Lead Associate Principal, Software Engineering: IBM MQ Infrastructure Administration (Middleware)

What You'll Do:

We are seeking an experienced and motivated IBM MQ Administrator to join our dynamic Infrastructure team. The successful candidate will be responsible for the end-to-end administration, maintenance, and support of our critical IBM MQ messaging infrastructure. This role involves ensuring the reliability, availability, performance, and security of the MQ environment, supporting business applications, and actively participating in strategic initiatives such as cloud migration, containerization, and system modernization.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Install, configure, and maintain IBM MQ software (Queue Managers, Clients) on RHEL.
• Perform version upgrades, apply fix packs, and manage patching cycles according to best practices and security requirements.
• Configure MQ objects, including Queue Managers, Queues (Local, Remote, Alias, Model), Channels, Listeners, Clusters, Topics, and Subscriptions.
• Monitor MQ system performance metrics, message throughput, and latency.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and implement tuning adjustments at the Queue Manager, channel, and queue levels.
• Analyze MQ logs and trace data to optimize configurations.
• Provide expert-level troubleshooting for MQ-related issues, including connectivity problems, message delivery failures, security errors, and performance degradation.
• Act as a primary point of contact for application teams regarding MQ connectivity and messaging issues.
• Respond to incidents, diagnose root causes, and implement corrective actions, participating in on-call rotation if applicable.
• Monitor resource utilization (CPU, memory, disk space, message depths) and forecast future capacity needs.
• Design and implement scalable MQ solutions, including clustering and distributed queuing, to meet growing business demands.
• Develop, implement, test, and maintain disaster recovery (DR) procedures for the MQ environment.
• Configure and manage high availability (HA) solutions, potentially including multi-instance Queue Managers or clustering.
• Participate in regular DR testing exercises.
• Implement and manage MQ security configurations, including TLS/SSL for channels, Channel Authentication Rules (CHLAUTH), and Object Authority Manager (OAM).
• Work with security teams to ensure compliance with security policies and standards.
• Manage certificates and keystores for secure communication.
• Interface with IBM support (raising PMRs/Cases) for problem resolution, technical guidance, and product information.
• Stay informed about IBM MQ product roadmaps, new features, and end-of-support timelines.
• Participate in the planning, design, and execution of migrating IBM MQ workloads to AWS.
• Contribute to initiatives involving the deployment and management of IBM MQ in containerized environments (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift), utilizing MQ container images and operators.
• Actively participate in infrastructure modernization projects related to messaging.
• Develop and maintain scripts (e.g., Shell, Python, Perl) or utilize automation tools (e.g., Ansible) to streamline routine MQ administration tasks, deployments, and configuration management.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for MQ architecture, configurations, standards, and operational procedures.
• Collaborate effectively with application developers, system administrators, network engineers, database administrators, and project managers.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• N/A

Qualifications:

• Strong understanding of core IBM MQ concepts (Queue Managers, Queues, Channels, Clustering, Publish/Subscribe, Security).
• Proficiency in administering IBM MQ on [Specify primary OS, e.g., Linux, Windows].
• Proven troubleshooting skills in diagnosing and resolving complex MQ issues.
• Experience with scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python, Perl) for automation.
• Understanding of networking concepts (TCP/IP, DNS, firewalls, load balancers) as they relate to MQ.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with IBM MQ on RHEL and containers in cloud.
• Experience with advanced MQ features like MQ Appliances, Advanced Message Security (AMS), Managed File Transfer (MFT).
• Experience migrating or managing IBM MQ in AWS.
• Hands-on experience with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift) and managing MQ in containers.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools like Ansible or Terraform.
• Experience with enterprise monitoring tools (e.g., Instana, Dynatrace, Splunk, Nagios, Prometheus).
• Familiarity with other messaging technologies like Kafka.
• Experience working in Agile/DevOps environments.

Technical Skills:

• IBM MQ, Ansible, Terraform, Bash, Docker Kubernetes, Rancher, GitHub, Artifactory, Harness, Jenkins, AWS, Azure, CI/CD, IaC, Automated Cloud Provisioning

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, OR equivalent practical experience.  
• 10+ years of hands-on experience administering IBM MQ in a complex enterprise environment.

Certificates or Licenses:

• AWS Solutions Architect, CKAD or CKA certifications preferred.

About Us

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.

Benefits

A highly collaborative and supportive environment developed to encourage work-life balance and employee wellness. Some of these components include:

• A hybrid work environment, up to 2 days per week of remote work
• Tuition Reimbursement to support your continued education
• Student Loan Repayment Assistance
• Technology Stipend allowing you to use the device of your choice to connect to our network while working remotely
• Generous PTO and Parental leave
• 401k Employer Match
• Competitive health benefits including medical, dental and vision

Visit https://www.theocc.com/careers/thriving-together for more information.

Compensation

• The salary range listed for any given position is exclusive of fringe benefits and potential bonuses. If hired at OCC, your final base salary compensation will be determined by factors such as skills, experience and/or education.
• In addition, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer.
• We typically do not hire at the maximum of the range in order to allow for future and continued salary growth. We also offer a substantial benefits package as noted on www.theocc.com/careers
• All employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are based on various factors, including, but not limited to, company and individual performance and are not guaranteed.

Salary Range

Incentive Range

This position is eligible for an annual discretionary incentive compensation award, for which the target range is listed above (see Incentive Range). The amount of such award, if any, will be based on various factors, including without limitation, both individual and company performance.

Step 1
When you find a position you're interested in, click the 'Apply' button. Please complete the application and attach your resume.  

Step 2
You will receive an email notification to confirm that we've received your application.

Step 3
If you are called in for an interview, a representative from OCC will contact you to set up a date, time, and location. 

For more information about OCC, please click here.

OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer