z/OS Storage Engineer

 2 days onsite, Charlotte, NC , TIAA is clinet.

Role Overview

We are looking for a skilled z/OS Storage Engineer to join our mainframe infrastructure team. In this role, associate will be responsible for the full lifecycle management of mainframe disk and tape storage environments encompassing design, installation, configuration, and ongoing maintenance. You will ensure data integrity, high availability, and performance of storage systems that underpin our most critical business workloads.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, install, configure, and maintain mainframe z/OS disk and tape storage software and hardware.
• Administer and manage DFSMS (Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem) including SMS constructs, ACS routines, and storage class definitions.
• Implement and maintain storage replication solutions to ensure data availability and business continuity.
• Manage space management policies — including data set migration, recall, and expiration — using tools such as DFSMShsm.
• Administer dataset backup and recovery operations using FDR/ABR; define and enforce backup policies and recovery procedures.
• Monitor and tune disk performance; analyze I/O workloads and proactively resolve storage bottlenecks.
• Manage ICF (Integrated Catalog Facility) catalogs — including defining, altering, and maintaining master and user catalogs.
• Support VSAM dataset administration including KSDS, ESDS, RRDS, and LDS structures across production and non-production environments.
• Install, configure, and maintain ISV storage administration tools and ensure they remain current with system software levels.
• Collaborate with system programmers, DBAs, and application teams to support storage provisioning and capacity planning.
• Maintain storage-related documentation, runbooks, and participate in disaster recovery planning and testing.
• Participate in on-call rotation for critical storage incidents and provide root-cause analysis following outages.

Required Skills & Experience

• Deep hands-on expertise with DFSMS — including DFSMSdfp, DFSMShsm, DFSMSdss, and DFSMSrmm for tape management.
• Strong experience with storage replication technologies for mainframe (e.g. PPRC, XRC, or equivalent).
• Proficiency with FDR/ABR (Fast Dump Restore / Abend Recovery and Restart) for backup and recovery operations.
• Thorough knowledge of ICF catalog management, including recovery procedures for catalog failures.
• Solid understanding of VSAM dataset types and their administration in a z/OS environment.
• Experience with disk performance monitoring and tuning using tools such as RMF, SMF, or equivalent ISV products.
• Familiarity with ISV storage administration tools (e.g. CA 1, BoKS, Veeam, or similar).
• Understanding of storage hardware platforms (DASD storage (Hitachi) and Dell/EMC DLseries or equivalent enterprise disk subsystems).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a methodical approach to incident investigation and resolution.
• Good communication skills with the ability to document procedures and liaise across technical teams.