Program Director – Mainframe Optimization & Delivery- (ISV migrations and software swaps)
Ensono · Frankfort, KY
$155,000–$210,000from the description
Jun 29, 2026
Frankfort, KY
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior leadership role overseeing mainframe optimization and transformation programs for enterprise clients, with a mix of delivery management and pre-sales involvement. Day-to-day work spans governing multiple concurrent client engagements, driving improvements across mainframe environments such as z/OS, and collaborating with sales and architecture teams on solution design. Best suited to someone with a decade or more of mainframe-focused consulting or program management experience.
Senior level · 10+ years · Remote · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 9 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 600 people nationally plausibly meet what this posting asks for (computer and information systems managers). range 360–900
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $178,991 (middle half $141,096–$225,584). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The role is a client-facing Program Director at a managed services consultancy (Ensono), combining program delivery leadership with pre-sales solutioning and technical advisory — it sits at the boundary between 11-3021 (CIS Managers) and a senior IC consulting role (15-1299). 11-3021 was chosen because the JD emphasizes leading multiple concurrent client engagements, governance, stakeholder management, mentoring junior consultants, and budget/resource ownership — hallmarks of a management-level role — rather than hands-on individual technical delivery.
The JD lists Jira, Asana, MS Project, and Smartsheet together as a single proficiency requirement under Required Qualifications. Jira is emitted as the primary required skill with the others as alternatives (interchangeable tools satisfying the same requirement). Asana, MS Project, and Smartsheet are also listed separately as preferred to reflect that any one of them may be the tool actually used.
The level advertised in the title is set to Principal because 'Program Director' is the title — a Director-level framing is the highest advertised band. However, the actual scope (leading client programs at a consultancy, no indication of org-wide authority or large direct-report org) supports Senior as the required level.
Bachelor's degree is listed as required ('Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field') but immediately followed by 'PMP or Agile certification is a plus' in the same sentence, and the broader JD language ('or related field') suggests equivalent experience is implicitly accepted in a consulting context. Degree requirement is set to None out of caution; hiring managers should confirm if a degree is a hard gate.
Cloud integration and modernization for legacy systems appears only under Preferred Qualifications and is listed as a general familiarity — marked preferred accordingly.
Mainframe scheduling tools and tape management are called out in the required qualifications as part of z/OS operational knowledge; these are captured under the z/OS skill rather than as separate entries since no specific named product (e.g., CA7, TWS, IBM TS) is identified.
This posting reads as a fully-remote role, so it was scored against the national candidate pool rather than a single metro.
Read the full posting
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