Mainframe IBM MQ Engineer

Position: Mainframe IBM MQ Engineer

Work Model: Hybrid (3 Days Onsite / Week)

Locations: Chandler, AZ | Plano, TX | Charlotte, NC | Jersey City, NJ

(Candidates must be located in or willing to relocate to one of these areas)

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Mainframe IBM MQ Engineer to administer, configure, monitor, and optimize IBM MQ infrastructure on z/OS within a high-availability, business-critical enterprise environment. In this role, you will be responsible for lifecycle management, high availability, disaster recovery, performance tuning, and security for IBM MQ. You will collaborate closely with application, CICS, IMS, network, security (RACF), and mainframe operations teams to ensure seamless data communication and message queuing across platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• MQ Administration & Infrastructure Management:
• Install, configure, administer, and support IBM MQ for z/OS environments.
• Manage queue managers, queues (local/remote/transmission/dead letter), channels, listeners, and channel initiators.
• Configure and maintain MQ Clusters , Distributed Queuing , and inter-queue manager communications.
• Perform MQ upgrades, migrations, patching, maintenance, and lifecycle management.
• Integrations & Security Controls:
• Configure MQ connectivity with mainframe subsystems, specifically using CICS and IMS MQ adapters/bridges .
• Partner with RACF teams to enforce MQ security, channel/connection authentication, TLS encryption, and access controls.
• Support secure message transmission and integration with Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions where applicable.
• Monitoring, Troubleshooting & Operations:
• Perform root cause analysis for queue manager failures, channel issues, message delivery delays, and authorization errors.
• Monitor queue depths, message flows, and overall MQ infrastructure health.
• Maintain and develop operational JCL , REXX automation scripts, and technical documentation.
• Support High Availability (HA) requirements, Queue Sharing Groups (QSG) in Sysplex environments, and Disaster Recovery (DR) testing.
• Provide on-call and after-hours production support as needed.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Experience: Strong hands-on engineering/administration experience with IBM MQ for z/OS in high-volume, production mainframe environments.
• Core Mainframe Knowledge: Deep proficiency in z/OS , JCL , and TCP/IP networking fundamentals.
• IBM MQ Architecture: Expertise in Queue Managers, Channels, Listeners, Distributed Queuing, MQ Clustering, Logging, and Recovery mechanisms.
• Production Support: Proven background in troubleshooting complex MQ incidents, channel failures, connectivity issues, and security failures.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with CICS / MQ and IMS / MQ integration.
• Hands-on familiarity with RACF security controls, Queue Sharing Groups (QSG) , and Sysplex environments.
• Experience with SMP/E , REXX , TSO/ISPF , and SDSF .
• Familiarity with enterprise scheduling tools ( CA-7 , TWS ) and MQ performance tools.