The Opportunity:
Join our innovative team as a Senior Technologist in a role that sits at the intersection of legacy mainframe systems and cutting-edge AI technology. This position offers a unique opportunity to serve as the critical technical bridge between modern systems engineering and mainframe operations while integrating emerging AI capabilities into legacy development workflows.
You'll lead efforts to incorporate emerging AI technologies into the mission space, translate those capabilities into practical tools for mainframe developers, and maintain mission-critical COBOL-based financial management systems running on z/OS.
This role provides exceptional growth potential as you'll not only support current infrastructure but also shape the modernization strategy and technology roadmap for legacy system transformation while working with a diverse team of infrastructure engineers and mainframe developers.
What You'll Be Working On
The system is a large-scale COBOL application processing financial management data for a federal client. It runs nightly batch cycles on z/OS, uses Db2 and VSAM for data storage, and includes a C/C++ GUI communicating with the mainframe via TCP/IP and CICS.
In parallel, the team is deploying a private, secure LLM instance to assist with development tasks—code explanation, documentation, query generation, and more. This role sits at the center of both efforts: keeping the legacy system stable, advancing the modernization agenda, and building the bridge between the team's mainframe expertise and its emerging AI capabilities.
Responsibilities:
Primary: Systems Engineering & Modernization
Lead technical discussions on migration strategy, evaluating pathways to modernize legacy workflows and components over time
Support Development and maintenance of C/C++ components, including GUI and interface layers that communicate with the mainframe application via TCP/IP and CICS
Drive adoption of VS Code and modern developer tooling across the team, including mainframe-facing extensions such as IBM Z Open Editor.
Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines accommodating both modern and mainframe build, test, and deployment orchestration using industry DevOps & CI/CD tooling such as GitLab or equivalent tooling
Manage the code repository, including branching strategies, merge request workflows, access controls, and integration with mainframe source control tools
Secondary: Technical Liaison
Serve as the primary point of coordination between system engineers and the mainframe development team, translating requirements, capabilities, and constraints in both directions
Lead the adoption of emerging AI tools for team use, working alongside system engineers on deployment configuration, access controls, and operational parameters.
Integrate emerging AI capabilities into development workflows, enabling use cases such as code explanation, documentation generation, and query assistance for the mainframe team
Participate in prompt engineering and refinement techniques to tailor AI behavior to mainframe-specific terminology, patterns, and use cases
Provide training and technical support to mainframe developers in effectively using AI toolsets, bridging the gap between AI capabilities and legacy development practices
Tertiary: Mainframe Support
Support mainframe operations — including TSO/ISPF navigation, JCL authoring and troubleshooting, batch cycle and change control collaboration with mainframe engineers, and technical documentation covering infrastructure, LLM integration, and mainframe procedures.
Participate in on-call rotation for nightly batch cycle monitoring and production support
Qualifications:
Required:
Current US Citizenship
Ability to obtain a NACI security clearance
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field plus 8 years of experience, OR High School Diploma plus 12 years of equivalent experience in software or systems engineering
Demonstrated experience leading or contributing to legacy modernization efforts — assessing codebases and infrastructure, evaluating replatforming, refactoring, and hybrid strategies, and facilitating stakeholder discussions to balance modernization goals against operational continuity and risk — delivered through actionable, phased implementation roadmaps.
Able to bridge AI and mainframe teams — translating AI concepts to legacy developers and mainframe constraints to AI engineers. Hands-on familiarity with LLM tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot, with a willingness to grow into enterprise LLM configuration.
Experience with modern development workflows including Git/GitLab repository management, CI/CD pipeline development (GitLab CI, Jenkins, or equivalent), and modern IDE usage
Proficiency in C or C++ for developing and maintaining systems-level or interface application components
Strong written and verbal communication skills for documentation, design specifications, and asynchronous collaboration in a remote environment
Desired:
Emerging AI
Hands-on experience provisioning and maintaining cloud environments on Azure or AWS, including compute, storage, networking, and access management
Experience connecting LLM or AI services to existing applications or workflows via REST APIs
Experience building pipelines to extract, transform, and deliver structured or semi-structured data to an AI model for processing or fine-tuning
Mainframe / Other
Background in financial systems or federal government contract environments
Extensive use of VS Code as a primary development environment; comfortable configuring extensions and workspaces.
Candidates must be willing to learn mainframe fundamentals (z/OS, TSO/ISPF, JCL, COBOL, etc.) through on-the-job training and self-study.
What You Can Expect:
A culture of integrity.
At CACI, we place character and innovation at the center of everything we do. As a valued team member, you’ll be part of a high-performing group dedicated to our customer’s missions and driven by a higher purpose – to ensure the safety of our nation.
An environment of trust.
CACI values the unique contributions that every employee brings to our company and our customers - every day. You’ll have the autonomy to take the time you need through a unique flexible time off benefit and have access to robust learning resources to make your ambitions a reality.
A focus on continuous growth.
Together, we will advance our nation's most critical missions, build on our lengthy track record of business success, and find opportunities to break new ground — in your career and in our legacy.
Pay Range:
There are a host of factors that can influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications. Our employees value the flexibility at CACI that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and learning and development opportunities. Our broad and competitive mix of benefits options is designed to support and protect employees and their families. At CACI, you will receive comprehensive benefits such as; healthcare, wellness, financial, retirement, family support, continuing education, and time off benefits.
Since this position can be worked in more than one location, the range shown is the national average for the position.
The proposed salary range for this position is:
$75,200-$158,100CACI is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic.
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