Overview:
Responsible at the expert level for mainframe software engineering, technical solution delivery, and technical requirements gathering. Serves as an individual-contributor technical lead for critical mainframe applications and platforms, completing work in alignment with banking technology standards and contributing to the overall stability, resiliency, modernization, and operational excellence of banking technology within the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) while also coaching others.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Develop and coach other team members while also working independently on mainframe applications within the boundaries of approved Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) processes, including identification and recommendation of metrics to solve business needs and minimize risks to the Bank through clean, secure, maintainable, and resilient code.
- Lead technical design, development, enhancement, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and support of mainframe applications across batch and online processing while ensuring SDLC governance and enterprise standards are followed.
- Own technical decisions and delivery quality for assigned mainframe platforms, workstreams, application domains, or technical initiatives.
- Review and approve the designs and proposals of pull requests, code changes, peer reviews, source control practices, deployment readiness, and change management execution.
- Design processes for peer review and coach others on code reviews, code quality, secure development practices, maintainability, performance, resiliency, and continuous improvement.
- Author organized, clean, efficient, and secure source code at the expert level in mainframe technologies while coaching team members on appropriate data structures, algorithms, and engineering approaches to solve business problems.
- Oversee source control management activities, including code merges into the production deployment path, GitLab practices, change management, and CI/CD pipeline management where applicable.
- Review testing methodology, code coverage, batch validation, regression testing, data reconciliation, performance checks, implementation verification, and automation opportunities to ensure comprehensive testing is accomplished.
- Drive implementation adherence with patterns and practices for performance testing, resiliency, restart/recovery, optimization, monitoring, and production readiness within the assigned domain.
- Review and approve requirement plans on behalf of the team in alignment with delivery partners and ensure requirements, solution designs, and implementation plans are complete, accurate, feasible, scalable, secure, and aligned with business and technical standards.
- Serve as a key partner with business, product, architecture, infrastructure, security, operations, risk, audit, and other technology groups; suggest continuous process improvement spanning organizational boundaries where technical or architectural concerns require it.
- Contribute technical requirements where appropriate in support of delivery, maintenance, modernization, integration, resiliency, and operational solutions within the assigned domain.
- Guide architecture, integration patterns, modernization efforts, engineering processes, and technical decision-making across mainframe and connected platforms.
- Drive mainframe modernization through API enablement, data integration, DevOps adoption, technical debt reduction, incremental refactoring, platform resiliency, and responsible use of AI-assisted engineering and automation where appropriate.
- Own technical health by improving resiliency, reducing defects, addressing technical debt, and guiding remediation plans for assigned applications or platforms.
- Understand and effectively communicate architecture, technical decisions, progress, risks, blockers, and challenges to business and technical stakeholders and teams.
- Translate complex mainframe constraints into business, delivery, risk, and operational impacts while helping resolve technical blockers.
- Contribute ideas and recommendations to application architectural design work, engineering practices, modernization opportunities, and pattern changes, and present at architecture peer group and architecture review board meetings within the assigned domain.
- Present team work at internal meetings with peers, architecture forums, knowledge-sharing sessions, and other stakeholder discussions as needed.
- Influence technical decisions across teams without direct authority through technical expertise, documentation, standards, collaboration, and clear communication.
- Maintain documentation supporting design decisions, operational readiness, support procedures, technical standards, production stability, and risk remediation.
- Understand and adhere to the Company’s risk and regulatory standards, policies, and controls in accordance with the Company’s Risk Appetite. Identify and escalate risk-related issues as needed.
- Ensure technical changes comply with company risk, regulatory, policy, change management, security, data protection, access control, and operational risk standards.
- Promote an environment that supports a culture of belonging and reflects the M&T Bank brand.
- Maintain M&T internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators, as applicable.
- Complete other related duties as assigned.
Scope of Responsibilities:
Serves as an individual-contributor technical lead accountable for technical direction, design quality, code review, modernization guidance, delivery quality, operational readiness, risk remediation, and production stability for assigned mainframe applications, platforms, workstreams, or domains. Influences engineers, architects, product, operations, security, infrastructure, risk, audit, and business partners through technical expertise, documentation, standards, and collaboration.
Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:
No supervisory responsibilities.
Education and Experience Required:
- Associate’s degree and a minimum of 7 years’ systems analysis and/or application development work experience or Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 5 years' systems analysis and/or application development work experience. In lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 9 year’s education and/or relevant work experience, including a minimum of 5 years’ system analysis and/or application development work experience.
- Expert proficiency in a minimum of 1 relevant programming language and professional proficiency in a minimum of 1 additional relevant programming language.
- Expert proficiency with mainframe software engineering and application development.
- Experience with IBM z/OS, COBOL, CICS, JCL, VSAM, DB2 for z/OS, TSO/ISPF, SDSF, and Easytrieve+.
- Experience with GitLab or similar tools for source control, change management, and CI/CD pipeline management.
- Experience with mainframe debugging and analysis tools such as File-AID, Abend-AID, Xpediter, InterTest, or equivalent.
- Experience with batch scheduling and enterprise integration tools such as CA7, Control-M, MQ, or equivalent.
- Expert analytical skills specific to software engineering and application development.
- Experience leading technical initiatives, project deliverables, or engineering workstreams as an individual-contributor technical lead.
- Experience reviewing solution designs, technical requirements, code changes, testing approaches, and implementation plans.
- Strong understanding of SDLC, testing, deployment, resiliency, security, change management, and production support practices.
Education and Experience Preferred:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical discipline.
- Experience supporting mainframe modernization through z/OS Connect, ZDIH, API enablement, event or data integration, technical debt reduction, and platform resiliency.
- Experience with mainframe DevOps, release readiness, automation testing, CI/CD practices, and AI-assisted engineering tools where appropriate.
- Experience improving production stability, defect reduction, application resiliency, and engineering productivity.
- Experience working in a team environment.
- Ability to work autonomously.
- Ability to multitask on multiple complex projects.
- Strong organizational skills.
- Strong time management skills.
- Advanced verbal and written communication skills.
- Experience driving project milestones and delivery dates.
- Proven experience leading a project, initiative, platform workstream, or technical modernization effort.
- Experience partnering with and presenting to multiple stakeholders within technology and business departments.
- Experience influencing technical decisions across teams without direct authority.
- Experience working within Agile delivery frameworks.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 5 years systems analysis and/or application development experience (or Associate's + 7 years, or combined 9 years education/experience).
- Expert proficiency in at least one programming language and professional proficiency in at least one additional programming language.
- Experience with Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) processes, code review, source control management, and testing methodologies.
- Expert analytical skills specific to application development.
- Experience working in a team environment and proven experience leading a project or initiative.
- Ability to work autonomously, multitask on complex projects, and strong organizational and time management skills.
- Advanced verbal and written communication skills and experience partnering with multiple stakeholders.
M&T Bank Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about M&T Bank and has not been reviewed or approved by M&T Bank.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are positioned as a strong pillar, including a 401(k) match and the possibility of an additional employer contribution, plus access to an employee stock purchase plan.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off offerings are framed as competitive, with a flexible PTO approach and paid volunteer time called out as a meaningful add-on to standard leave.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellbeing support appears comparatively robust, highlighted by mental-health therapy/coaching sessions and broader wellness programming alongside community-oriented perks.
M&T Bank Insights
What We Do
M&T Bank is a multi-state community-focused bank serving New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1856, the company provides banking, investment, insurance and mortgage financial services to more than 3.6 million consumer, business and government clients.
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