AS400 SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR

About The Job:

• The AS400 System Administrator is responsible for the availability, security, performance, maintenance, and operational support of IBM i (AS400 / iSeries) environments.
• The role ensures stable platform operations, timely incident resolution, controlled changes, reliable backup and recovery, and effective coordination with application, database, network, storage, security, and vendor teams.

Essential Job Functions:

• Administer and support IBM i operating systems, logical partitions, system values, user profiles, authorities, devices, subsystems, and job queues.
• Monitor system health, CPU, memory, disk utilization, active jobs, message queues, batch workloads, and overall platform availability.
• Plan and execute operating system upgrades, cumulative PTFs, group PTFs, technology refreshes, firmware coordination, and scheduled maintenance.
• Perform backup, restore, media management, recovery validation, and disaster recovery activities in line with agreed operational procedures.
• Provide L2/L3 production support, troubleshoot incidents, complete root cause analysis, and implement preventive corrective actions.
• Manage security administration, privileged access, object authority, audit settings, password controls, and periodic access reviews.
• Support high availability and replication solutions, failover testing, and recovery readiness where applicable.
• Create and maintain operational documentation, standard operating procedures, technical runbooks, support checklists, and configuration records.

Detailed Responsibilities

System Administration & Monitoring

• Perform day-to-day administration of IBM i environments across development, test, disaster recovery, and production landscapes.
• Monitor system operator messages, QSYSOPR, history logs, job logs, output queues, disk pools, and scheduled workloads.
• Configure and maintain subsystems, job descriptions, job queues, output queues, device descriptions, TCP/IP services, and system values.
• Analyze performance trends and support capacity planning, workload balancing, and resource optimization.

Patch, Upgrade & Change Management

• Assess, plan, install, and validate PTFs, cumulative packages, group fixes, licensed program updates, and IBM i version upgrades.
• Prepare implementation plans, risk assessments, validation steps, rollback plans, and post-change evidence.
• Execute changes through the approved change management process and participate in change reviews as required.

Backup, Recovery & High Availability

• Administer backup schedules, save strategies, BRMS policies where implemented, media rotation, and restore procedures.
• Validate backup completion, investigate failures, and conduct periodic restore and disaster recovery tests.
• Support replication and high-availability tools such as PowerHA, MIMIX, or equivalent solutions, where deployed.

Security & Compliance

• Create, modify, disable, and review user profiles, group profiles, authorization lists, and object permissions.
• Monitor security audit logs and support vulnerability remediation, compliance reviews, audit evidence, and segregation-of-duties controls.
• Apply least-privilege principles and follow enterprise security standards for privileged and service accounts.

Incident, Problem & Service Management

• Triage and resolve platform alerts, job failures, performance issues, device/connectivity problems, storage conditions, and operational incidents.
• Collaborate with application and infrastructure teams during major incidents and provide clear technical updates.
• Perform problem analysis, document root cause, track corrective actions, and reduce recurring incidents.
• Meet agreed service level targets for response, restoration, resolution, and change execution.

Qualifications:

• Experience: 5-10 years

Required Technical Skills

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in IBM i / AS400 system administration and production operations.
• Experience supporting business-critical environments with defined operational controls and service levels.
• Working knowledge of ITIL-aligned incident, problem, change, request, and configuration management processes.
• IBM i administration, IBM Power, ITIL, or relevant infrastructure certifications are desirable.

Behavioral Competencies

• Ownership & Accountability.
• Analytical Troubleshooting.
• Customer Focus.
• Communication & Collaboration.
• Risk and Control Mindset.
• Continuous Improvement.

Operational Expectations

• Participate in 24x7 rotational support and scheduled on-call coverage, based on business requirements.
• Perform planned maintenance during approved change windows, including weekends or non-business hours when required.
• Maintain accurate shift handovers, operational dashboards, incident records, change evidence, and audit documentation.
• Coordinate with IBM support, hardware vendors, managed service partners, and internal resolver teams for complex issues.
• Contribute to automation, alert reduction, monitoring improvement, technical debt reduction, and service reliability initiatives.

Indicative Performance Measures

• System availability and stability against agreed service targets.
• Incident response, restoration, and resolution performance.
• Change success rate and adherence to planned implementation controls.
• Backup success, restore validation, and disaster recovery readiness.
• Patch compliance, security remediation, audit closure, and documentation quality.