Sr. Application Systems Developer (Cobol)

Reporting to the Associate Director, Student Application Systems Development; the Sr. Application Systems Developer is responsible for the development and maintenance of the legacy University Student Information System. In this capacity, the developer will perform the analysis, design, development, implementation and delivery of extracts, reports and other processing. This position plays a key role as partner with the subject matter experts and functional owners in the Student Administration area. The applicant should have experience with the full project life cycle and be able to work with the functional owners to identify change requirements and specification write-ups.

Responsibilities

• Conducts impact analysis, application development and unit testing to ensure the quality of the system’s current design and development standards is enhanced.
• Supports daily and nightly batch processing and must be able to work on multiple tasks at the same time, having demonstrated the ability to work in a high pressure, fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrates excellence in a variety of competencies including project management, teamwork, analytical thinking, and client/customer awareness; in addition to the ability to work with changing priorities and with multiple projects.
• Weekend and off-hour work may be necessary on occasion.
• Defines project scope, develops, reviews and validates test plans and executes test scripts
• Provides support for the production batch processes
• Analyzes complex routines within programs
• Provides responses to questions from business owners
• Works closely with the Student Financial Administration and the Registrar’s Office in the coordination of development activities, and in response to business needs.
• Collaborates with a team focused on the continued maintenance, implementation, and development and testing of software enhancements
• Provides oversight of batch processing (daily and nightly), including formatting, error analysis, job scheduling, and coordinating with user groups and other CUIT groups.
• Coordinates and executes preparation of systems environment with other groups.
• Collaborates with the other members of the team and colleagues working on other systems, to develop technological solutions in support of the Student Administration needs.

• Executes turnover, verification and ticket closure and is responsible for post-implementation issue resolution. Diagrams business processes and system workflows and develops comprehensive documents for applications or sub-systems.

• Monitors service levels to ensure user needs are responded to on a daily basis and that systems are meeting University ongoing business needs.
• Monitors project status and reports to Applications Team Lead.
• Weekend and off-hour work may be necessary on occasion.
• Performs all other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree and/or its equivalent required.
• Minimum 4-6 years’ related experience.
• Strong proficiency in COBOL, JCL, OS, MVS and mainframe environments is required.
• Strong experience with full applications systems development lifecycle.
• Strong development skills with multiple applications/tools
• Excellent written and verbal Communication Skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment.
• Demonstrated excellence in a variety of competencies including teamwork/collaboration, analytical thinking, communication and influencing skills, and technical expertise.
• Ability to work with changing priorities and with multiple projects.
• Ability to be precise and attentive to detail is essential.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to work weekend and off-hour work on occasion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency with the legacy mainframe environment at Columbia University.
• The knowledge of SQL, FOCUS and REXX are a plus.