Mainframe CICS & MQ Specialist

Experience: 10+ Years
Location: Remote
Duration: 6+ Months

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Mainframe CICS & MQ Specialist with strong expertise in installation, configuration, administration, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and production support of IBM CICS and MQ subsystems. The ideal candidate will have deep knowledge of CICS environments, RACF security, SMP/E, dump analysis, web services, and system performance monitoring.

Top 3 Required Skills

1. CICS & MQ Installation and Configuration
2. Integration: CICS / IMS / DB2 / MQ / Web Services
3. Troubleshooting, Dump Analysis & FDC Analysis

Key Responsibilities

• Install, maintain, configure, and upgrade CICS Transaction Server, IBM MQSeries, and related ISV products.
• Create, configure, monitor, and manage CICS regions and CICSplex environments using CPSM.
• Perform CICS and MQ performance tuning, including analysis of SIT parameters and system resources.
• Provide production support and troubleshoot abends, transaction freezes, system issues, and other critical incidents.
• Perform CICS dump analysis, transaction/system dump creation, and MQ FDC analysis.
• Work with IBM and other vendor support teams to open problem cases, provide diagnostic information, and coordinate issue resolution.
• Demonstrate strong SMP/E knowledge for installation and maintenance of CICS and associated products.
• Manage RACF security, including installation, configuration, and creation/maintenance of security rules for CICS and associated products.
• Gather and analyze SMF data, including CICS 110 records.
• Diagnose complex problems, determine root causes, and implement remediation.
• Manage CICS MRO environments, including TOR and AOR configurations.
• Configure and analyze Auxiliary and GTF traces for problem determination.
• Generate and interpret CICS shutdown statistics for troubleshooting, capacity planning, and growth projections.
• Manage CICS dynamic storage areas and address short-on-storage situations and future application growth.
• Create and manage RDO resource definitions, including transactions, programs, files, transient data queues, LSR groups, and other CICS resources.
• Design, create, and support web services within CICS.
• Develop and maintain CICS reports and metrics covering CPU consumption, storage utilization, transaction volumes, response times, wait times, and related performance indicators.
• Provide technical guidance, training, and mentoring to junior team members.
• Maintain strong documentation and demonstrate effective communication, coordination, problem-solving, and independent working skills.

Required Technical Skills

• IBM CICS Transaction Server
• IBM MQ / MQSeries
• CICSplex / CPSM
• CICS MRO — TOR/AOR
• RACF Security
• SMP/E
• RDO
• SMF / CICS 110 Records
• Dump Analysis
• MQ FDC Analysis
• CICS Traces — Aux/GTF
• CICS Web Services
• IMS / DB2 / MQ Integration
• Performance Tuning & Monitoring
• MainView / Omegamon

Qualifications

• 10+ years of overall Mainframe experience
• Strong hands-on experience managing CICS and MQ subsystems
• Excellent troubleshooting and problem-determination skills
• Strong communication and documentation skills
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a technical team environment
• Experience mentoring and providing technical guidance to junior resources