Cobol Developer - Pretoria at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Apply critical thinking & problem solving skills to contribute to all phases of the development lifecycle & quickly produce well-organised, optimized, and documented source code to deliver high-performing, scalable, enterprise-grade applications.

Job Description

Accountability: 

DevOps

• Apply critical thinking, design thinking and problem solving skills in an agile team environment to solve technical problems (Front End, Back End OR Middleware) with high quality solutions
• Evaluate analysis, problem definition, business requirements, solution development & provide recommendations to enable the operational feasibility of solutions
• Quickly produce well-organised, optimized, and documented source code to deliver technical solutions
• Ensure designs & solutions support the technical organisation principles of self-service, repeatability, testability, scalability & resilience
• Apply general design patterns and paradigms to deliver technical solutions
• Debug existing source code and polish feature sets.
• Work with integrated teams and other developers to improve and evolve technical products and services
• Align all application development & development process to Group Architecture & Infrastructure guidelines
• Provide input into project & program teams (when required) to plan & manage the development lifecycle e.g. releases, risk management, testing, integration etc.
• Conduct reviews, performance monitoring & ongoing optimization and maintenance on applications
• Stay ahead of the curve on emerging technologies and development practices and continuously evolve existing knowledge & skill in preparation for cross domain and other experiences e.g. Secure Side, Testing, Infrastructure solutions etc.

People 

• Conduct peer reviews, testing, problem solving within and across the broader team
• Support the people change teams in the development of user material (Customer, Employee & 3rd Party Adoption)

Risk & Governance 

• Identify technical risks and mitigate these (pre, during & post release)
• Update / Design all application documentation aligned to the organization technical standards and risk / governance frameworks
• Participate in incident management & DR activity – applying critical thinking, problem solving & technical expertise to get to the bottom of major incidents

Education and experience required

• 3-8 years + Cobol experience - essential
• Relevant B-Degree in Computer Science preferred but not essential if minimum requirements of experience & practical application in the following is evident:
• Automation
• Messaging
• Integration
• Solutioning
• SSL Security
• CI/CD etc.
• Experience working in an agile environment
• Excellent communication, analytical skills and decision making ability in collaborative environments
• Excellent understanding of specific coding / scripting languages e.g. Cobol both batch and on-line processing, IMS, Db2 experience and JCL.  
• Solid understanding of Object Oriented Design and ability to properly apply general design patterns and paradigms
• Experience with test-driven development and domain driven design
• Solid understanding of messaging protocols and web services like SOAP and REST
• Good understanding of frameworks and libraries like JavaScript, jQuery, TypeScript, HTML, CSS
• Experience with CI / CD tools (like Jenkins, Bamboo, TFS, Azure Devops) and Artifact Management (preferably Nexus),
• Topaz and other IDE tools pertaining to the mainframe, abend aid, Icetools, BMP and MPP and Easytrieve advantageous
• Strong understanding of version control and related concepts and techniques, particularly Git
• Experience with appropriate unit testing framework(s)
• Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with Cloud platforms e.g. Azure, AWS & Google Cloud Platform

Competencies: (Maximum of 8 competencies)

• Team Working
• Accountability
• Interpreting Data
• Meeting Timescales
• Taking Action
• Producing Output
• Thorough, detailed and solution based investigations
• Following Procedures
• Adopting Practical Approaches
• Mental and Environmental demands (RSA specific)

Special work requirements

• Standby on weekends and after hours may be required from time to time

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology