DB2 Data Inventory Engineer

Required Skills & Experience

Strong hands-on IBM DB2 for z/OS experience. Strong mainframe administration/infrastructure knowledge. Hands-on experience with VSAM. Strong DB2 administration skills and understanding of how data is physically and logically managed in mainframe environments. Ability to analyze mainframe storage configurations and explain what is happening with the underlying data. Strong understanding of database schemas, metadata, data structures, and storage. Experience analyzing data dependencies, lineage, referential integrity, and relationships between systems. Understanding of what happens to data during deletion, archival, backup, restore, and other lifecycle activities in a mainframe environment. Ability to investigate large, unfamiliar, and potentially decades-old legacy systems. Ability to work with client administrators and SMEs to gather technical evidence when direct system access is limited. Strong analytical and documentation skills. Mid-level minimum, with senior-level experience strongly preferred.

Nice to Have Skills & Experience

Previous data archival, data reduction, data inventory, or data disposition experience. Healthcare industry experience. Experience working with regulated or sensitive healthcare data. Knowledge of healthcare data-retention concepts and requirements. Experience determining whether legacy data can be safely archived and subsequently restored/rehydrated. Experience assessing duplicate, obsolete, or orphaned data. Experience working across infrastructure, application, database, and business teams. Familiarity with legacy applications and data repositories that have been operating for decades. Broader familiarity with mainframe technologies that may be encountered when tracing dependencies.

Job Description

Perform hands-on discovery and assessment across primarily IBM DB2 for z/OS mainframe data repositories. Analyze DB2, z/OS, VSAM, and mainframe storage configurations to understand how data is structured, stored, managed, and utilized. Gather and document metadata including schemas, data structures, volumes, growth, utilization, technical ownership, and other repository characteristics. Analyze VSAM files and DB2 structures to identify relationships and dependencies within legacy environments. Trace upstream/downstream dependencies, data lineage, interfaces, and relationships between repositories and applications. Assess referential integrity and determine potential downstream impacts if portions of data are archived or removed. Determine whether existing archival capabilities/processes exist and assess what would technically be required to archive and rehydrate data. Work directly with current DB2/mainframe administrators, application owners, infrastructure teams, and other client SMEs to obtain schemas, reports, system information, and technical evidence. Identify duplicate, obsolete, orphaned, or rapidly growing data where possible. Partner with business/policy resources to understand how retention requirements apply to specific repositories and data structures. Document findings in a detailed inventory that will ultimately be used to score and prioritize repositories for future data-reduction and archival efforts. Work alongside the client's existing data-archival team and other DB2 specialists as needed.