Cobol Programmer

Senior COBOL Programmer (Contract) — Remote (Philippines-only)

Engagement : Independent contractor

Location : Remote Philippines (applicants must reside in the Philippines)

Rate : $ to $ USD

Duration : – months (with extension)

Hours : Full-time (– hrs / week) with some overlap to US business hours

Start : Upon Customer Acceptance

About the Role

We're seeking an experienced COBOL developer (+ years) to build, enhance, and maintain mission-critical mainframe applications. You'll work with distributed teams to deliver secure, reliable batch and online (CICS) solutions, support releases, and drive modernization efforts while keeping legacy systems stable.

What You'll Do

Design, code, test, and deploy COBOL programs for z / OS in both batch (JCL) and CICS online environments.

Build and maintain data access layers using DB and VSAM ; optimize SQL and file I / O for performance.

Analyze specs, estimate work, and produce technical design and runbooks.

Troubleshoot production issues (ABEND analysis, dumps, logs); drive root-cause and permanent fixes.

Collaborate with QA and business analysts for unit, system, integration, and UAT testing; ensure traceability.

Support release and job scheduling activities (, Control-M / CA- ); participate in cutovers as needed.

Follow secure coding, change control, and documentation standards; contribute to modernization / integration (, MQ , APIs, data feeds).

Must-Have Qualifications

• years hands-on development with COBOL on IBM z / OS .

Strong JCL , CICS , DB , VSAM , and TSO / ISPF / SDSF .

Proficient with debugging / perf tools (, ABEND-AID , Fault Analyzer ) and SQL tuning.

Experience with enterprise change management ( Endevor , Changeman , or similar) and version control.

Solid understanding of batch scheduling ( Control-M , CA- ) and file transfer processes.

Clear technical documentation skills; comfort working with distributed, cross-functional teams.

Reliable home office setup, including stable high-speed internet and power backup / contingency.

Residing in the Philippines and able to contract / invoice as an independent contractor .

Nice to Have

Experience in banking / financial services , insurance, telecom, or government workloads.

MQ / IMS , API integration (REST / SOAP gateways), data migration, or replatforming experience.

Exposure to DevOps / CI for mainframe, service virtualization, and test automation.

Familiarity with secure SDLC, data privacy, and audit / compliance processes.

Tools & Environment

IBM z / OS, COBOL, JCL, CICS, DB, VSAM

TSO / ISPF / SDSF, ABEND-AID / Fault Analyzer

Control-M or CA-, Endevor / Changeman (or equivalents)

Jira / Azure DevOps, Confluence (or similar)

Engagement & Compensation

Contract engagement; hourly rate commensurate with experience (paid in USD or PHP equivalent).

Monthly invoicing; contractor provides own equipment and connectivity.

May require background check and adherence to client security policies (secure workspace, no data exfiltration, MFA, etc.).