Role: Senior AS400 / IBM i Architect (Contract)
Position Type: Contract
Location: Chennai / NOIDA
Domain: Banking & Financial Services
Experience: 8-12 years
Practice: Midrange Modernisation
THE ROLE
We are looking for an experienced AS400 / IBM i Senior Architect on a contract basis to work with our leading banking clients.
This is a comprehension, assessment, and analysis role. Our modernisation work starts with understanding what banks actually run today: large RPG and Synon / CA 2E application estates on AS/400 (IBM i), often thinly documented, with original authors long gone. As a contractor on this engagement, you will read legacy code, reconstruct design and platform architecture, and translate complex legacy environments into actionable findings, documentation, and modernisation recommendations for client architects, engineers, and executive stakeholders.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
- Legacy System Analysis: Deep-dive into large banking RPG (RPG III / RPG/400, RPG IV / ILE, free-format) and CL codebases, including Synon / CA 2E-generated programs and underlying models (functions, action diagrams, access paths, files).
- Reverse Engineering: Document application flows, data models (DB2 for i, DDS, physical/logical files), batch/job streams, integration points, and embedded core banking business rules.
- Architecture Assessment: End-to-end evaluation of AS/400 architecturesubsystems, work management, job scheduling, object/library models, security, journaling, and commitment control—to assess system health and modernization risks.
- Deliver Assessment Reports: Produce comprehensive estate assessments including inventory, dependency and impact analysis, complexity hotspots, dead code, and clear modernisation roadmaps traceable back to source code.
- AI Tool Validation: Validate AI-assisted code analysis and knowledge extraction outputs against real IBM i systems, providing feedback to refine platform tools.
- Client Engagement: Present findings, risks, and strategic recommendations clearly to banking client architects, business stakeholders, and executive leadership.
MUST HAVE
- 8-12 years hands-on experience on AS/400 / IBM i (iSeries, System i), including strong background in technical lead, design authority, or architect roles.
- Banking Domain & Technical Expertise: Proven experience working with banking, payments, or core-banking application estates on IBM i.
- Deep RPG Proficiency: Extensive experience across RPG III / RPG/400, RPG IV / ILE RPG (RPGLE), free-format RPG, CL, DDS, subfiles, and embedded SQL.
- Synon / CA 2E: Ability to navigate 2E models and read generated code (functions, action diagrams, access paths, templates).
- DB2 for i & Integration: Expert knowledge in physical/logical files, access paths, SQL, journaling, data queues, ODBC/JDBC, web services, and MQ.
- System Documentation: Strong track record in reverse-engineering, documenting, and evaluating unfamiliar legacy systems, paired with excellent communication and presentation skills.
NICE TO HAVE
- AI & Automation: Familiarity with LLMs, AI-assisted code analysis tools, or agentic frameworks applied to legacy codebases.
- Modernisation Execution: Experience with re-hosting, re-platforming, or refactoring IBM i workloads to Cloud (AWS, Azure) or target architectures (Java / .NET).
- Analysis & Modernization Tooling: Hands-on experience with tools such as X-Analysis, Hawkeye Pathfinder, ARCAD, RDi, or Git on IBM i.