Lead Mainframe Services SME

Empower AI is AI for government. Empower AI gives federal agency leaders the tools to elevate the potential of their workforce with a direct path for meaningful transformation. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Empower AI leverages three decades of experience solving complex challenges in Health, Defense, and Civilian missions. Our proven Empower AI Platform® provides a practical, sustainable path for clients to achieve transformation that is true to who they are, what they do, how they work, with the resources they have. The result is a government workforce that is exponentially more creative and productive. For more information, visit www.Empower.ai.

Empower AI is proud to be recognized as a 2022 Military Friendly Employer by Viqtory, the publisher of G.I. Jobs. This designation reflects the company’s commitment to hiring and supporting active-duty and veteran employees.

Empower AI: As the Lead Mainframe Services SME, you will be a key member of the Empower AI team providing support to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Joint Service Provider (JSP) on the Platform Services contract. JSP operates and defends the Department of Defense’s (DOD) key cyber terrain and provides information technology (IT) services to Pentagon and National Capital Region (NCR) customers. For Platform Services, Empower AI will provide an integrated, structured approach to operating, managing, and maintaining the JSP-supported infrastructure across all managed platforms, as well as assist in defining requirements for future upgrades and enhancements based on operational and customer trends. We will provide a unified approach to managing server, storage, and application resources (to include virtualized applications) at an enterprise level. In order to drive standardization in the hosting environment, Empower AI will assist customers, both external and internal, by moving applications to the JSP IT environments. This will allow JSP to offer services and infrastructure to customers via a Platform as a Service model, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, Desktop as a Service (DaaS) model, or at minimum, limit application deployments only to standardized servers.

Highlights of Responsibilities:

• Provide Mainframe service management for a highly virtualized, secure infrastructure for business applications, ensuring high availability, maximum reliability, disaster recovery (DR), and performance and capacity optimization.
• Provide support for a broad scope of operating systems for Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) level applications for mainframe-hosted applications.
• Provide technical expertise in the architecture, deployment, and sustainment of the mainframe architecture and various applications supported on the infrastructure.
• Provide programming support to JSP and their customers, working in conjunction with Government Mainframe staff.
• Support the JSP mainframe environments that currently exist on the Unclassified networks at the source and at the DR site.
• Provide Mainframe access management support.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering, computer information systems, telecommunications, or management information systems, and 2 - 7 recent years of documented experience relevant to this key position.
• Information Assurance (IA) Certification: DoDI 8570 IAT II certification.
• Computing Environment (CE) Certification: Recent and relevant technical certification.
• Secret security clearance.
• Demonstrated direct experience with a variety of z/VM and z/OS hardware and software within the environment as described within this PWS.
• Experience in generation and maintenance of system engineering and technical architecture documentation.
• Experience in generating and maintaining requirements, testing and evaluating possible future technical architectures, analyzing and resolving complex system issues, leading and/or participating in architecture reviews and providing technical guidance based upon expertise.
• Strong working knowledge of large, complex IT mainframe systems.
• Experience and technical capabilities in z/OS environments running Job Entry Subsystem 2 (JES2), System Display and Search Facility (SDSF), Time Sharing Option (TSO) TSO/Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF), Access Control Facility (ACF2), Customer Information Control System (CICS), and DB2 in a multiple CPU environment.
• Systems programming experience in IBM z/VM.
• System administration experience in z/Linux operating systems such as RedHat and SuSe in IBM z/VM hypervisor.
• Knowledge working with current IBM mainframe hardware platforms, such as z9, z10, z196 and zBC12.
• Working knowledge of DISA STIG processes.
• Expert knowledge and experience with count-key DASD storage systems, specifically EMC VMAX systems to include Business Continuance Volume (BCV), Timefinder, and Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) functions.
• Expert knowledge and experience with robotic tape libraries including SL-8500, SL-3000, StorageTek (STK)/Sun/Oracle Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) and T10k tape drives.
• Thorough knowledge of TSO/ISPF, System Modification Program/Extended (SMP/E), IBM and IBM-related utility programs [i.e. IDCAMS, IEBCOPY, Fast Dump Restore (FDR), Data Facility Data Set Services (DFDSS), z/OS file structures, Integrated Catalog Facility (ICF) Catalogs, Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM) and zFS file systems.
• Experience with configuration and management of IBM’s Communication Server IP and its subcomponents (TN3270, FTP, SYSLOGD, Policy Agent, InfoPrint Server, SMTP, SNMP, OMPROUTE, etc).
• Knowledge and experience with z/OS network monitoring software such as NETVIEW, Williams Data Systems IMPLEX, Exigence, and FTP Alert.
• Experience with configuration and management of communications server VTAM and its subcomponent features (Enterprise Extender and Advanced Peer to Peer Network (APPN).
• Expert knowledge of mainframe open systems adapters in z/OS and z/VM environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• ITILv4 certification

Physical Requirements:

• Sitting for long periods
• Standing for long periods
• Ambulate throughout an office
• Ambulate between several buildings
• Stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl as required
• Travel by land or air transportation 25% or less

It is the policy of Empower AI to provide equal opportunity in recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting individuals in all job categories without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected class or category as may be defined by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. In addition, we affirm that all compensation, benefits, company-sponsored training, educational assistance, social, and recreational programs are administered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. It is our firm intent to support equal employment opportunity and affirmative action in keeping with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Empower AI is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.