{"id":2149113,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos","title":"Patching Lead- Mainframe-IBM z/OS","company":{"id":85,"name":"Cognizant","domain":"cognizant.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cognizant","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"services","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Cognizant Careers","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":81,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":14,"computed_at":"2026-10-10T05:45:15Z"}},"role":"Enterprise Apps","role_family":"Enterprise Apps","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Toronto, Canada"],"countries":["CA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":80000,"max":90000,"currency":"CAD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":63194},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Db2","optional":false},{"name":"IMS","optional":false},{"name":"PCI DSS","optional":false},{"name":"ServiceNow","optional":false},{"name":"Incident Management","optional":true},{"name":"ITIL","optional":true},{"name":"Rest-Assured","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-16T23:05:12Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-09","last_verified_at":"2026-10-11T00:41:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":24,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":24},"description":"About Cognizant’s CIS Practice:\nCognizant’s CIS (Cognizant Infrastructure Services) Practice is a global leader in providing IT infrastructure services. We deliver innovative solutions to optimize and transform IT infrastructure, ensuring business agility and operational efficiency. Our services include cloud computing, data center management, network services, and cybersecurity. We focus on understanding client needs and delivering customized solutions to drive business success.\nIn this role, you will:\nThe Mainframe Infrastructure Patching Lead is a senior individual contributor accountable for the end-to-end patch and maintenance lifecycle of the organization's IBM z/OS environment. This role sets patching strategy and technical standards, performs hands-on maintenance work, and directs the day-to-day execution carried out by an offshore mainframe support team. The Lead is the primary technical authority on SMP/E maintenance, vendor service management, and change coordination, and is accountable for ensuring the offshore team executes patching safely, on schedule, and in compliance with security and audit requirements.\nKey Responsibilities\nOwn the IBM z/OS patch management strategy, including SMP/E maintenance (PTFs, APARs, RSU/CSI management) and subsystem patching (CICS, DB2, IMS, MQ, RACF, and related products).\nDefine the rolling patch and maintenance calendar in alignment with IBM service delivery cycles, security advisories, and enterprise change freeze windows.\nAssess incoming IBM and ISV maintenance for applicability, risk, and priority; triage HIPER, security, and integrity PTFs for expedited handling.\nSet technical direction for, and provide hands-on oversight of, an offshore mainframe operations team executing patch installs, regression testing, and validation across the z/OS estate.\nEstablish and enforce patching standards, runbooks, and quality checkpoints so offshore-executed work meets the same bar as work performed directly.\nReview and approve patch testing results, rollback plans, and go/no-go decisions before production implementation, including for changes executed by the offshore team.\nCoordinate with systems programmers, security, and application teams to plan patch windows and manage changes through the CAB process.\nTrack patch compliance across the mainframe estate; report on outstanding vulnerabilities, aging maintenance, and remediation timelines to management.\nServe as the primary escalation point for patch-related incidents, including issues surfaced by the offshore team during off-hours windows; lead root cause analysis and remediation.\nPartner with InfoSec and audit on vulnerability scans, regulatory findings, and compliance requirements (e.g., PCI-DSS, SOX, internal controls).\nMaintain and continuously improve patching documentation, standard operating procedures, and knowledge transfer materials used by the offshore team.\nBridge time-zone and communication gaps with the offshore team through structured handoffs, clear written procedures, and regular sync checkpoints.\nWha you will need to succeed in this role\n8+ years of experience in IBM z/OS systems programming or mainframe infrastructure operations, with demonstrated depth as a senior technical contributor.\nHands-on expertise with SMP/E, z/OS maintenance processes, and IBM service delivery (PTFs, APARs, HOLDDATA, RSU/CSI management).\nStrong working knowledge of z/OS and core subsystems (JES2/JES3, RACF, CICS, DB2, IMS, or similar).\nExperience directing or closely coordinating with an offshore or distributed technical team, including reviewing their work and holding them to defined standards.\nExperience with change management processes and tooling (e.g., ServiceNow) in a regulated enterprise environment.\nFamiliarity with vulnerability management and security patch prioritization frameworks.\nStrong troubleshooting skills and experience designing and validating rollback/contingency plans.\nExcellent written communication skills, with the ability to produce clear runbooks and procedures for execution by a remote team.\nWillingness to support off-hours and weekend patch windows, including coordination across time zones with the offshore team.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience with automated patch deployment or maintenance tracking tools.\nFamiliarity with IBM zPCR and Fix Category management.\nExposure to parallel sysplex environments and coordinated multi-LPAR patching.\nBackground in audit/compliance reporting for mainframe environments.\nPrior experience building or refining offshore/onshore delivery models for infrastructure operations.\nITIL Foundation certification or equivalent change/incident management experience.\nKey Competencies\nRisk-based decision making under time constraints.\nAbility to lead and quality-control work performed by a remote/offshore team without direct supervision on-site.\nMeticulous attention to detail and documentation discipline.\nClear, calm communication during incidents or escalations, across time zones.\nComfort operating as a hands-on senior contributor while also acting as the de facto technical lead for a distributed team.\nWe are offering an annual compensation between $80,000-$90,000. Applications will be accepted until September 30th 2026.\nWe strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is an onsite position based in Scarborough, Ontario. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs.\nThe working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you’re engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.\nCognizant will only consider applicants for this position who are legally authorized to work in Canada without requiring employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.\nApplications for this position are reviewed by our recruitment team without the use of artificial intelligence screening tools.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6081,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Canada","iso":"CA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Science & Engineering","IT Outsourcing & Dedicated Teams","Engineering Services","Cloud Consulting & Migration"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-09T05:00:47Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":21,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.466,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":23,"expected_fill_days":14,"reasons":["conf:1","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-10T05:45:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":63194,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-11T04:47:12Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3853,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":1147,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-12T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":85},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=85"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/cognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcognizant-patching-lead-mainframe-ibm-zos"}]}