Mainframe Performance & Capacity Specialist

Position: Mainframe Performance & Capacity Specialist

Location: Toronto, ON

Job ID#: RQ11128 

Duration: 10 Months

Role Overview

The Mainframe Performance & Capacity Specialist acts as a subject matter expert supporting enterprise‑scale mainframe performance, capacity planning, and operational stability. The role focuses on ensuring efficient use of mainframe resources through analysis, forecasting, reporting, and close collaboration with infrastructure, operations, and application teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide performance and capacity operational support for day‑to‑day mainframe software and program products.
  
• Analyze mainframe resource utilization and capacity data to ensure optimal use of computing infrastructure, including IMS and DB2 subsystems.
  
• Develop, maintain, and update mainframe capacity plans.
  
• Provide input and support for mainframe refresh initiatives, upgrades, and hardware installations.
  
• Prepare capacity assessments related to application workload changes and project initiatives.
  
• Support vendor billing reconciliation and respond to capacity‑related inquiries.
  
• Perform incident analysis, resolution, and prevention, including documentation of root cause and preventative actions.
  
• Use vendor and ISV tools to manage incident tracking and resolution.
  
• Participate in disaster recovery hardware installation activities and periodic DR exercises to maintain system readiness.
  
• Plan, configure, and support new mainframe hardware platforms.
  
• Provide migration and decommissioning support for mainframe software and networking components.
  
• Perform daily operational changes, incident and problem management, and on‑call/standby support as required.
  
• Adhere to SLA metrics, maintenance standards, and change management processes.
  
• Produce technical methods of procedure (MOPs), system captures, and detailed documentation.
  

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum 7 years of experience in Mainframe Performance and Capacity Management roles.
  
• Experience using interactive capacity management tools such as MICS, RMF, and other ISV tools.
  
• Strong hands‑on experience working with SMF data.
  
• Proven experience performing capacity assessments for CPU upgrades and refresh initiatives, including “what‑if” impact modeling.
  
• Experience reconciling mainframe billing for ISV workloads.
  
• Ability to perform complex calculations estimating workload impacts in MIPS and MSUs across multi‑partitioned environments.
  
• Strong understanding of zIIP utilization.
  
• Experience with SAS programming.
  
• Demonstrated ability to identify and recommend CPU cost‑savings opportunities.
  
• Solid understanding of IBM mainframe CPU concepts, including CBUs and Capacity on Demand (CoD).
  
• Experience configuring and reporting using tools such as MICS and RMF.
  
• Strong documentation, communication, and stakeholder collaboration skills.
  
• Experience supporting large, enterprise‑scale mainframe environments.
  

About Symbiotic Digital

Symbiotic Digital provides the IT Experts you need that solve problems and get things done. See what the top 2% in their field can do for you. (Symbiotic Digital is a division of Symbiotic Group Inc.)

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Serving IT & Business leaders, Symbiotic Digital provides a business system that enables us to deliver expert technical staff to solve complex business and IT challenges. IT leaders across Canada rely on Symbiotic Digital to staff difficult assignments with proven experts evaluated through our Quality Management System (QMS) Staff Development Model. We are a 100% Indigenous‑owned company.