Title: Senior IT Specialist (MQ Admin)
Location: Remote with occasional on-site work at IRS locations (Lanham, MD)
Note: On-site availability required for critical systems support and reviews
Clearance: Public Trust
About this role:
As a Senior IT Specialist (MQ Admin), you will play a vital role in managing WebSphere MQ environments across IRS systems, ensuring the secure and efficient handling of messaging services. You will work with the Infrastructure Services Division (ISD) to support IRS operations by managing message queues, providing troubleshooting, and integrating MQ services with other IRS platforms.
This role involves direct responsibility for the administration, configuration, and performance of MQ systems that support federal operations, ensuring system availability and compliance with federal security standards.
Key Responsibilities:
- Administer, configure, and maintain WebSphere MQ servers and clients, ensuring compliance with federal security standards.
- Provide customization of MQ Series messaging products for integration with IRS systems.
- Collaborate with cross-functional technical teams to support IRS messaging infrastructure and ensure system availability.
- Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to MQ Series messaging and ensure seamless performance across federal environments.
- Ensure compliance with federal regulations such as FISMA, NIST, and CMMC in the management of messaging services.
- Provide documentation and best practices for managing MQ systems in secure federal environments.
Required Skills / Education / Certifications & Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field, or equivalent experience.
- 4+ years of experience in WebSphere MQ administration, including experience with MQ messaging services.
- Proficiency in configuring and troubleshooting MQ Series for Windows/Solaris and z/OS.
- Strong experience in MQ integration and customization for federal projects.
- Security Clearance: Active Public Trust required.
Desired Skills:
- Experience with WebSphere MQ 7.x and
- Experience with WebSphere MQ 7.x for both server and client environments, including Windows, Solaris, and z/OS.
- Familiarity with Application Messaging and Data Access Services (AMDAS).
- Knowledge of FedRAMP, FISMA, and NIST 800-53 compliance requirements.
- Experience integrating MQ services in cloud-based environments.
- Scripting experience (e.g., Python, Shell) for automation of MQ tasks and system management.
Soft Skills:
- Communication: Strong communication skills for effective collaboration with government stakeholders and technical teams, ensuring smooth MQ integration and operations.
- Problem-Solving: Ability to analyze and troubleshoot complex messaging issues in a secure, mission-critical environment.
- Collaboration: Exceptional teamwork skills, especially when working across various departments and external teams to ensure system stability and compliance.
- Leadership: Ability to lead MQ infrastructure projects and mentor junior staff in MQ administration best practices.
Who We Are:
Rackner is a software consultancy that builds cloud-native solutions for startups, enterprises, and the public sector. We are an energetic, growing consultancy with a passion for solving big problems for both startups and enterprises. Each of us enable digital transformation for large organizations through the newest in distributed technologies as we are laser focused on end-to-end application development, DevSecOps, AI/ML and systems architecture and our methodology focuses on cloud-first and cost-effective innovation. Our customers hail from a diverse, ever-growing list of industries.
Benefits/Additional Info:
Rackner embraces and promotes employee development and training and covers the cost of certifications relevant to a position and the technologies/services provided. Fitness/Gym membership eligibility, weekly pay schedule and employee swag, snacks & events are offered as well!
- 401K with 100% matching up to 6%
- Highly competitive PTO
- Great health insurance with large network of providers
- Medical/Dental/Vision
- Life Insurance, and short & long term disability
- Industry-Leading Weekly Pay Schedule
- Home office & equipment plan
Top Skills
What We Do
Rackner builds cutting-edge solutions that apply DevSecOps and the power of AI in the datacenter, public and private clouds, and edge, leveraging the future of compute capability and technologies like Kubernetes (k8s) and WebAssembly (WASM). We're a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider - as well as a partner to the major public cloud companies.
Our customers include hypergrowth startups and federal agencies, both Civilian and Defense.
Core Competencies
- DevSecOps
- Edge Computing
- AI/ML
- Cloud-Native and Hybrid-Cloud development
- Web and Mobile Applications Development (Microservices)