OverviewPenFed is hiring a Manager IT, Core Engineering Applications to work onsite at our Tysons, Virginia; Omaha, Nebraska or San Antonio, Texas location. The IT Manager oversees a team of COBOL, JCL, Hogan, Assembler, Mainframe programmers and the operation, enhancement, and stability of legacy systems. This role leads delivery and production support for critical batch and transactional workloads, partners closely with IT leaders on Mule and Salesforce platforms to ensure seamless integrations, and drives clear stakeholder communication, planning, and outcome-based reporting. The manager embraces innovation while advocating for the proven resiliency, performance, and business value of legacy platform capabilities.
ResponsibilitiesReasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of job duties and the position will perform other duties as assigned.
- Lead, mentor, and manage programmers delivering design, development, implementation, and production support for legacy and modernized solutions.
- Own reliability, performance, change control, and incident management for mainframe applications, jobs, datasets, and integrations.
- Coordinate closely with managers and architects for Mule and Salesforce to plan integrations, data flows, and operational runbooks.
- Engage business and IT stakeholders across the lifecycle to align scope, clarify requirements, and secure successful outcomes.
- Provide daily/weekly status on milestones, risks, issues, and accomplishments tailored for IT leadership and business partners.
- Ensure work aligns with company strategy, IT standards, security policies, and audit/compliance requirements.
- Promote modernization opportunities (e.g., job optimization, error handling, observability) without compromising system stability.
- Manage Concept, Planning, Requirements, Procurement, Build, Test, Implement, and Closure phases with traceability and documentation.
- Identify, log, and drive resolution for risks/issues; implement corrective actions to protect scope, schedule, budget, and quality.
- Facilitate requirements, constraints, and assumptions; maintain design, runbooks, job schedules, recovery procedures, and support models.
- Track schedule, performance, quality, and budget with appropriate tools; adjust plans and resources to meet objectives.
- Support estimation and capacity planning to set realistic timelines and staffing needs.
- Maintain transparent, timely communication across IT teams and stakeholders; ensure decisions and changes are well documented.
Technical Leadership & Development- Develop team skills through mentoring, training, and performance management.
- Encourage cross-functional collaboration and documentation of patterns, standards, and lessons learned.
- Foster a positive, accountable, high-performing team culture focused on continuous improvement.
- Establish measurable individual and team goals aligned to divisional and organizational priorities.
- Provide practical guidance, constructive feedback, and support for career development and succession planning.
QualificationsEquivalent combination of education and experience is considered.
- Minimum eight (8) years writing/supporting COBOL, JCL, Easytrieve; minimum three (3) to five (5) years managing teams as a manager or above.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, Business, or related field; or equivalent experience.
- Extensive hands-on experience with COBOL, JCL, Easytrieve, and REXX; Assembler knowledge is a plus.
- Strong understanding of datasets/file structures (e.g., VSAM, sequential), batch scheduling, utilities, and job control.
- Experience leveraging AI coding assistants (e.g., Copilot) for code authoring, refactoring, test generation, and documentation; applied responsibly with code review rigor, security, and compliance; considered a plus.
- Proven leadership of IT teams delivering complex initiatives and production support for mission critical systems.
- Familiarity with SDLC, change management, release management, observability, and incident/problem management.
- Demonstrated ability to partner with Mule and Salesforce teams on integrations, data exchange, and operational support.
- Excellent communication, organizational skills, and stakeholder management; able to work through ambiguity and make informed decisions.
Supervisory ResponsibilityThis position will supervise employees.
Licenses and CertificationsThere are no licenses or certifications needed for this role.
Work EnvironmentWhile performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly exposed to an indoor office setting with moderate noise.
*Most roles require working in an office setting with moderate noise and the ability to lift 25 pounds.*
TravelLimited travel to various worksites is required.
Pay Transparency The anticipated starting salary range for this role is $84,700.00 - $179,546.00
This position is eligible for an organizational performance based annual bonus, subject to board discretion and approval.
This position is eligible for an individual performance based annual bonus.
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