Bangalore, India
MVS System Programmer z/OS platform engineering, modernization, and production support
MVS System Programmer with 5+ years of experience in z/OS platform engineering, upgrades, Sysplex/LPAR provisioning, networking, security and performance management. Experienced in enterprise production support, z/OS modernization, and automation.
- Experience
- 5+
- years
- Hardware
- z14, z15, z16, z17
- Operating System
- z/OS, z/VM, Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu)
- Languages
- JCL, REXX, Python, SAS Base
01 / Highlights
Signals from production
Worked on z/OS upgrades for 2.3/2.4/2.5/3.1 and 3.2.
Worked on z/OS beta ETP installation, testing and support for 3.1 and 3.2 with IBM.
Worked with IBM in compatibility testing for Z17, applying FIXCATs and APARs.
02 / Experience
Work, by domain
z/OS Platform
- Ran z/OS upgrades across 2.3 to 2.4, 2.4 to 2.5, 2.5 to 3.1, and 3.1 to 3.2, using ServerPac and z/OSMF-driven installs, and supported beta ETP testing for 3.1 and 3.2.
- Provisioned LPARs end to end: build process, USS setup, CFRM policy, couple dataset creation, HCD/HMC configuration and sysplex management.
- Owned maintenance for multiple SMP/E environments: established and govern SMP/E processes and streamlined standards for IBM PUT & RSU maintenance.
- Drove SMP/E lifecycle work: RFN download and receive, RSU/PUT, APAR apply, UCLIN and DDDEF updates, GIMXSID reporting, FIXCAT management, and CSI maintenance.
- Handled BAU activities: JES2, JES3Plus, Linklist/LPA/APF/SVC updates, ETP installs, SAD builds, time change, and Parmlib/Proclib updates.
USS / OMVS
- Migrated HFS file systems to ZFS with BPXWH2Z and maintained shared USS-Plex layouts, home directory mapping, and NFS mounts.
- Resolved day-to-day OMVS issues: file tagging and chtag conversions, disk space reporting, and permission or ownership problems.
Networking
- Administered TCP/IP and VTAM stacks: new stack builds, device-to-interface statement conversion, port assignment and netstat/PortQry analysis, and Pagent policy configuration.
- Secured and troubleshot connectivity with AT-TLS, SSH installs, Enterprise Extender, the HTTP server, and IBM FTP/FTPS including return and error code analysis.
Security
- RACF administration: ID automation, profile and access maintenance, IRRADU00 audit reporting against SMF, IRRUT400 backup jobs, and RSA token support.
- Defined and maintained digital certificates and RACF key rings for z/OSMF, Zowe, AccessBMC and IBM ShopZ/Receive Orders, ensuring secure TLS/SSL communication and certificate lifecycle management.
- Installed and maintained ACF2 & TSS, providing support for ID creation and access management.
Performance & Capacity
- Provided 24x7 on-call z/OS production support, troubleshooting critical issues including SMF data loss, high CPU utilization, spool shortages, SQA/AUX shortages, LOGREC full conditions, LATCH contention, and GRS issues, ensuring rapid incident resolution and system stability.
- Analyzed capacity and performance with RMF/CMF, BMC AMI OPS, and RTCS: CPU and zIIP consumption, MIPS trending, WLM policy tuning, and ENQ contention.
- Ran diagnostics and reporting: SMF dump jobs and dataset management, SVC dump analysis, coupling facility structure and logstream sizing with IXCMIAPU, and automated SYSLOG/logrec handling.
- Worked on establishing and generating SCRT reports for MIPS usage to IBM.
- Installed AMI Cost & Capacity, which ingests SMF data to generate capacity reports.
Mainframe Modernization
- Built and support zCX with Docker: environment setup, container networking, storage, RACF configuration, backups, and problem debugging, extended to OpenShift and IBM z/OS Container Platform (zOSCP).
- Delivered z/OSMF and Zowe v3: installs and prerequisites, certificates, plugin imports, workflows, ServerPac PSI creation, REST API experience, and BAU user issue resolutions.
