CA, and other vendor software technical staff for direction, best-practice recommendations, and assistance to resolve any problems encountered during stabilization.
• Prepare progress reports in detail to include any problems and recommendations.
• Problem Resolution
• Work withz/OS administrators and vendor support personnel to analyze and resolve problems to the root cause.
• Research and coordinate with IBM technical staff and vendor support personnel and document problem resolution.
• Planning and Implementation
• Define the strategic planning phase of the migration, installation, and maintenance phases.
• Perform implementation tasks for system software as needed.
• Best Practices
• Participate in planning and establishing best practices for the z/OS COTS vendor product environment
• Determine the needs for SSA environments.
• Research and coordinate with IBM technical staff.
• Customization and Optimization
• Use recognized IBM best practice guidelines for server settings.
• Use performance-monitoring tools to establish optimal settings.
• Identify software changes by analyzing and diagnosing system problems on the mainframe.
• Support the mainframe z/OS operating system
• Research problems, answer questions, and coordinate with IBM technical staff to review results.
• Interpret and analyze data gathered and apply system-tuning policies based on the analyze