Mainframe Reverse Engineer

Who We Are

At Kyndryl, we run and reimagine the mission-critical technology systems that drive advantage for the world’s leading businesses.  We are at the heart of progress; with proven expertise and a continuous flow of AI-powered insight, enabling smarter decisions, faster innovation, and a lasting competitive edge. For our people—Kyndryls—that means doing purposeful work that powers human progress. Join us and experience a flexible, supportive environment where your well-being is prioritized and your potential can thrive.

The Role

Your Role

As a Mainframe / Reverse Engineering SME at Kyndryl, you will drive enterprise mainframe modernization by uncovering existing application behavior, business rules, technical dependencies, and operational processes across online, batch, data, and integration layers. Collaborating with Modernization Architects, KAF/Agentic AI Engineers, FDEs, application teams, and business stakeholders, you will validate discovery findings, expose hidden dependencies, and mitigate risk so teams can accurately replicate business capabilities in cloud-native or distributed platforms.

What You Will Do

Lead end-to-end mainframe application discovery, portfolio assessments, and reverse engineering across code, batch, online transactions, databases, and middleware to extract business rules, workflows, and dependencies. You will evaluate modernization readiness, technical debt, and operational risks to produce current-state architecture and flow documentation that guides transformation planning. Additionally, you will partner with FDE and Agentic AI Engineers to validate KAF and AI-assisted discovery outputs, while providing hands-on SME support for production troubleshooting, migration testing, parallel runs, and cutover.

Required Qualifications

- Mainframe Application Discovery & Assessment: Proven experience analyzing mainframe applications, systems, and supporting infrastructure, performing portfolio assessments across business processes, technical architecture, interfaces, batch jobs, data stores, and operational dependencies, and evaluating complexity, criticality, and migration readiness.
- Reverse Engineering & Current-State Analysis: Strong background reverse engineering legacy applications—analyzing source code, online transactions, batch processes, databases, and interfaces to extract business logic, processing rules, workflows, and end-to-end functionality.
- Architecture & Artifact Documentation: Demonstrated ability to document application architecture, transaction flows, data flows, integration points, and operational processes to create detailed current-state artifacts for target-state design.
- Dependency & Impact Analysis: Deep expertise identifying hidden dependencies across applications, databases, middleware, schedulers, and external systems, including conducting transaction tracing, data-flow analysis, and batch-chain analysis.
- Technical Debt & Risk Evaluation: Experience evaluating technical debt, architectural constraints, and operational risks associated with mainframe modernization and collaborating with architects on disposition and transformation planning.
- Production Support & Troubleshooting: Hands-on experience investigating production issues across application functionality, data processing, and operational workflows, including analyzing code paths and runtime behavior.
- Migration & Cutover Execution: Proven track record providing subject matter expertise during migration testing, parallel runs, cutover activities, and program-wide risk mitigation.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Strong communication skills to partner effectively with Modernization Architects, application teams, and business stakeholders to translate legacy capabilities for cloud-native or distributed platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

- KAF & AI-Assisted Discovery Validation: Experience validating and refining outputs from KAF (Kyndryl Agentic AI Framework) and AI-assisted discovery tools, including AI-generated business-rule extraction, dependency maps, and system analysis artifacts.
- Agentic AI & FDE Collaboration: Experience partnering with Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE) and Agentic AI Engineers to enhance automated discovery and reverse-engineering capabilities.
- Cloud-Native & Distributed Target Alignment: Familiarity with translating legacy mainframe capabilities into target cloud-native or distributed architectures to ensure functional parity before migration planning begins.

Your Future at Kyndryl

Every position at Kyndryl offers a way forward to grow your career. We have opportunities that you won’t find anywhere else, including hands-on experience, learning opportunities, and the chance to certify in all four major platforms. Whether you want to broaden your knowledge base or narrow your scope and specialize in a specific sector, you can find your opportunity here.

