IBM MQ Architect / Factory Lead - Charlotte, NC/ Dallas, TX & Phoenix, AZ (Hybrid)

[Sid K]

Hi Folks,

My client is looking for IBM MQ Architect / Factory Lead for 6 Month Contract role based in Charlotte, NC/ Dallas, TX & Phoenix, AZ (Hybrid)

Position: IBM MQ Architect / Factory Lead

Location:  Charlotte, NC/ Dallas, TX & Phoenix, AZ (Hybrid)
Duration: 6 Month Contract

Required Skills & Experience
Technical Experience
• 8+ years of hands-on IBM MQ experience
• Deep expertise in:
o Queue Manager administration
o MQ channels, clusters, and listeners
o MQ security (TLS, CHLAUTH, OAM)
o HA patterns (Multi-Instance MQ, RDQM, platform clustering)
• Proven experience migrating MQ across:
o Data centers
o Platforms
o MQ versions
 
Migration & Factory Experience is a plus
• Demonstrated experience in large-scale MQ migrations (hundreds or thousands of QMs)
• Strong understanding of:
o Migration factories
o Runbook-driven execution
o Parallel cutover management
• Experience in regulated or mission-critical environments (banking, insurance, healthcare)
 
Leadership & Communication
• Proven ability to lead technical teams without direct line authority
• Strong written and verbal communication
• Comfortable operating in:
o Architecture review boards
o Incident bridges
o Executive status discussions

Key Responsibilities
1. Migration Factory Architecture & Governance
• Define and own the IBM MQ migration reference architecture for the program
• Establish standardized migration patterns (standalone, multi-instance, HA/RDQM)
• Create, maintain, and evolve factory runbooks and playbooks
• Define cutover, rollback, and validation standards
• Enforce consistency and risk controls across all migration pods
 
2. Technical Leadership & Design Authority
• Act as design authority for:
o MQ Queue Manager architecture
o Channel and clustering strategies
o TLS, CHLAUTH, and security models
o HA/DR patterns and failover validation
• Review non-standard migrations and exceptions
• Ensure compatibility across MQ versions and platform targets
 
3. Factory Enablement & Productivity Improvement
• Enable factory throughput targets (e.g., ~12 QMs/day sustained)
• Identify and remove systemic blockers impacting delivery velocity
• Drive automation opportunities (scripts, templates, tooling)
• Optimize migration sequencing and wave planning
• Measure and improve factory productivity over time (30–35% gain target)
 
4. Escalation & Risk Management
• Serve as the final technical escalation point for:
o Migration failures
o TLS / security issues
o HA and cluster behavior anomalies
o Post-cutover production issues
• Lead root cause analysis and define preventive controls
• Own technical risk register and mitigation strategies
 
5. Team Leadership & Mentoring
• Provide technical oversight and mentoring to:
o MQ migration engineers
o Junior support engineers
• Review work outputs for quality and compliance
• Support skills uplift and standardization across delivery teams
 
6. Stakeholder & Cross-Team Coordination
• Partner with:
o Application teams for cutover alignment
o Network and security teams for connectivity and certs
o Platform teams (OS, storage, virtualization)
• Communicate migration readiness, risks, and exceptions to leadership
• Support client architecture and governance forums as MQ SME

Thanks
Sid