Senior Technical Lead - IBM i / AS/400

We are looking for a highly experienced Senior Technical Lead - IBM i / AS/400 to drive technical excellence and lead a team of developers and operations professionals in a large-scale enterprise environment. This role combines deep hands-on expertise in RPG, CL, and COBOL with strong leadership capabilities to oversee delivery, enforce technical governance, and support modernization initiatives. The ideal candidate will play a key role in ensuring system reliability, optimizing legacy processes, and guiding teams toward scalable, future-ready solutions., As a Senior Technical Lead, you will be responsible for both technical leadership and people management , ensuring high-quality delivery across projects and business-as-usual support. You will mentor a team of AS/400 professionals, provide architectural and coding guidance, and act as a bridge between technical teams and business stakeholders., * Provide hands-on technical oversight across RPG (RPG III / ILE RPG), CL, and COBOL development, ensuring adherence to best practices and coding standards

• Drive delivery execution by managing priorities, workloads, and timelines while meeting SLAs and business expectations
• Oversee critical operations functions, including batch processing, job scheduling, subsystem management, and production support
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions and communicate complex concepts effectively
• Promote modernization initiatives by evaluating new tools, integration approaches, and cloud/distributed system connectivity
• Support ITSM processes using tools like ServiceNow or Remedy, ensuring smooth incident, change, and problem management workflows
• Enable continuous improvement by encouraging documentation, knowledge sharing, and adoption of Agile or hybrid delivery practices

This role is ideal for a seasoned IBM i professional who thrives in a leadership capacity while remaining deeply engaged in hands-on technical work and strategic decision-making., * 6+ years of overall IT experience with at least 6 years on the AS/400 / IBM i platform

• 2+ years in a team lead, tech lead, or people management role
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• Exposure to enterprise verticals such as insurance, banking, or manufacturing is a plus

Leadership & soft skills

• Proven ability to manage cross-functional delivery teams in onshore/offshore models
• Strong stakeholder communication skills - able to translate technical issues for business audiences
• Experience with ITSM tools (ServiceNow, Remedy) for incident, change, and problem management
• Familiarity with Agile, Scrum, or hybrid delivery methodologies

Nice to have

• Exposure to AS/400 modernization tools (e.g., Easytrieve, LANSA, or similar)
• Knowledge of CI/CD practices applied to IBM i using tools like RDi, Git
• Experience supporting mainframe observability or integrating AS/400 data with BI/reporting platforms
• IBM i or AS/400 professional certifications

Cognizant offers the following benefits for this role (subject to eligibility):

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid Holidays & Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan with contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer

The salary, benefits, and compensation information listed above is accurate as of the posting date. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, in accordance with applicable law.

We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role's business requirements, this is a hybrid position requiring 4 days a week in a client or Cognizant office in Hartford, CT. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs. Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future