Who You Are

You’re good at what you do and possess the required experience to prove it. However, equally as important ,you have a growth mindset; keen to drive your own personal and professional development. You are customer-focused , someone who prioritizes customer success in their work. And finally, you’re open and borderless , naturally inclusive in how you work with others.

Required Qualifications

- Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Experience: 10+ years of hands-on mainframe application development, support, or architecture experience.
- Core Expertise: Deep expertise in COBOL-based enterprise applications and related mainframe ecosystems, with a strong understanding of online, batch, database, and messaging architectures within mainframe environments.
- Proven Analysis & Documentation: Proven experience performing source code analysis, troubleshooting, and dependency analysis, as well as creating application documentation from legacy systems with limited documentation.
- Mainframe Technologies: COBOL, PL/I, Assembler, JCL, CICS, IMS, DB2, VSAM, IBM MQ.
- Mainframe Operations & Analysis: Source Code Analysis, Production Troubleshooting, Dependency Analysis, Batch Processing Analysis, Scheduler Technologies (Control-M, CA-7, TWS/IWS, Autosys or equivalent), Application Impact Analysis, System Documentation and Discovery.
- Assessment & Modernization: Application Discovery, Reverse Engineering, Current-State Assessment, Technical Debt Identification, Modernization Readiness Analysis, Legacy System Documentation.

Preferred Qualifications

- Education: Master's degree is a plus.
- Modernization & Cloud: Experience supporting large-scale mainframe modernization initiatives, with exposure to cloud migration and transformation programs.
- Tools & Domain: Experience working with AI-assisted discovery and code analysis tools, plus familiarity with banking, insurance, retail, healthcare, or other highly regulated industries.
- Preferred / Niche Skills: Business Rule Extraction, Batch Chain Analysis, Transaction Flow Tracing, Data Flow Analysis, KAF Output Validation, Mainframe Application Inventory and Rationalization, Modernization Assessment Frameworks, Enterprise Application Dependency Mapping, Reverse Engineering Methodologies, Cloud Migration Assessment.

Being You

The “Kyn” in Kyndryl means kinship, which represents the strong bonds we have with each other, our customers and our communities. We focus on ensuring all Kyndryls feel included and we welcome people of all cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. Even if you don’t meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply. We believe in growth, and we’re excited to see what you can bring. At Kyndryl, employee feedback has told us that our number one driver of employee engagement is belonging. That sense of belonging — being a valued, respected, trusted member of the team — is fundamental to our culture and fueling great experiences for our customers. This dedication to welcoming everyone into our company means that Kyndryl gives you the ability to thrive and contribute to our culture of empathy and shared success. That’s The Kyndryl Way.

What You Can Expect

Your career with us isn’t just a job—it’s an adventure with purpose.  We offer a dynamic, hybrid-friendly culture that supports your well-being and empowers you to grow. Our Be Well programs are thoughtfully designed to support your financial, mental, physical, and social health—because we know that when you feel your best, you do your best.

From your very first day, you’ll dive into impactful work that powers the systems our customers rely on every day. You won’t just contribute—you’ll make a difference, tackling meaningful projects that sharpen your skills and fuel your growth.

We’re here to champion your journey. With powerful tools to chart your career path, personalized development goals aligned with your ambitions, and continuous feedback to keep you inspired and on track, you’ll have everything you need to thrive and evolve. You’ll develop in-demand skills to grow your career and achieve your ambitions with access to cutting-edge learning opportunities—from certifications with Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to coaching and hands-on experiences. And through it all, you’ll be part of a culture that values empathy, restless learning, and a devotion to shared success.

We want you to thrive here—and we’re committed to helping you do just that. Ready to make an impact? Join us and help shape what’s next.

Get Referred!

If you know someone that works at Kyndryl, when asked ‘How Did You Hear About Us’ during the application process, select ‘Employee Referral’ and enter your contact's Kyndryl email address.