IBM Mainframe System Administrator

One of our clients in East Cost, is looking for an IBM Mainframe System Administrator.

Duration: 3-6 months

Hourly: Open (depends on the experience)

Scope:

We have a critical IBM Z mainframe infrastructure supporting Red Hat's core product pipeline (Brew, CVP, OSBS), customer support, and community builds. The current "support" model is essentially 0.7 FTE of best-effort IBM collaborative partners who lack capacity and Red Hat ESS compliance expertise.

We have:

• 33 ESS compliance violations requiring immediate remediation
• ~20 customer requests in backlog
• Single points of failure that could block ALL Red Hat product shipments across architectures
• No proactive maintenance or monitoring capacity

Deliverables:

• Address critical Enterprise Security Standard (ESS) compliance gaps across all IBM Z systems to mitigate audit risks and ensure security posture alignment
• Complete gap analysis documentation for all 33 ESS control instances
• Development of detailed technical remediation plans for each non-compliant control
• Execute technical remediation tasks to achieve full ESS compliance
• Prepare comprehensive evidence packages for audit attestation
• Update ESS issue/exception documentation and status tracking
• Interface with Red Hat InfoSec teams for policy exception approvals

Responsibilities:

1. Gap analysis, ESS issue/exception updates, and technical remediation planning
2. Execute 100% of technical remediation tasks for IBM Z systems compliance
3. Execute 50-75% of technical remediation tasks for IBM storage systems compliance
4. Process and resolve all backlog requests

Focus Areas:

1. Security control interpretation, compliance documentation, audit preparation
2. z/VM configuration, Linux on Z hardening, LPAR security configuration, access controls
3. DS8K/FlashSystem security configuration, SAN zoning compliance, encryption implementation
4. VM provisioning, resource allocation, system decommissioning, customer onboarding/offboarding

Success Criteria

• 100% resolution of ESS compliance gaps (33 IPTs)
• Zero outstanding backlog tickets
• Documented remediation evidence for audit purposes
• Approved policy exceptions where applicable
• Updated operational procedures and documentation