Senior Mainframe Software Engineer

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do. Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

We're evolving how we attract and engage with our clients, and as a Senior Mainframe Software Engineer on our team, you'll design, develop, support, and analyze large-scale applications and systems - making the technical calls that matter while shaping how we build and ship software that inspires clients and sales professionals to believe that life's bright.

This is a hands-on role for an engineer who thrives in a fast-moving, collaborative environment, moves deliberately without sacrificing quality, and cares deeply about creating meaningful client experiences. You'll be resilient, a strong team member, and equally effective in communicating and adapting to change as time-to-market pressures and evolving business priorities shift our plans.

Own the Delivery

• Break down and analyze complex application requirements into well-scoped, actionable work items
• Design and develop large-scale mainframe applications, defining technical approaches, dependencies, and milestones before work starts
• Identify risks early and adjust scope or approach to protect delivery timelines
• Make pragmatic technical decisions that balance speed, quality, and long-term maintainability

Build and Evolve

• Deliver end-to-end application development using industry-leading mainframe tools and modern development environments (IBM IDz, zDevOps, VS Code, Zowe, etc.)
• Write production-quality code while leveraging AI-assisted development tools (VS Code Copilot, etc.)
• Establish lightweight engineering practices that enable speed without sacrificing fundamentals
• Keep current with trends in emerging technologies and how they contribute to the evolution of our systems and client experiences

Collaborate

• Work directly with stakeholders and external technical partners, leading technical discussions in a clear and effective manner
• Clearly communicate trade-offs, risks, and timelines to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Continuously strive to improve the client experience through collaborative problem-solving
• Contribute to a dynamic, innovative culture where continuous improvement is valued and rewarded

Shape the Team

• Champion modern engineering practices, tools, and technologies that give the team a competitive edge
• Mentor teammates and guide technical direction through code reviews and design discussions
• Build reusable components and technical foundations that accelerate future work
• Someone who keeps current with emerging technologies and leads by example in continuous self-improvement

What You Bring

• 5-10 years of progressive information technology experience with full mainframe application development life cycle and systems integration experience
• Excellent working knowledge of the IBM OS/390 and zOS mainframe environment
• Experience and understanding of TSO/ISPF, DB2, IMS, JCL, and other mainframe utilities
• Experience using the COBOL development language
• Understanding of MQ Series and other middleware technologies
• Excellent problem analysis and troubleshooting skills
• Strong leadership, planning, organizational and consulting skills
• Keen appetite for learning relevant technologies and for continuous self-improvement
• Strong technical and problem-solving skills with the ability to show initiative and take responsibility
• An effective communicator who utilizes technical knowledge to lead discussions with stakeholders and external partners
• Familiarity with Git, Bitbucket, Jenkins, DevOps pipeline is a plus
• Experience using modern mainframe development environments (IBM IDz, Zowe, etc.) is a plus
• Experience leveraging AI tools for mainframe development (IBM WatsonX, VS Code Copilot, etc.) is a plus
• Experience with agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban would be an asset
• As this position is posted in several locations, we specify that bilingualism (French, English, both oral and written) is required for Quebec only for the frequent interactions with English and French-speaking colleagues or internal partners across Canada or worldwide.

Note: Occasional weekend or evening work may be required.

Product Mindset

• You think in terms of client and business outcomes, not just technical elegance
• You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and adjusting as you learn
• You bias toward action, continuous improvement, and learning over perfection

Why This Role

• Opportunity to help evolve our brand through projects and initiatives that contribute to helping clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthy lives
• Be part of a dynamic team of professionals in a highly collaborative environment
• Opportunities to grow your skills through on-the-job learning, coaching, and training
• Be part of an innovative culture where continuous improvement is valued and rewarded
• Access to an industry-leading desktop development toolkit integrated into a modern workflow
• Opportunities to socialize and team-build through fun activities with coworkers
• Grow your strengths while managing ambiguity, flexibility, and new challenges

Note: As a condition of the role, the successful candidate must obtain a Government of Canada Reliability Status security clearance through Sun Life.

The Base Pay range is for the primary location for which the job is posted. It may vary depending on the work location of the successful candidate or other factors. In addition to Base Pay, eligible Sun Life employees participate in various incentive plans, payment under which is discretionary and subject to individual and company performance. Certain sales focused roles have sales incentive plans based on individual or group sales results.

Diversity and inclusion have always been at the core of our values at Sun Life. A diverse workforce with wide perspectives and creative ideas benefits our Clients, the communities where we operate and all of us as colleagues. We welcome applications from qualified individuals from all backgrounds.

Persons with disabilities who need accommodation in the application process, or those needing job postings in an alternative format, may e-mail a request to thebrightside@sunlife.com.

We are proud to be a hybrid organization that offers our employees the choice and flexibility to work from both the office and virtually based on the needs of the business, our Clients and you! Several work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

We may use artificial intelligence to support candidate sourcing, screening, interview scheduling.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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