Middleware Analyst

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Infrastructure Engineer (with strong Middleware Administration and DevOps expertise) to join our team. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of delivering on aggressive timelines, exceeding performance expectations, and driving operational excellence in complex enterprise environments. You will lead and collaborate with development, infrastructure, QA, and operations teams to ensure stable, high-performance application platforms, automate deployments, and proactively resolve issues.

This role requires a strong work ethic, exceptional problem-solving abilities, high organization, attention to detail, leadership in motivating cross-functional teams, creativity, resourcefulness, and adaptability to evolving priorities and technologies.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day operational support, release management, and 24x7 on-call support for production middleware and application environments, including rapid troubleshooting, root cause analysis (RCA), and preventive maintenance to maintain high availability and performance.
• Design, implement, and optimize CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, Microsoft TFS/Azure DevOps, and scripting (Python, PowerShell, Shell, wsadmin/Jython/Jacl) to automate builds, deployments, configurations, and reduce deployment times significantly.
• Administer and support middleware/application servers including IBM WebSphere Application Server (including Portal), Oracle WebLogic, Apache Tomcat, and legacy systems (e.g., Macromedia JRun/ColdFusion); perform installations, configurations, patching, upgrades, clustering, and high-availability setups.
• Manage web servers and proxies such as IBM HTTP Server, Oracle HTTP Server, Apache HTTP Server, and Microsoft IIS across Windows, Linux (RedHat), and AIX platforms.
• Implement and maintain monitoring, performance tuning, and diagnostics using tools like AppDynamics, ITCAM (IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager), JavaMelody, ElasticSearch (with Nagios LS integration), Wily Introscope, Thread/Heap/Log Analyzers, and Garbage Collection tools.
• Support performance and load testing efforts in collaboration with development and QA teams using Neotys NeoLoad, Apache JMeter, and related tools.
• Collaborate closely with application development, database, network, security, and vendor teams to deploy releases, resolve production issues, define environment requirements (Dev, QA, Staging, Prod), and integrate components (e.g., databases: IBM DB2/UDB, SQL Server, MySQL; messaging: IBM WebSphere MQ).
• Automate infrastructure and administration tasks through scripting and tools; maintain version control and artifact management with Subversion, Nexus, and similar systems.
• Build and maintain virtualized environments (e.g., VMware) for development, testing, and production; contribute to architecture decisions for security, capacity planning, scalability, and high availability.
• Lead proof-of-concept initiatives, vendor/product evaluations, new system implementations (e.g., reporting tools like Tableau), and documentation in tools like JIRA, Confluence, and SharePoint.
• Proactively identify and mitigate potential issues, support application teams, and interface with management to recommend technical solutions and alternatives.

Required Skills & Technologies (Strong Match to Profile)

• Middleware/Application Servers: IBM WebSphere (incl. Portal & wsadmin scripting), Oracle WebLogic, Apache Tomcat (preferred); experience with legacy like JRun/ColdFusion a plus.
• Monitoring & Performance Tools: AppDynamics, ITCAM, JavaMelody, ElasticSearch/Nagios, Wily Introscope.
• Load/Performance Testing: Neotys NeoLoad, Apache JMeter.
• CI/CD & Automation: Jenkins, Microsoft TFS/Azure DevOps, Python, PowerShell, Shell scripting, ANT, wsadmin (Jacl/Jython).
• Web/HTTP Servers: IBM HTTP Server, Oracle HTTP Server, Apache HTTP Server.
• Databases: IBM DB2/UDB, SQL Server, MySQL.
• Version Control & Repos: Subversion, Nexus (Maven/artifact management), Interwoven (or similar).
• Operating Systems: Windows Server, Linux (RedHat/CentOS), AIX.
• Collaboration & Tools: JIRA, Confluence, Microsoft Office/SharePoint.
• Other: Strong experience with VMWare virtualization; knowledge of messaging (e.g., IBM MQ) and enterprise application support (500+ apps, dealer networks, high-availability architectures).

Preferred/Modern Additions (to Align with 2026 Trends)

• Exposure to cloud-native practices, containers (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), or Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Ansible) for hybrid transitions.
• Familiarity with modern observability (Dynatrace/New Relic extensions) or GitOps workflows.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (with honors preferred).
• Experience: 12+ years in infrastructure engineering, middleware administration, and DevOps/release engineering in large-scale enterprise environments; proven leadership as a technical lead or senior engineer.
• Certifications: Relevant certifications such as IBM WebSphere Certified System Administrator, Oracle WebLogic certifications, Sun/Oracle Certified Java Programmer, or equivalent modern equivalents (e.g., cloud/DevOps certs) highly desirable.