YOUR IMPACTAs a Software Engineer - Principal, IBM z/OS Connectivity, you will help build a new connectivity agent that extends Redwood RunMyJobs (RMJ) natively onto IBM z/OS, enabling Redwood to support some of the largest enterprise automation environments in the market. You will work on systems-level engineering spanning custom wire protocols, cryptography, and a native platform bridge into JES, RACF/SAF, SMF, TSO, and z/OS UNIX System Services (USS), delivered as a Java agent that integrates with the Redwood platform through clean, versioned extension points. This position is open across levels from Software Engineer to Principal as we build out the team.
- Design, develop, test, and maintain native software supporting connectivity and integration with IBM z/OS mainframe environments.
- Build integrations with core mainframe technologies, including C/JNI, JES2/JES3 job submission and monitoring, TSO command execution via background TMP, and SMF-based event monitoring.
- Integrate security and per-user authorization while extending Redwood's existing identity and credential management capabilities.
- Develop and maintain systems-level capabilities involving custom wire protocols, cryptography, and native z/OS platform integration.
- Troubleshoot complex system-level issues across mainframe, Unix, and Java environments.
- Improve the reliability, performance, security, and scalability of Redwood's mainframe solutions.
- Partner with product managers, architects, and engineers to translate customer requirements into effective technical solutions.
- Participate in architecture discussions, design reviews, code reviews, testing, and release planning.
- Leverage agentic AI to accelerate codec, testing, and documentation work while independently verifying correctness against authoritative IBM z/OS references.
- Document protocols, security models, and platform prerequisites for field and support teams.
- Validate technical assumptions on live LPARs and contribute to architectural decisions where modern documentation may be limited.
- Contribute to team success through clear communication, shared responsibility for quality, and accountable ownership of goals and delivery commitments in a fast-paced, iterative agile environment.
YOUR EXPERIENCE- 10+ years of professional software engineering experience with strong Java 8+ skills; IBM Semeru or z/OS Java experience is a plus.
- Hands-on z/OS systems integration experience, including JES2/JES3, TSO, RACF/ACF2/Top Secret, SMF, and USS.
- Strong working proficiency in C.
- Low-level network protocol experience, including socket programming, custom binary framing, character-encoding conversion, and TLS/keyring security.
- Hands-on experience implementing cryptographic primitives to specification using standard libraries such as Java JCE, including key exchange and symmetric cipher modes, rather than designing cryptographic protocols.
- Strong concurrency and multithreading skills, with experience building resilient, long-running daemon processes.
- Ability to work effectively from primary technical sources, including IBM manuals and RACF/SMF references, rather than relying solely on tutorials or unverified AI-generated output.
- Experience with modern DevOps practices and technologies, including Git, CI/CD, Docker, and Kubernetes.
- Fluency with AI tools in a production engineering environment.
- Strong code judgment, including the ability to identify plausible but incorrect AI-generated recommendations involving specialized mainframe APIs.
- Proficiency in prompting AI tools, combined with the judgment to recognize when a task is too specialized for AI-assisted approaches.
- Ability to maintain an architectural focus, abstracting from individual protocol and bridge details to shared platform-integration designs.
- Experience with workload automation products such as Tidal, CA-7, Control-M, Stonebranch, BMC, or RunMyJobs preferred.
- Experience with Sysplex/Parallel Sysplex clustering or z/OSMF REST APIs preferred.
- Experience with CA-Panvalet, CA-Librarian, or other JCL library tooling preferred.
- Experience with z/OS Assembler preferred, particularly as relevant to future authorized-code or SMF-exit work; this is a specialist, separately scoped area and is not a baseline requirement.
- Mainframe migration or modernization project experience preferred.
If you like growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!