Senior IBM Db2 Database Architect

Pay Range: $95.00hr - $100.00hr

Job Overview:

Our client is seeking an experienced IBM Db2 Database and Platform Expert to assess, optimize, and help evolve the Db2 implementation supporting their TruckMate transportation management system. The successful candidate will identify performance and operational risks, implement improvements, and assist with the migration of a large customer's existing production Db2 database from Windows to Linux while maintaining application availability, protecting business continuity, and collaborating directly with IBM to resolve technical issues.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assess the current Db2 architecture, configuration, security, and operational support model for the transportation management system, analyzing database workload, SQL performance, execution plans, indexes, locking behavior, deadlocks, schema design, tablespaces, buffer pools, memory configuration, logging, and capacity to identify bottlenecks and improvement opportunities.
• Review custom SQL, understand the underlying use case and workflow, and tune or rewrite it, or recommend workflow or product changes where SQL is not the proper solution.
• Tune Db2 for high-volume transactional workloads supporting core functions such as dispatch, order management, rating, billing, settlement, reporting, and integrations.
• Diagnose and resolve production issues involving performance degradation, failed jobs, storage constraints, replication issues, backup or recovery failures, and database availability.
• Review and optimize the Windows Server environment supporting Db2, including CPU, memory, paging, storage, file systems, disk latency, network configuration, service accounts, security settings, and antivirus exclusions.
• Develop automation for health checks, configuration validation, and backup verification using PowerShell or comparable tools, while defining performance baselines and monitoring standards for Db2 and supporting infrastructure.
• Assist with the migration of a large customer's existing production Db2 database from Windows to Linux, including readiness assessments, migration planning, cutover execution, rollback procedures, validation criteria, and post-migration stabilization.
• Work directly with IBM support and engineering to manage, escalate, and resolve open technical cases.
• Configure and tune Linux environments for Db2, including file systems, storage mounts, permissions, resource limits, networking, processes, service automation, and monitoring.
• Benchmark and validate application and database performance before and after migration, ensuring backup, recovery, monitoring, high-availability, and disaster-recovery capabilities are maintained or improved.
• Produce clear technical findings, risk assessments, migration runbooks, and prioritized recommendations, providing knowledge transfer to internal application, database, infrastructure, and support teams.

Required Qualifications:

• Extensive hands-on experience administering and tuning IBM Db2 LUW in production enterprise environments, including configuration, buffer pools, tablespaces, memory management, logging, backup/recovery, indexing, statistics, and analyzing SQL execution plans for large, transaction-heavy databases.
• Deep Windows Server administration and performance-tuning experience for database workloads, including diagnosing CPU, memory pressure, disk I/O, storage latency, paging, file systems, and network issues, alongside PowerShell proficiency for automation and diagnostics.
• Proven experience migrating a live production Db2 database from Windows to Linux, transferring existing data, custom SQL, and history.
• Strong Linux administration skills relevant to Db2, including storage, file systems, permissions, user/group management, resource limits, process management, networking, and service automation.
• Strong IBM relationships or effective escalation capabilities with IBM support and engineering.
• Experience creating migration runbooks, cutover plans, rollback plans, validation checklists, and post-migration support plans.
• Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills in high-availability, business-critical environments.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to translate technical findings into practical recommendations for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting transportation management systems with comparable operational workloads, including dispatch, order management, rating, settlement, billing, EDI, telematics, finance, and operational reporting.
• Experience with Db2 high-availability and disaster-recovery technologies, including HADR, replication, clustering, or pureScale.
• Experience with enterprise Linux distributions, preferably Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
• Experience with 24/7 operational systems and planned maintenance or migration cutovers with limited downtime.
• IBM Db2 certification, Linux certification, or equivalent demonstrated enterprise production experience.

Expected Deliverables:

• Current-state assessment of the Db2 environment.
• Prioritized list of performance, reliability, security, and operational risks.
• Implemented Windows Server and Db2 tuning changes with supporting recommendations.
• Target Linux platform design and Db2 configuration standards.
• Contributions to the Windows-to-Linux migration strategy, cutover plan, rollback plan, and validation approach.
• Support for the migration of the customer's production Db2 database to Linux through cutover, validation, and post-migration stabilization.
• Performance baseline and post-migration comparison report.
• Monitoring, backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery recommendations.
• Operational runbooks and knowledge-transfer materials for internal teams.