- Enabled open technology on z/OS: Python + AI Toolkit with virtual environments and Rocket Miniconda, Node.js, z Open Automation Utilities (zOAU), Open Enterprise Foundation, MLz (Machine Learning for z), and AI System Service.
- Installed, configured, and maintained IBM Java for z/OS (JDK 11, 17, 21, and 25), collaborating with development teams on currency testing, application compatibility, and Java version upgrades.
IVP Products
- Install, verify, and maintain BMC and Compuware products: Strobe, Abend-Aid, Xpediter, and the Control product suite.
- Own Thruput Manager (COMCHAR, stubs, maintenance), ZACS (installation, GUI, testing cases), and ZIP390 installs, Quickref, SSPR, and Syncsort.
- Lead ISV product lifecycle management, including upgrades and vendor coordination.
Automation & Scripting
- Write REXX tooling for system reporting and repeatable administration, and RDL rules on AMI-CM for event-driven automation.
- Maintain environment JCL, CLIST and Python scripts, and automated logrec and SYSLOG jobs.
CICS - TS & TG
- Completed CTS 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 GA installs and CICS TG V10.1 GA, and created regions with dataset naming standards, alias jobs, and SVC setup.
- Applied PUT maintenance for CICS TS and CICS TG across CW*, IDP, and BMC systems, including beta installs and currency testing support.
- Completed intensive z/OS System Programming training, gaining hands-on knowledge of IPL processes, system initialization, PARMLIB configuration, system modifications, and IPL-related troubleshooting.
- Researched mainframe modernization tooling and enterprise computing; built REXX programs for system information reporting.
- Delivered demonstrations of applied machine learning techniques.
- Built a handwritten digit recognition system on the MNIST dataset using an SVC algorithm.
03 / Projects
Projects
01
SASAway
End-to-end analytics and visualization tool that transforms IBM z/OS SMF binary data into actionable insights.
Implemented a complete Python pipeline that parses SMF Type 71 (Paging Activity) binary records from multiple LPARs using official IBM MXG macros (ERBSMF71), converts them into structured CSV datasets, and generates interactive dashboards for system performance analysis.
Establishes a foundation for applying AI/ML techniques to mainframe datasets such as SMF for anomaly detection, capacity analysis, and forecasting use cases (CPU, zIIP, memory trends).
02
SMF Rework
Redesigned SMF data management by defining new GDGs and implementing SMFDUMP/SMFCLEAR procedures for MAN datasets and logstreams.
Updated SMFPRMxx, PROCLIB, and SMF procedures to transition from legacy MAN datasets to the new configuration.
Automated and monitored SMF dump processing and validated daily SMF data archival through daily ACCUM files.
04 / Education
Academic path
03/2023 - 03/2025 · 7.41 CGPA
MTech - Master of Technology
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Deep Neural Networks; Statistical Methods; Deep Reinforcement Learning.
08/2017 - 08/2021 · 8.85 CGPA
BTech - Bachelor of Technology
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun
Computer Science Engineering; Mainframe Technology in collaboration with IBM.
03/2015 - 03/2017 · 1st Division
Alma-Mater (10th - 12th)
Archies Higher Secondary School
Physics, Chemistry, Maths; Computer Science (C & C++).
05 / Recognition
Certificates & awards
Certificates
- Certified in Hardware Configuration and Definition (HCD) for z/OS - IBM Code: ES96G.
- Certified Mainframe Application Programmer - REXX, JCL, Java on z/OS, UNIX System (IBM Interskill).
- Certified in Mainframe Security - RACF (IBM Interskill).
- Certified Mainframe Specialist in SMP/E, z/OSMF, Parallel Sysplex, TSO/ISPF.
- Certified in Mainframe Performance - Fundamentals (IBM).
- Certified in Python Programming (Infosys Campus Connect, 2018).
- Microsoft Technology Associate: Introduction to Programming Using Python.
- IBM Z Analytics and Machine Learning (IBM).
Awards
- IBM Master the Mainframe Global winner (Asia Pacific).
- GitHub Arctic Code Vault Contributor.
- BMC Star Winner FY26 Q3 and Above & Beyond performer 2026.
- 5-star rating in C++, badge issued by HackerRank.