This leader drives execution of strategic platform initiatives while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and technical excellence. The position balances operational leadership, talent development, vendor management, risk management, financial stewardship, and technology modernization efforts across the mainframe ecosystem.

The successful candidate will lead teams responsible for platform reliability, hardware lifecycle management, software support, disaster recovery readiness, compliance activities, and production support while building organizational capability through coaching, mentoring, and succession planning. The role partners closely with Architecture, Security, Application Development, Enterprise Operations, Audit, Risk, and external vendors to ensure platform stability and business alignment.

Key Responsibilities

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Mainframe Engineers and Infrastructure Specialists.
• Create an environment of trust, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Establish clear performance expectations and support employee career growth and development planning.
• Drive talent acquisition, succession planning, workforce planning, and retention strategies.
• Conduct regular coaching conversations, development planning, and performance management activities aligned to Leadership@Schwab principles.

Operational Excellence

• Ensure stable, secure, and highly available operation of enterprise mainframe infrastructure.
• Lead incident, problem, change, and capacity management activities.
• Drive operational readiness for production events, regulatory requirements, and critical business processing periods.
• Establish and maintain operational metrics, service level objectives, and continuous improvement programs.
• Lead recovery exercises and disaster recovery validation efforts.

Technical Leadership

• Provide leadership for IBM zSystems infrastructure, CICS, networking, and supporting platform technologies.
• Support hardware refreshes, capacity planning, operating system upgrades, and infrastructure modernization initiatives.
• Partner with engineering teams to identify automation opportunities and improve operational efficiency.
• Guide technical decision-making and assist teams in resolving complex infrastructure issues.

Risk, Security & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with Schwab security, risk, audit, and regulatory requirements.
• Support internal and external audit activities and remediation efforts.
• Maintain appropriate controls for platform access, security, resiliency, and operational processes.
• Manage technology risks and ensure timely mitigation of identified issues.

Financial & Vendor Management

• Manage budgets, vendor relationships, software renewals, hardware maintenance, and service contracts.
• Participate in business case development and technology investment planning.
• Provide leadership during strategic sourcing, contract negotiations, and service provider engagements.
• Ensure cost-effective delivery of infrastructure services while maintaining required service levels.

Strategic Partnerships

• Collaborate with architecture, engineering, operations, cybersecurity, business teams, and executive leadership.
• Communicate technology strategy, operational risks, and investment needs to stakeholders.
• Translate business objectives into actionable technology roadmaps and execution plans.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience supporting enterprise mainframe environments.
• 5+ years of experience leading technical teams and/or people leadership responsibilities.
• Deep knowledge of IBM zSystems infrastructure and enterprise operational practices.
• Experience leading incident management, problem management, change management, and disaster recovery processes.
• Experience managing vendor relationships and technology service providers.
• Strong understanding of risk management, compliance, audit, and security requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale technology initiatives and operational improvements.
• Excellent verbal, written, and executive communication skills.
• Proven ability to influence outcomes across multiple organizations and stakeholder groups.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting large-scale financial services environments.
• Experience with IBM z17, z16, z/OS, storage, networking, and infrastructure modernization initiatives.
• Experience with mainframe automation, observability, capacity management, and resiliency engineering.
• ITIL, PMP, Agile, or relevant industry certifications.
• Experience leading distributed, remote, or hybrid technical teams.
• Experience managing outsourced or managed service provider relationships.