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Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.
The Role
Lead design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of COBOL-based mainframe applications. Own end-to-end delivery, troubleshoot production issues, mentor junior staff, produce technical designs and impact assessments, support modernization/integration efforts, participate in release and on-call rotations, and collaborate with global stakeholders to ensure system stability, security, and compliance.
Summary Generated by Built In
Work Schedule
Standard (Mon-Fri)Environmental Conditions
OfficeJob Description
As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, you’ll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every single day to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We provide our global teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while helping to take science a step beyond by developing solutions for some of the world’s toughest challenges, like protecting the environment, making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.
We are seeking a Senior Mainframe Developer to join our Ottawa-based engineering team supporting the development, enhancement, modernization, and production stability of critical applications. This role is ideal for a hands-on mainframe professional who can take ownership of end-to-end delivery, quickly learn complex business and technical domains, lead design discussions, solve production and delivery challenges, and mentor other team members. The successful candidate will bring deep experience with COBOL-based mainframe applications and related technologies, strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, and the ability to partner effectively with business stakeholders, architects, QA, support teams, and global delivery partners. This is a senior role for someone who combines technical depth, strategic solution thinking, accountability, curiosity, and a strong team-first mindset.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance of applications using COBOL, CICS, JCL, VSAM, IDMS and SORT utilities
- Own and drive end-to-end delivery of projects, enhancements, defects, and production fixes, ensuring quality, timeliness, and business alignment
- Analyze business requirements and translate them into scalable, maintainable, and reliable technical solutions
- Prepare technical design documents, impact assessments, implementation plans, data flow analysis, and interface specifications
- Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand requirements, identify risks, and propose practical and strategic solutions
- Mentor and guide junior and intermediate developers, conduct code reviews, and promote engineering standards and best practices
- Act as a trusted technical resource for application knowledge, design guidance, code quality, troubleshooting, and delivery risk management
- Lead troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and resolution of complex production issues, ensuring minimal business impact
- Lead or contribute to modernization and integration initiatives, including impact assessment, interface design, data flow analysis, API or middleware integration, and safe migration strategies
- Participate in and support release planning, deployment, post-production validation, and operational readiness activities
- Participate in an on-call support rotation, including occasional weekends or off-hours
- Ensure adherence to development standards, documentation, security, audit, and compliance requirements
- Collaborate effectively with global teams, including onshore, offshore, business, QA, infrastructure, architecture, support, and cross-functional partners
- Proactively identify risks, dependencies, technical debt, and opportunities to improve system stability, delivery effectiveness, and team capability
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's Degree holder with 8+ years of hands-on Mainframe application development experience
- Strong hands-on expertise in:
- COBOL
- CICS
- JCL
- VSAM
- IDMS/DB2
- SORT utilities
- Excellent understanding of designing and developing applications in Mainframe technologies
- Strong experience supporting both batch and online mainframe applications
- Strong solutioning mindset with ability to design and implement technical solutions
- Demonstrated ownership mindset with the ability to work through ambiguity, proactively identify risks, and drive issues to closure
- Ability to quickly learn complex legacy applications, business processes, data flows, and integration points
- Willing to provide application support as needed and on rotation
- Ability to collaborate with multiple business teams and solve complex issues
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
- Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills
- Experience with enterprise systems integration
- Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements
- Ability to work independently and as part of a distributed team
- Strong team orientation with the ability and willingness to mentor team members and raise overall team capability
Preferred Qualifications
- Exposure to RPG
- Experience with Lotus Notes application development or support
- Understanding of API development, integration, or modernization strategies
- Experience with MQ, middleware, file-transfer patterns, or enterprise integration approaches
- Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies
- Experience working in order management, fulfillment, supply chain, finance, or other high-volume transactional systems
- Strong experience in production support and incident management
- Experience with tools such as TSO/ISPF, File-AID, Xpediter, Endevor, Changeman, Control-M, CA7, or similar mainframe development and scheduling tools
- Experience working with globally distributed teams, including onshore, offshore, and cross-functional delivery partners
Work Environment
- Location: Ottawa, Canada
- Work Model: Hybrid work model with a combination of onsite and remote work, as defined by team and business needs
- Support Expectations: Participation in a shared on-call rotation, including occasional weekends or off-hours support
What Success Looks Like
The successful candidate will:
- Successfully leads projects and delivers high-quality, scalable, and maintainable solutions
- Provides effective design solutions aligned with business needs, system architecture, and long-term technology direction
- Acts as a technical mentor and go-to person for application knowledge, design guidance, code quality, troubleshooting, and delivery risk management
- Demonstrates strong leadership, ownership and accountability in delivery and production support
- Engages proactively with business stakeholders and adds value in discussions
- Quickly learns complex systems, business processes, and technical dependencies
- Identifies risks, technical debt, and improvement opportunities before they become delivery or production issues
- Continuously learns, explores new approaches, and drives problem-solving initiatives
- Contributes to team success, system stability, and modernization efforts
- Supports a positive, collaborative, and team-first culture by sharing knowledge, mentoring others, and helping the team succeed
Compensation
The estimated annualized pay range for this position in Ontario is $85,500.00–$114,000.00.Skills Required
- Bachelor's Degree
- 8+ years hands-on mainframe application development experience
- COBOL
- CICS
- JCL
- VSAM
- IDMS
- DB2
- SORT utilities
- Experience supporting both batch and online mainframe applications
- Ability to provide application support as part of an on-call rotation
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills
- Ability to quickly learn complex legacy applications, business processes, and data flows
- Demonstrated ownership mindset and ability to work through ambiguity
- Ability and willingness to mentor junior team members
- Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements
- Experience with enterprise systems integration
- Exposure to RPG
- Experience with Lotus Notes application development or support
- Understanding of API development, integration, or modernization strategies
- Experience with MQ, middleware, or file-transfer patterns
- Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies
- Experience in order management, fulfillment, supply chain, finance, or other high-volume transactional systems
- Experience with tools such as TSO/ISPF, File-AID, Xpediter, Endevor, Changeman, Control-M, CA7
- Experience working with globally distributed teams (onshore/offshore)
Thermo Fisher Scientific Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Thermo Fisher Scientific and has not been reviewed or approved by Thermo Fisher Scientific.
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Retirement Support — Retirement programs include a strong company 401(k) match and an employee stock purchase plan that add meaningful long‑term value. Feedback suggests these features stand out among core financial benefits even when base pay feels average.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage offers multiple national medical options alongside dental and vision, with company‑paid life and disability coverage. This breadth is considered a solid foundation even if some costs may not be the lowest among peers.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental and caregiver leave, backup care, adoption assistance, and specialized family resources are available. Feedback suggests these supports are a notable plus for colleagues managing family and caregiving needs.
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The Company
What We Do
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue of approximately $40 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, increasing productivity in their laboratories, improving patient health through diagnostics or the development and manufacture of life-changing therapies, we are here to support them. Our global team delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services, Patheon and PPD.
Why Work With Us
You will join a company which every colleague has the opportunity to create possibilities, for oneself, for our customers and patients. There is no more exciting place to be than at the forefront of solving problems which help improve lives around the world. As a company, we are committed to supporting your career aspirations and your journey.
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