Senior Middleware Engineer / Lead Middleware Administrator

ROLE OVERVIEW We are seeking a highly experienced Middleware Engineer / Lead Middleware Administrator to join our Infrastructure & Middleware Platform team. This is a senior individual contributor or lead role responsible for architecting, managing, and evolving our enterprise middleware landscape — spanning IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM WebSphere Liberty, IBM HTTP Server, IBM MQ, WebSphere Portal, Apache Tomcat, Oracle WebLogic, and JBoss/WildFly. The successful candidate will bring a minimum of 10 years of hands-on experience and will play a pivotal role in ensuring platform stability, security, and performance across MCC's enterprise environment. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Middleware Platform Management •      Design, implement, configure, and maintain enterprise middleware platforms including IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS ND), IBM WebSphere Liberty, IBM HTTP Server (IHS), IBM MQ, WebSphere Portal, Apache Tomcat, Oracle WebLogic, and JBoss/WildFly across development, staging, and production environments. Application Deployment •      Deploy, configure, and manage enterprise Java applications (EAR/WAR/JAR), perform application lifecycle management, rolling deployments, rollbacks, and post-deployment validation. WebSphere Administration •      Configure and administer WebSphere ND environments including Deployment Manager (DMGR), Node Agents, Clusters, JVMs, JDBC Providers, Data Sources, JMS resources, Shared Libraries, Virtual Hosts, and Work Managers. Middleware Security •      Configure SSL/TLS certificates, LDAP integration, LTPA, SSO, OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SAML, and API Gateway integration, and secure communication between enterprise applications. Performance & Availability •      Monitor JVM health, thread pools, connection pools, heap usage, garbage collection, and maintain High Availability (HA) environments with minimal service disruption. IBM MQ Administration •      Install, configure, administer, and troubleshoot IBM MQ Queue Managers, Queues, Channels, JMS resources, SSL-enabled MQ channels, and MQ client connectivity. Incident & Problem Management •      Troubleshoot production incidents including JVM crashes, hung threads, connection leaks, OutOfMemory errors, CORBA/IIOP issues, scheduler failures, and application performance bottlenecks. Perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and coordinate with vendors for issue resolution. Automation & Scripting •      Develop and maintain Shell (Bash) and wsadmin (Jython) scripts to automate middleware deployments, health checks, monitoring, and routine administration tasks. Monitoring & Health Checks •      Monitor middleware infrastructure using Dynatrace, PMI, GC logs, thread dumps, heap dumps, FFDC logs, and Linux system monitoring tools to ensure optimal system performance. Change & Release Management •      Prepare implementation plans, rollback procedures, risk assessments, CAB documentation, and execute production changes with minimal business impact. Patch & Upgrade Management •      Plan and implement WebSphere Fix Packs, Interim Fixes (IFixes), Java SDK upgrades, IBM Installation Manager updates, IBM MQ maintenance, and middleware security patching. Stakeholder Collaboration •      Work closely with application teams, infrastructure teams, database administrators, network teams, security teams, vendors, and business stakeholders to support enterprise middleware services. Documentation & Continuous Improvement •      Prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), operational runbooks, architecture documentation, and continuously improve middleware reliability, security and operational efficiency. EXPERIENCE & SKILLS REQUIRED Core Experience •      Minimum 10 years of experience in Middleware Administration with strong expertise in IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS ND) within enterprise environments. Platform Expertise •      Hands-on experience with IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS ND), IBM WebSphere Liberty, IBM HTTP Server (IHS), IBM MQ, WebSphere Portal, Apache Tomcat, Oracle WebLogic, and JBoss/WildFly. Middleware Technologies •      Strong knowledge of Deployment Manager (DMGR), Node Agents, Clustering, JVM tuning, JDBC Providers, Data Sources, JMS, JNDI, Shared Libraries, Virtual Hosts, and Enterprise Java applications. Security & Authentication •      Experience configuring SSL/TLS, LDAP, LTPA, Single Sign-On (SSO), OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML, and API Gateway integration. Linux Administration •      Strong experience managing middleware platforms on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and familiarity with IBM AIX and Windows Server environments. Automation •      Experience using Shell Scripting (Bash), wsadmin (Jython), Python, and Linux scripting to automate middleware administration tasks. Performance Tuning •      Hands-on experience analysing JVM performance, Garbage Collection (GC), Thread Dumps, Heap Dumps, FFDC logs, connection leaks, and performance bottlenecks. Monitoring Tools •      Experience using Dynatrace, IBM Health Center, Linux monitoring tools, and WebSphere Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI). Soft Skills •      Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, excellent communication abilities, stakeholder management experience, and the ability to prepare technical documentation, implementation plans, and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) reports. QUALIFICATIONS •      Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline. •      IBM Certified Systems Expert (WebSphere Application Server) — preferred. •      IBM Certified Administrator for WebSphere MQ — preferred. •      RHCE / RHCSA or equivalent Linux certification — advantageous. •      ITIL Foundation certification — advantageous.