Director, Mainframe CICS/MVS Performance and Capacity

Job Description:

Note: Fidelity will not provide immigration sponsorship for this position. 

Director, Mainframe CICS/MVS Performance and Capacity

Mainframe Capacity and Performance

Primary Domain CICS/MVS Performance and Capacity

Business Overview

The Fidelity Mainframe Capacity and Performance team is responsible for capacity modeling and forecasting, performance analysis, system configuration tuning, monitoring, and L2/L3 problem determination supporting Fidelity’s large IBM z Systems infrastructure. The team supports critical online and batch applications across the enterprise and works closely with business partners, Mainframe Hosting, DBMS, CICS, MQ, Storage, Network, application teams, IBM, and other strategic vendors.

This role is focused on the CICS and MVS/zOS performance and capacity domain, including CICS region behavior, transaction and program-level performance, online response time, WLM and dispatching behavior, GP/zIIP utilization, batch and JES interactions, storage/I/O considerations, workload growth forecasting, stress-test assessment, modernization measurement, and production resiliency. The role requires both deep hands-on technical expertise and the ability to translate complex performance and capacity findings into clear business, resiliency, and cost recommendations for senior leadership.

Position Description

The Associate will focus on leading CICS and MVS/zOS performance and capacity analysis for Fidelity’s mainframe environments, providing end-to-end analysis, modeling, tuning recommendations, and strategic guidance for complex multi-tier applications running on z/OS and using CICS, MQ, WAS, DB2, batch, VSAM, storage, network, and cloud-to-mainframe integration patterns.

A major responsibility of this role is to lead and/or participate in the capacity and performance analysis of new technologies and production changes that affect online and batch workload behavior. This includes developing KPI projection models, analyzing application and infrastructure change impacts, assessing failover/failback behavior, evaluating CICS/MVS configuration choices, and driving practical recommendations that balance customer experience, resiliency, platform capacity, operational simplicity, and software/hardware cost.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. The Director is expected to guide engineers and partner business application teams through high-severity incidents, performance reviews, stress-test findings, modernization measurement, and ongoing capacity routines. The role also requires executive communication skills, vendor engagement, and the ability to influence application, infrastructure, and architecture decisions using data.

Primary Responsibilities and Skills

·       Lead CICS and MVS/zOS performance and capacity analysis across production, non-production, and business-event scenarios including market open, batch, stress testing, cloud failback, large release windows, and modernization events.

·       Analyze CICS transaction, region, program, file, VSAM, DB2, MQ, WAS, DDF-adjacent, and application flow behavior to identify response-time drivers, CPU consumption, wait time, bottlenecks, saturation points, and resiliency risks.

·       Assess MVS/zOS subsystem and platform configuration opportunities including WLM policy, PR/SM weighting, LPAR logical CP and zIIP configuration, dispatching behavior, memory/real storage, JES/batch interactions, CF considerations, DASD/FICON, and I/O path behavior.

·       Perform transaction, program, job, STC, ASID, region, and application-level analysis for high CPU, elongated response time, increased get/put activity, access-path or routing changes, batch elongation, and regression findings from QA/stress-test cycles.

·       Partner with application, DBMS, CICS, MQ, WAS, storage, network, modernization, and operations teams to connect performance symptoms to end-to-end application topology, failover behavior, transaction mix, business volume, and customer impact.

·       Use SMF, RMF, CICS/DBMS logs, SYSVIEW, IntelliMagic, OMEGAMON, Strobe/iStrobe, Broadcom tools, MXG/SAS, Grafana, Power BI, SQL, Python/R, JCL, REXX, and related tools to build objective performance findings and recommendations.

·       Develop forecasting and capacity models that connect business KPIs, transaction volumes, CPU/zIIP consumption, MSU/MIPS impact, batch demand, CICS region demand, middleware behavior, and application modernization activity.

·       Lead production incident analysis and problem management for CICS/MVS-related performance, resiliency, and capacity events, including timeline reconstruction, root-cause support, next-step recommendations, and preventive controls.

·       Evaluate and recommend workload protection patterns including Safe Mode, routing controls, WLM policy changes, CICS region/thread/concurrency controls, batch scheduling adjustments, capacity configuration changes, and test access controls.

·       Provide technical leadership for CICS/MVS performance governance during major initiatives such as z/OS upgrades, z17 migration, IntelliMagic rollout, Broadcom/BMC/IBM tool strategy, CICS-to-cloud modernization, MQ/WAS adjustments, storage upgrades, and application decommissioning.

·       Translate detailed mainframe findings into concise leadership-level summaries, risk/benefit options, decision points, and clear actions for Business Unit partners, CIO stakeholders, Finance, and vendor management.

·       Provide escalation support and participate in after-hours or high-severity support as needed for critical production events and major business days.

The Expertise You Have

·       Strong working experience as a CICS, MVS/zOS, performance, capacity, systems programming, middleware, or infrastructure engineering leader in a large-scale, multi-Sysplex enterprise environment.

·       Deep understanding of CICS transaction processing, region behavior, program and transaction attribution, file/VSAM access patterns, DB2/MQ/WAS interactions, response-time decomposition, and CICS behavior under stress.

