Lead Cobol Developer

What success looks like in this role:

Job Description:

The Lead COBOL Developer is a senior software developer with extensive experience in COBOL programming and performance analysis. This individual will be responsible for reviewing and optimizing the COBOL codebase to enhance application performance and resolve identified bottlenecks.

This is a senior-level role with expertise in COBOL program enhancements preferably in IBM VSE or equivalent mainframe environments. This individual will take charge of the performance optimization of COBOL programs running on the VSE platform and play a key role in identifying and resolving performance issues.

This individual will bring invaluable experience in similar roles and specific expertise in optimizing COBOL programs, which are critical components of mainframe applications. This individual will be able to work closely with other team members such as assembler and other language programmers and mainframe administrators to ensure coordinated efforts in performance optimization and contribute to achieving the project's performance objectives efficiently.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct in-depth analysis of the COBOL source code to identify areas of inefficiency, redundant code, and performance bottlenecks especially around VSAM file access and excessive CPU usage.
• Collaborate with the VSE Apps Lead, Lead Assembler Developer, and other team members to prioritize areas for optimization based on performance metrics and business requirements.
• Suggest and implement COBOL code optimizations, including algorithm improvements, data structure enhancements, and I/O access optimizations to minimize resource consumption and execution time.
• Optimize the use of COBOL subroutines to minimize code duplication and enhance maintainability and performance.
• Work closely with the Assembler/JCL Scheduler Developer and the COBOL VSAM Files Administrator to coordinate COBOL program scheduling and file access patterns for optimal job execution and to synchronize optimization efforts.
• Test and validate code changes to ensure that the performance improvements meet the desired objectives and do not introduce new issues.
• Collaborate with other COBOL developers to promote optimized coding practices, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Monitor COBOL program performance during testing and production runs, making real-time adjustments if required to meet performance targets.
• Document the COBOL code optimization process, changes made, and their impact on performance for future reference.
• Participate in code reviews with other developers to share best practices and promote optimized coding practices.
• Stay updated with the latest advancements in VSE COBOL programming techniques and tools to continuously improve the performance of COBOL applications.

You will be successful in this role if you have:

Qualifications and Skills:

• Extensive experience in COBOL programming, troubleshooting, implementing solutions to performance problems for VSE mainframe applications.
• Proficiency in debugging, performance analysis, and code optimization for COBOL programs.
• Strong knowledge of COBOL data structures, file handling, and VSAM interactions.
• Familiarity with mainframe environments, job scheduling, and resource utilization as well as assembler code interactions in a mixed language environment.
• Experience with static code analysis and profiling tools for COBOL performance optimization.
• Ability to work collaboratively with other developers, the VSE Apps Lead, and performance analysts.
• Effective communication skills to document optimization efforts and share best practices.
• Experience with performance analysis tools and utilities on the VSE platform.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex performance issues in COBOL programs.
• Good collaboration skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Attention to detail and a commitment to delivering high-quality, optimized COBOL code.

Unisys is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that considers all qualified applicants without regard to age, blood type, caste, citizenship, color, disability, family medical history, family status, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, national origin, parental status, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, veteran status or any other category protected by law.

This commitment includes our efforts to provide for all those who seek to express interest in employment the opportunity to participate without barriers. If you are a US job seeker unable to review the job opportunities herein, or cannot otherwise complete your expression of interest, without additional assistance and would like to discuss a request for reasonable accommodation, please contact our Global Recruiting organization at GlobalRecruiting@unisys.com or alternatively Toll Free: 888-560-1782 (Prompt 4).  US job seekers can find more information about Unisys’  EEO commitment here.