Our client is recruiting a driven, results-oriented Mainframe QA Lead who shares our passion for technology, innovation, and excellence. Their main goal here is to transform people's lives by changing the way the world invests. We are enhancing our core applications to support scalability and modernize our systems with the goal of serving our clients.

The Mainframe QA Lead will be a hands-on lead who excels in a dynamic, fast-moving, and agile environment and is passionate about ensuring high quality, scalable software. The candidate will work with a team of seasoned engineers, product owners, and business analysts, whose main objective is to maintain all aspects of the overall software development lifecycle and ensure the on-time, quality delivery of software product releases.

Ideal candidates enjoy fast-paced environments, thrive under pressure, and embrace change passionately. The successful candidate has experience in a technical QA lead role in a Mainframe environment and can analyze, test, and direct other QA professionals to ensure that all software accurately aligns with the needs of business, while also adhering to regulatory needs.

Technical Experience

• 10+ years of experience in mainframe technologies - COBOL, JCL, DB2, SQL, SQL Stored Procedures, Messaging Queues (IBM MQ, Kafka), CICS, Easytrieve, Datacom, SORT utilities. REXX required for QA automation / SDET roles.
• 5+ years of QA end-to-end testing experience in Finance and Brokerage industry, including working with Regulatory bodies such as DTCC and SEC.
• 7+ years in scheduling tools such as Control-M, ChangeMan, FileAid, Startool, Xpeditor, TOAD, and SPUFI. BlueZone Session Manager scripting required for QA Automation / SDET role.
• Experience API testing tools such as Parasoft and Fiddler to aid in modernization efforts, would be an added advantage.
• Experience in understanding and articulating enterprise level systems and data flows to aid with QA involving testing, development, and implementation of Mainframe based applications and databases.
• It is imperative that the candidate has excellent and strong RCA (Root Cause Analysis) skills and identifying the possible solutions to the identified issues at complex enterprise applications/systems.
• Thorough understanding of Agile software development methodologies, ART, including Scrum and Kanban via tools such as JIRA and Rally.
• Strong experience in collaborating with business and technical teams to understand requirements and impact analysis by working with PO (Product Owners), Business Owners, SM (Scrum Masters), SME (Subject Matter Experts), Tech Leads, and upstream/downstream organizations.
• Microsoft Office Tools proficiency

Professional Experience

• Strong interpersonal, analytical, problem-solving, influencing, prioritization, decision- making and conflict resolution skills 
• Self-motivated as well as creative and efficient in proposing solutions to complex, time-critical problems. 
• Independently executes priorities and is accountable to meet schedules and deliverables.
• Proficient managing multiple priorities in a dynamic, geographically dispersed environment. Demonstrate excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to work with remote and globally distributed teams.
• Be self-motivated, driven, and passionate in resolving complex and time-sensitive business problems through simple and innovative technical solutions. 
• Ability to lead as well as work independently as a contributing member in a high-paced and focused team. 
• Work with multi-platform teams to ensure the quality, security and compliance requirements are met for supported area and oversee updating and testing strategy.
• Passionate about technical mentoring of junior staff and peers
• Prior experience in financial services industry and regulatory document processing is a plus 
• Must have a keen sense to identify areas of automation to improve and streamline testing process.

The target hiring compensation range for this role is $63 to $70 an hour. Compensation is based on several factors including, but not limited to education, relevant work experience, relevant certifications, and location.

About Aquent Talent:

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world’s biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits! 

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We’re about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.