Mainframe + Natural ADABAS Developer: 100% REMOTE

Title: Mainframe + Natural ADABAS Developer

Duration: 1 Year (from projected start date)
Location: Remote

Position Summary

The Mainframe Developer will design, develop, test, and support enhancements to existing mainframe applications. The role is primarily hands-on development with COBOL, Natural, JCL, and databases such as ADABAS and DB2 (Oracle familiarity is a plus). The ideal candidate translates business requirements into practical technical solutions, produces clear documentation, collaborates in Agile teams, and participates in a shared on-call rotation.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Analysis & Design (Mid-to-Senior Scope)

• Analyze requirements and produce practical technical designs for moderate to complex changes within established patterns and standards.
• Create and update design documentation (program specifications, data mappings, flow diagrams) and present solutions to stakeholders for approval.
• Recommend incremental improvements aligned with existing architecture.

Coding & Configuration

• Develop and maintain applications using COBOL and/or Natural.
• Author and troubleshoot JCL for batch processing, job streams, and error handling.
• Build test scenarios and perform unit, system, and user acceptance testing while documenting results.
• Participate in peer code reviews and implement feedback.
• Maintain runbooks, deployment documentation, and technical documentation.
• Provide production support in a rotational 24×7 on-call environment, perform root cause analysis, and implement fixes.

Project & Team Collaboration

• Provide effort estimates for assigned tasks and assist with estimates for moderate-sized projects.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies, including stand-ups, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
• Document work items, decisions, and completed tasks in team tools.
• Provide informal mentoring on development standards and best practices.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Technical Skills

• Proficiency in COBOL (maintenance and new development).
• Proficiency in Natural (maintenance and new development).
• Strong knowledge of JCL (batch processing, scheduling, troubleshooting).
• Experience with ADABAS and DB2 (queries, data analysis, performance fundamentals).
• Familiarity with Oracle concepts and SQL tools (e.g., PL/SQL Developer or equivalent).
• Experience with QMF, Visio, or similar tools for data analysis and design.
• Strong testing practices and defect management.

Communication & Delivery

• Strong technical documentation skills (design documents, runbooks, change documentation).
• Ability to communicate technical concepts effectively to non-technical stakeholders.
• Detail-oriented, organized, and dependable.

Experience

• 5+ years of enterprise mainframe development experience or equivalent.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Natural/ADABAS in public sector or large enterprise environments.
• Experience with mainframe CI/CD and change management tools such as Endevor, ChangeMan, or ISPW.
• Familiarity with job scheduling tools such as Control-M, CA 7, or TWS.
• Integration experience using MQ, file-based interfaces, or service layers.
• Experience participating in rotational on-call support.
• Informal mentoring or technical lead experience.
• Experience in government or other regulated industries.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.