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For Companies At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the migration of critical data from mainframes, ensuring seamless transitions and robust data strategies.
- Company: Join a forward-thinking tech firm in the heart of London with a hybrid work model.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, health perks, flexible working, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Why this job: Be at the forefront of data architecture, making impactful changes in modernising legacy systems.
- Qualifications: Experience in data migration, CDC design, and strong knowledge of Db2 and z/OS.
- Other info: Dynamic role with excellent career advancement potential in a collaborative environment.
The predicted salary is between 48000 - 72000 £ per year.
Work Location: 250 Bishopsgate, London, UK
Mode of Working: Hybrid
Office Attendance: 2 days per week
The Role
As a Mainframe Data Architect with data migration expertise, you will be responsible for moving critical data off the mainframe with zero surprises. Your responsibilities include designing robust Change Data Capture (CDC) strategies, ensuring accurate data landing and transformation, creating optimized data models, and executing a seamless cutover process.
Your Responsibilities
- Design and implement CDC pipelines using IBM CDC tools or equivalents, including subscription management, bookmarks, and replay strategies.
- Handle complex data encoding transformations, such as EBCDIC to UTF-8 and packed decimal conversions, with validation test suites.
- Utilize migration tooling for schema conversion and downstream analytics (Glue, Athena, Redshift), with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform) and CI/CD (GitLab).
- Plan and execute cutovers with dual-run validation, reconciliation, rollback strategies, and data governance controls (masking, encryption, IAM).
- Develop observability dashboards for lag, throughput, error rates, and cost using CloudWatch/Grafana, with operational runbooks and alerting.
- Ensure data quality through pre-migration validation tests and reconciliation against golden sources.
- Apply domain-driven design principles to model bounded contexts and aggregate roots.
- Architect event-driven systems using CDC as event streams, with replay and orchestration patterns.
- Translate Db2 schemas to target pipelines (Aurora Postgress preferred), including logical and physical data modelling, referential integrity, and denormalization decisions.
- Build integration pipelines from Db2 to target pipelines (Aurora Postgress preferred) via Kafka/S3, ensuring idempotency, ordering, and reliable delivery semantics.
Your Profile
Essential Skills / Knowledge / Experience
- Change Data Capture: CDC design and operations (IBM, Precisely, or equivalent); subscription management, bookmarks, replay, backfill.
- Db2 & z/OS knowledge: Db2 catalog, z/OS fundamentals, batch windows, performance considerations.
- Relational modelling: Data modelling; normalization, indexing, partitioning; OLTP vs. analytics trade-offs.
- Integration patterns: Kafka (hands-on), CDC-to-target pipelines, UPSERT/MERGE logic; Python/SQL; strong troubleshooting.
- Data quality mindset: Write validation tests before migration; golden-source reconciliation.
- Logical data modelling: Entity-relationship diagrams, normalization (1NF through Boyce-Codd/BCNF), denormalization trade-offs; identify functional dependencies and anomalies.
- Physical data modelling: Table design, partitioning strategies, indexes; SCD types; dimensional vs. transactional schemas; storage patterns for OLTP vs. analytics.
- Normalization & design: Normalize to 3NF/BCNF for transactional systems; understand when to denormalize for queries; trade-offs between 3NF, Data Vault, and star schemas.
- Domain-Driven Design: Bounded contexts and subdomains; aggregates and aggregate roots; entities vs. value objects; repository patterns; ubiquitous language.
- Event-driven architecture: Domain events and contracts; CDC as event streams; idempotency and replay patterns; mapping Db2 transactions to event-driven architectures; saga orchestration.
- CQRS patterns: Command/query separation; event sourcing and state reconstruction; eventual consistency, when CQRS is justified for mainframe migration vs. overkill.
- Database internals: Index structures (B-tree, bitmap, etc.), query planning, partitioning strategies; how Db2 vs. PostgreSQL differ in storage and execution.
- Data quality & validation: Designing test suites for schema conformance; referential integrity checks; sampling and reconciliation strategies.
Desirable Skills / Knowledge / Experience
- IBM zDIH patterns, zIIP tuning.
- COBOL copybook / VSAM ingestion experience.
- Postgress SQL Data Architecture, PostgreSQL / Aurora data modelling.
Data Architect Mainframe Migration & Modernization employer: Stackstudio Digital Ltd.
Contact Detail:
Stackstudio Digital Ltd. Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Data Architect Mainframe Migration & Modernization
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry on LinkedIn or at meetups. We all know that sometimes it’s not just what you know, but who you know that can land you that dream job.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for those interviews by practising common questions related to data architecture and migration. We recommend doing mock interviews with friends or using online platforms to get comfortable with your responses.
✨Tip Number 3
Showcase your skills through personal projects or contributions to open-source. We love seeing practical applications of your knowledge, especially when it comes to CDC strategies or data modelling!
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, we’re always looking for passionate individuals to join our team.
We think you need these skills to ace Data Architect Mainframe Migration & Modernization
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV is tailored to the Data Architect role. Highlight your experience with Change Data Capture and any relevant tools like IBM CDC. We want to see how your skills match up with what we're looking for!
Showcase Your Projects: Include specific projects where you've successfully migrated data or designed data models. We love seeing real-world examples of your work, especially if they relate to mainframe migration and modernisation.
Be Clear and Concise: When writing your application, keep it clear and to the point. Use bullet points for your skills and experiences to make it easy for us to read. We appreciate a well-structured application that gets straight to the good stuff!
Apply Through Our Website: Don't forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it’s super easy to do!
How to prepare for a job interview at Stackstudio Digital Ltd.
✨Know Your CDC Inside Out
Make sure you’re well-versed in Change Data Capture (CDC) strategies, especially using IBM tools. Be ready to discuss your experience with subscription management and replay strategies, as these are crucial for the role.
✨Brush Up on Data Encoding Transformations
Familiarise yourself with complex data encoding transformations like EBCDIC to UTF-8. Prepare to explain how you’ve handled similar transformations in past projects, including any validation test suites you've developed.
✨Showcase Your Migration Tooling Knowledge
Be prepared to talk about your experience with migration tooling for schema conversion and analytics. Highlight your familiarity with tools like Glue, Athena, and Redshift, and how you’ve used infrastructure-as-code (Terraform) in your previous roles.
✨Demonstrate Your Data Quality Mindset
Emphasise your approach to ensuring data quality through pre-migration validation tests. Discuss how you’ve reconciled data against golden sources and the importance of this in a successful migration process.
