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Principal Software Engineer (Mainframe Modernization)
navapbc • Remote
No Relocation
Posted: February 23, 2026
Job Description
Position summary
As a leader in technical innovation, you will define reusable technical strategies to transform mission-critical legacy systems into modern, scalable solutions. You will investigate new technologies, rapidly iterate on experiments to determine the most viable approach to problems, and envision new patterns for legacy system migration. You will coordinate across teams, guide architecture and implementation, and ensure that solutions meet business needs, technical standards, and long-term maintainability goals.
What you’ll do
- Productize new technologies to provide innovative solutions that facilitate modernization of legacy systems
- Create playbooks and training for Nava engineering to train up on Nava capabilities
- Develop demo applications showcasing the capabilities of these solutions
- Work with project teams to deploy capabilities within their projects and iterate based on their feedback
- Ensure that modernized systems solve legacy system pain points
- Coordinate with government partners, subject matter experts, and Nava's project teams to capture critical business rules and constraints
- Facilitate interdisciplinary coordination across teams to unlock dependencies and ensure successful application of new technologies across modernization efforts
Required skills
- Proven experience leading end-to-end modernization efforts, including transitioning from legacy systems (e.g., mainframes, monoliths) to modern architectures (e.g., microservices, cloud-native)
- Strong architectural skills with the ability to design scalable, maintainable and secure systems
- Advanced proficiency in mainframe programming languages, technologies, and implementation patterns (e.g., COBOL, JCL, QSAM, VSAM)
- Advanced proficiency in modern programming languages and frameworks (e.g., Java, Python, Node.js, or equivalent)
- Experience with legacy system integration, interface development, and data migration strategies
- Familiarity with APIs, messaging systems, and event-driven architecture
- Strong understanding of DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and automated testing
Desired skills
- Familiarity with modern LLM technologies
- Experience with various data synchronization patterns and technologies used with mainframe systems (e.g., DB2, IBM API Connect, Change Data Capture)
Additional Content
Position summary
As a leader in technical innovation, you will define reusable technical strategies to transform mission-critical legacy systems into modern, scalable solutions. You will investigate new technologies, rapidly iterate on experiments to determine the most viable approach to problems, and envision new patterns for legacy system migration. You will coordinate across teams, guide architecture and implementation, and ensure that solutions meet business needs, technical standards, and long-term maintainability goals.
What you’ll do
- Productize new technologies to provide innovative solutions that facilitate modernization of legacy systems
- Create playbooks and training for Nava engineering to train up on Nava capabilities
- Develop demo applications showcasing the capabilities of these solutions
- Work with project teams to deploy capabilities within their projects and iterate based on their feedback
- Ensure that modernized systems solve legacy system pain points
- Coordinate with government partners, subject matter experts, and Nava's project teams to capture critical business rules and constraints
- Facilitate interdisciplinary coordination across teams to unlock dependencies and ensure successful application of new technologies across modernization efforts
Required skills
- Proven experience leading end-to-end modernization efforts, including transitioning from legacy systems (e.g., mainframes, monoliths) to modern architectures (e.g., microservices, cloud-native)
- Strong architectural skills with the ability to design scalable, maintainable and secure systems
- Advanced proficiency in mainframe programming languages, technologies, and implementation patterns (e.g., COBOL, JCL, QSAM, VSAM)
- Advanced proficiency in modern programming languages and frameworks (e.g., Java, Python, Node.js, or equivalent)
- Experience with legacy system integration, interface development, and data migration strategies
- Familiarity with APIs, messaging systems, and event-driven architecture
- Strong understanding of DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and automated testing
Desired skills
- Familiarity with modern LLM technologies
- Experience with various data synchronization patterns and technologies used with mainframe systems (e.g., DB2, IBM API Connect, Change Data Capture)