IBM DataPower / API Connect Engineer (Only W2)

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Terms of Employment:

W2 Contract-to-Hire, 9 months
This position is remote.

Overview:

Our client is seeking a Lead Systems Engineer responsible for configuration, administration, troubleshooting, and maintenance of technology solutions, especially IBM DataPower/APIM. The Lead Infrastructure Engineer provides technical support, troubleshooting, and diagnostics, and performs scripting/programming to ensure stable and efficient operation of technology solutions.

Responsibilities
Performs installation, monitoring, testing, configuration, migration, maintenance and troubleshooting of assigned technology.
Manages system/application environment and ongoing operations.
Ensures that the technologies are updated with current, stable, and compliant architecture and applications that meet enterprise standards.
Researches, designs, implements, and tests technology solutions.
Proactively monitors and reports performance and utilization of assigned technologies.
Troubleshoots software and/or hardware issues/failures.
Resolves alerts and performs remediation activities.
Manages problem or escalated tickets and tasks and out of cycle requests from systems/software owners.
Collects and presents data for reporting and planning.
Assists with developing tactical strategies, processes and procedures related to systems/application administration.
Determines migration and upgrade impacts and diagnose/resolve complex technology/application errors.
Collaborates with IT and business area partners on work groups and initiatives.
Determines best course of action for meeting business needs.
Provides input into infrastructure architecture designs.
Writes programming/scripting.
May participate in Disaster Recovery planning and exercises.
Ensures execution and alignment to architectural standards and blueprints.
May contribute input to infrastructure architecture.
Performs on-call activities as needed for the environment and technologies.
DataPower Configuration: Configuring DataPower appliances for security, traffic management, mediation, and data transformation policies.
API Gateway Management: Managing API gateways on DataPower, including access control, rate limiting, and throttling.
Integration Development: Integrating applications and systems using DataPower capabilities like XSLT, XPATH, and various messaging protocols.
API Lifecycle Management: Managing the full lifecycle of APIs from design to deployment, including versioning, documentation, and monitoring.
Troubleshooting and Support: Identifying and resolving issues related to API connectivity, DataPower configuration, and API performance.

Required Skills & Experience:

6 years of DataPower and API Connect administration and support.
Environment Infrastructure Build and Automation.
Strong Scripting and Automation experience.
Strong Hands-on Middleware experience.
Extensive SDLC experience.
Ability to analyze and trouble-shoot Mid-tier/Mainframe infrastructure issues.
Hands on technical and Architecture skills.
Automation experience.
Troubleshooting DataPower domain application issues and certificate crypto object issues.
Installation and configuration of DataPower Appliances.
Experience automating the configuration of servers / virtual machines with solutions such as Ansible or equivalent.
Understanding of Middleware architecture and working knowledge of various Middleware application server integration.
Configure and administration of IBM API Connect and IBM DataPower appliances.
Maintain working knowledge of API security standards and implementation (Oauth 2.0, OpenID, JSON, Web Token, JOSE, x509 certificates); Maintain knowledge of API security certification, authentication, authorization, IP security setup, and endpoint configuration.
Good knowledge of Network concepts and F5 Load balancers.
Working knowledge on SSL certificates implementation.
Solid understanding of J2EE application deployment patterns and n-tier architectures.
Understanding of SOA and web services and their deployment in DataPower.
Expert knowledge of Scripting for automation (BASH, Python, or Ruby).
Product knowledge on the functionality and different components of the product. Experience on DP and APIC version 10.x.
Extensive experience in configuration and administration of IBM DataPower and IBM APIM Appliances.
Experience in IBM DataPower XI52 architectures.
Configuring certificates / encryption decryption filed level message level.
Expertise in troubleshooting DataPower, channels, listeners, intercommunications (TCP/IP) and triggering.
Experience in initializing/setup of IBM DataPower SOA appliances.
Perform administrative tasks on IBM DataPower configuration, Interface design, development, maintenance and administrative activity.
Working knowledge of general security concepts (Authentication, Authorization, Encryption, and Digital signatures), PKI concepts, and TLS.
Good troubleshooting skills with overall knowledge on DataPower features/concepts.
Strong UNIX/LINUX experience.
Strong focus on IBM DataPower and requires extensive knowledge of various integration patterns and security standards, best practices, hands-on experience with administration and management of DataPower.
Experience with Mid-tier/mainframe platforms and their associated Operation Systems and Tools including: MQ Series, Strong UNIX/scripting, RHEL, Tomcat.
Solid leadership and technical experience.
Excellent communication skills.
The internal drive, intellectual curiosity, ability to learn, lead, and desire to help the customers succeed.
Ability to work proactively and engage Stakeholders.
Consistently demonstrates passion and drive, with a desire to improve solutions.
Extensive working knowledge of multiple technologies and their interfaces and integration.
Competent working in one or more environments highly integrated with an operating system.
Extensive experience implementing and administering/managing technical solutions in major, large-scale system implementations.
High critical thinking skills to evaluate alternatives and present solutions that are consistent with business objectives and strategy.
Ability to manage tasks independently and take ownership of responsibilities.
Ability to learn from mistakes and apply constructive feedback to improve performance.
Ability to communicate technical information clearly and articulately.
Ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
Experience analyzing business requirements and translating them into technical solutions.
Experience using Agile and Devops methodology.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

Exposure to a variety of other platforms and Technologies is a Plus, including IBM, RHEL, TOMCAT, Cloud AWS, Ansible.
Java/J2EE programming background is a plus.
Programming Languages: Java, JavaScript, Python
Web Services Standards: SOAP, REST, JSON, XML
Cloud Platforms: AWS, IBM SAAS
Other IBM Middleware Tools: MQ Series, IBM Sterling Gateway, Tomcat, Control M,.