·       Solid knowledge of IBM z/OS, Parallel Sysplex, WLM, PR/SM, LPAR configuration, zIIP eligibility, GP/zIIP optimization, memory/real storage behavior, JES/batch operations, DASD/FICON interactions, and how these areas affect CICS/MVS throughput and resiliency.

·       Experience analyzing SMF/RMF and subsystem performance data using tools such as SAS/MXG, SYSVIEW, IntelliMagic, OMEGAMON, Strobe/iStrobe, Broadcom tools, Grafana, Power BI, SQL, Python, R, or equivalent platforms.

·       Ability to model current and future capacity needs using workload trends, business volumes, application roadmaps, stress-test data, market-event behavior, modernization assumptions, and historical performance results.

·       Experience with mainframe application ecosystems including CICS, MQ, WAS, DB2, batch, VSAM, replication/data-movement patterns, cloud-to-mainframe integration, and business-critical online transaction processing.

·       Experience with incident management, change management, capacity governance, problem management, and disciplined technical decision-making in a mission-critical production environment.

·       Vendor-facing experience with IBM, Broadcom/CA, BMC, IntelliMagic, or equivalent mainframe performance, capacity, CICS, MVS, and observability vendors is strongly preferred.

The Skills You Bring

·       Advanced analytical mindset with the ability to separate symptoms from root cause across CICS, MVS/zOS, DB2, MQ, WAS, storage, network, batch, replication, and application layers.

·       Strong data storytelling skills; able to turn raw SMF/RMF/CICS/MVS metrics into useful recommendations, options, and executive decisions.

·       Collaborative leadership style with the ability to build trust with application, DBMS, middleware, architecture, operations, vendor, and business-unit partners.

·       Practical engineering judgment; able to balance performance optimization, resiliency, customer experience, operational simplicity, modernization progress, and cost.

·       Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain CICS/MVS performance topics in business terms without losing technical accuracy.

·       Self-motivated, hands-on, and comfortable operating with ambiguity while building repeatable practices, dashboards, runbooks, routines, and decision frameworks.

·       Ability to mentor engineers, raise team capability, reduce single points of failure, and help develop the next generation of mainframe performance and capacity talent.

The Value You Deliver

·       Improves customer experience and platform resiliency by proactively identifying CICS/MVS performance constraints before they become production incidents.

·       Reduces avoidable capacity and software cost by connecting CICS/MVS tuning, workload behavior, GP/zIIP usage, and MSU/MIPS consumption to specific application and infrastructure recommendations.

·       Strengthens modernization execution by providing objective before/after measurement for CICS-to-cloud, MQ/WAS changes, batch optimization, VSAM/data-movement changes, and decommissioning initiatives.

·       Provides reliable CICS/MVS performance governance for major business events, production changes, stress tests, z17 migration, and large platform initiatives.

·       Creates repeatable CICS/MVS capacity routines, reports, dashboards, playbooks, and decision logs that reduce key-person dependency and improve operational readiness.

·       Helps senior leaders make informed decisions by presenting clear options, risks, tradeoffs, quantified recommendations, and operational impacts.

Education and Experience

·       Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Information Systems, Mathematics, Statistics, or a closely related field preferred; equivalent experience will be considered.

·       10 plus years of technology experience with significant hands-on experience in IBM z/OS, CICS, MVS performance, capacity planning, systems programming, middleware engineering, infrastructure engineering, or production support.

·       Experience in a large financial-services, high-volume transaction processing, or mission-critical enterprise environment is strongly preferred.

·       Demonstrated experience leading complex cross-functional technical analysis and communicating recommendations to senior leadership.

Expected Knowledge

• Core CICS/MVS

• CICS region and transaction behavior, program attribution, response-time analysis, CICS statistics/monitoring, VSAM/file activity, QR/TOR/AOR patterns where applicable, z/OS/MVS system behavior, WLM, JES/batch interactions

• Mainframe Platform

• z/OS, Parallel Sysplex, PR/SM, LPARs, zIIP/GP optimization, RMF/SMF, DASD/FICON, memory/real storage, coupling facility considerations, storage/I/O path behavior

• Tools

• SAS/MXG, SYSVIEW, IntelliMagic, OMEGAMON, Broadcom tools, Strobe/iStrobe, Grafana, Power BI, SQL, Python, R, JCL, REXX, automation and reporting workflows

• Adjacent Domains

• DB2, MQ, WAS, batch, VSAM, replication/data movement, cloud-to-mainframe, CICS-to-cloud, IOM/CAM failback patterns, application topology and routing

• Leadership

• Incident/problem management, change governance, vendor engagement, executive communication, mentoring, technical decision facilitation, capacity/cost governance

Fidelity’s Onsite Working Model
Fidelity is transitioning to a full-time onsite working model through a phased rollout across regions and roles. Currently, some roles and locations require 100% onsite presence, while others require less. Onsite expectations are likely to evolve as the rollout continues. This transition does not apply to fully remote roles.

Certifications:

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Please be advised that Fidelity’s business is governed by the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Investment Company Act of 1940, ERISA, numerous state laws governing securities, investment and retirement-related financial activities and the rules and regulations of numerous self-regulatory organizations, including FINRA, among others. Those laws and regulations may restrict Fidelity from hiring and/or associating with individuals with certain Criminal Histories.