Principal Mainframe Storage Architect

Principal, Infra Mainframe Storage

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

We are seeking a Principal Mainframe Storage Architect to lead IBM Z storage design, resilience, and governance across production, DR, and test platforms. You will lead storage architecture standards, change governance, upgrades, performance, risk, and compliance across storage, sysprog, infrastructure, and operations teams. . The role includes governing the Managed Service Provider, reviewing designs and changes, setting engineering standards, validating deliverables, and driving quality across production, DR, and test environments. The role supports a mission-critical banking platform with a focus on availability, DR, stability, audit readiness and service resilience.

Key Skills and Expertise

Key skills include IBM Z storage, DS8000/DS8900, GDPS, DFSMS, DFSMShsm, FICON, SAN, TS7700, TS4500, z/OS, disaster recovery, capacity planning, performance tuning, and compliance.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead IBM Z storage architecture across DASD, flash, tape, SAN, and replication services.
• Define enterprise storage standards, naming conventions, capacity models, and resilience policies.
• Serve as design authority for Mainframe storage upgrades, refreshes, change implementation, and DR testing.
• Design and maintain GDPS Metro and XRC replication architecture, topology, and failover processes.
• Own SMS policy design aligned to data lifecycle, retention, resilience, and capacity requirements.
• Define HSM migration, backup, and recall policies to optimise cost, recovery, and performance.
• Design zFS layouts for z/OS UNIX workloads, including zCX where needed.
• Evaluate new storage technologies for fit, risk, compliance, and enterprise adoption.
• Advise vendors on storage roadmaps, capacity, and refresh planning.
• Maintain clear storage architecture documents, design records, and as-built diagrams.
• Configure, validate, tune, and troubleshoot DS8000 storage platforms and copy services.
• Maintain GDPS scripts and validate configurations after every hardware change.
• Own IODF/HCD storage definitions and validate paths before IPLs and hardware changes.
• Troubleshoot storage path, channel, and IOS issues during changes and incidents.
• Lead storage capacity planning using RMF, SMF 42, and DS8000 performance metrics.
• Validate tape subsystem connectivity, paths, definitions, and cabling.
• Provide executive reporting on storage health, capacity, replication, and risk.
• Review MSP design documents, diagrams, reports, plans, RCAs, and changes.
• Monitor MSP stability and use incident trends, repeat changes, and drift to drive service improvements.
• Lead MSP service reviews for technical standards and delivery quality on Mainframe Storage.

Experience and Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in IBM Z environments, including 10+ years in senior storage architecture, engineering, or infrastructure roles.
• Expertise in IBM DS8000 and DS8900, including volume management, copy services, microcode lifecycle, and performance optimisation.
• Proven experience with GDPS Metro and/or XRC in regulated production environments.
• Strong DFSMS expertise, including ACS routines, storage groups, class design, and SMS-managed tape.
• Strong DFSMShsm expertise in migration, backup, recall, CDS management, and tiered storage.
• Working knowledge of IBM TS7700 and TS4500 tape subsystems, including grid, library, and encryption concepts.
• Experience in storage performance analysis, monitoring, and reporting using RMF, SMF type 42, and DS8000 metrics.
• Experience supporting major hardware refreshes, including path migration, fabric re-zoning, and GDPS revalidation.

Technical Skills - Must Have

Domain

Required knowledge

DASD

DS8000/DS8900, FlashSystem, volume management, copy services, PAV/HyperPAV

Replication

GDPS Metro/XRC, Metro Mirror, Global Mirror, consistency groups

SMS

ACS routines, storage groups, management/data/storage classes, SMS-managed tape

HSM

DFSMShsm migration, backup, recall, CDS management, ML2 tape optimisation

SAN / Fabric

Brocade FICON directors, WWPN zoning, ISL design, port mapping

IODF / HCD

FICON CHPID, CU/device definitions, IOCDS, CMT output

Tape

TS7700, TS4500, FICON tape, encryption, VTS

z/OS file systems

zFS, HFS, VSAM, catalog management

Performance

RMF, SMF 42, DS8000 statistics, EasyTier

z/OS fundamentals

JCL, REXX, ISPF, TSO, system commands

Technical Skills - Preferred

Domain

Preferred knowledge

EMC/Dell storage

Symmetrix, VMAX, or PowerMax in mainframe-attached environments

Flash

IBM FlashSystem 9500 or equivalent with mainframe host attachment

Automation

Ansible for Z, IBM Z System Automation, GDPS automation

AI/ML operations

watsonx Assistant for Z

Certifications

IBM z/OS, DS8000, or GDPS certifications

Working with Us:

As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve! Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

We’d love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world’s most admired and sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today. #MadeForGreater

Reasonable accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com.

We hope you’re excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.

About Our Bangalore Office

The Northern Trust Bangalore office, established in 2005, is home to over 5,600 employees.  In this stunning office, space, we offer fantastic amenities which include our Arrival Hub – Jungle, the GameZone, and the Employee Experience Zone that appeal to both clients and employees. Learn more.

Experience Level

Senior Level