DWS is seeking a Lead PL/I Design and Development Consultant to provide technical leadership within a highly experienced mainframe development environment. This opportunity is suited to a hands-on PL/I specialist who can lead complex technical analysis and design activities, work directly with code, provide technical assurance, and help resolve demanding engineering challenges across a large enterprise application landscape.

Where: Melbourne
Type: ACN or Max Term
Start: December 2026 or January 2027
Length: 6 months+
Style: Hybrid; 2+ days onsite
Salary: Up to $1,500/day ACN; Max Term by negotiation

Role requirements

• Lead the technical analysis and detailed design of complex PL/I application changes.
• Establish practical design and development approaches for key solution initiatives.
• Undertake hands-on development of complex or high-risk PL/I components.
• Analyse large and complex existing PL/I codebases, including online, batch and integration processing.
• Lead complex troubleshooting, root-cause analysis and performance tuning activities.
• Review technical designs and code produced by the development team.
• Identify technical risks, design weaknesses and potential implementation issues.
• Work collaboratively with developers to resolve complex engineering problems.
• Support technical estimation, development planning, testing, implementation and production-readiness activities.
• Strengthen team capability through practical knowledge transfer and technical leadership.

Mandatory experience and capabilities

• Extensive commercial experience designing and developing enterprise applications in PL/I on IBM mainframe platforms.
• Demonstrated experience delivering significant PL/I development, migration, remediation or modernisation initiatives.
• Substantial hands-on involvement across solution design, detailed technical design, build, testing, implementation, troubleshooting and tuning.
• Deep technical knowledge of VSAM including file structures, access patterns, performance, concurrency, integrity and recoverability.
• Deep practical knowledge of IBM MQ including application integration, message processing, exception handling, diagnostics and performance.
• Demonstrated ability to understand and safely modify large, complex and potentially poorly documented legacy applications.
• Strong diagnostic and problem-solving capability across online, batch, data-access and integration processing.
• Experience providing hands-on technical leadership, design assurance and code review within an established development team.
• Ability to work effectively within an experienced development team while remaining hands-on.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the production of clear technical designs and implementation guidance.

Desirable experience

• Good working knowledge of Db2.
• Experience with CICS and high-volume mainframe transaction-processing applications.
• Experience within banking, insurance or other highly regulated industries.
• Experience with complex financial calculations, batch processing, reconciliation and regulatory processing.
• Experience migrating or restructuring PL/I applications to remove a legacy database dependency.
• Familiarity with mainframe performance-monitoring, debugging and diagnostic toolsets.

About Us: Since 1991, DWS has been helping organisations across Australia reimagine what's possible through technology, business, and management consulting. With offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Canberra, our 300+ locally based consultants bring deep expertise and fresh thinking to every project. We deliver end-to-end solutions spanning IT consulting, Staff Augmentation, Managed Delivery, Data & Analytics, Cloud, AI and Automation.

Our strength lies in our people; each consultant is carefully selected for their expertise, creativity, and commitment to excellence. Together, we deliver impactful solutions that drive innovation, efficiency, and long-term value. At DWS, we don't just meet expectations - we redefine them.

Applicants must hold Australian Citizenship, Permanent Residency (PR), or other permanent work rights - DWS are unable to sponsor or support visas.

DWS encourages applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Ready for a new challenge? APPLY now!

www.dws.com.au

No agencies please - our in-house talent acquisition team have this covered.