Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process services, dedicated to helping the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world.
Our Culture
Your passion, integrity and experience are integral to Cognizant's success. You will join a dynamic and expanding global leader in IT and Business consultancy where you will be valued for who you are. We take pride in our partnership with our clients, so your ability to add value and provide exceptional service to our clients is fundamental to your success. In return, you will be presented with opportunities to develop your career and collaborate with talented colleagues in a supportive, diverse environment.
At Cognizant we recognize that companies that are open and welcoming to a multi-culturally diverse workforce will thrive with fresh perspectives and collaborative knowledge. Cognizant focuses on promoting & increasing gender diversity and providing a workplace which encourages great participation and an equal playing field, where merit and accomplishment are the only criteria for success.
Job Summary:
We are seeking an experienced Principal Data Architect professional to lead end‑to‑end migration from legacy systems to modern data platforms. The role involves defining migration strategy and architecture, overseeing execution, ensuring data quality and reconciliation, and managing cutover with minimal business disruption. The candidate will drive governance, handle high‑volume mission‑critical data, and provide leadership across teams to ensure successful, compliant, and efficient data transformation.
Roles & Responsibilities:
- Define the overall Data Migration Architecture for Mainframe modernization programs
- Design scalable source‑to‑target data models, mapping legacy structures to modern platforms
- Establish migration patterns (big‑bang, phased, wave‑based, or domain‑wise)
- Drive data decomposition strategies for large and tightly coupled mainframe datasets
- Ensure architecture aligns with performance, security, audit, and compliance requirements
- Lead end‑to‑end data migration delivery across multiple pods / workstreams
- Oversee data extraction, transformation, loading (ETL/ELT) from Mainframe sources
- Govern batch sequencing, dependency management, restartability, and error handling
- Ensure zero or minimal business disruption during migration cycles
- Coordinate with application, testing, and infrastructure teams for integrated delivery
- Define and enforce data validation frameworks, including:
- Row counts & record balancing
- Control totals and hash reconciliations
- Referential integrity checks
- Business rule validations
- Own pre‑ and post‑migration reconciliation sign‑off
- Drive defect triage and root cause analysis for data discrepancies
- Ensure auditability and traceability across migration runs
- Plan and execute mock migrations and dress rehearsals
- Lead cutover planning, including rollback and contingency strategies
- Support parallel runs and controlled transition from Mainframe to target systems
- Work closely with business stakeholders to validate data correctness post go‑live
- Establish migration governance frameworks and reporting mechanisms
- Identify and mitigate data migration risks, including data loss, corruption, and performance bottlenecks
- Provide regular status, risk, and dependency updates to senior stakeholders
- Support client workshops on migration approach, risk posture, and readiness.
- Mentor migration architects, data engineers, and testing teams
- Drive best practices, accelerators, and reusable assets for Mainframe migration
- Contribute to future‑state data strategy beyond migration (modernization, analytics, optimization)
Skills Required:
The role requires deep, hands‑on expertise in Mainframe Data Migration, including:
- Legacy Mainframe systems (COBOL, JCL, DB2, VSAM, IMS) and their data structures
- End‑to‑end legacy‑to‑target data migration covering extraction, transformation, validation, and reconciliation
- Migration of high‑volume, mission‑critical telecom data with strict SLAs and regulatory requirements
- Strong understanding of batch processing, file‑based data movement, and scheduling frameworks
- Experience migrating data to modern data platforms (Cloud DW, Lakehouse, Analytics platforms)
- Data quality, reconciliation, control totals, audit checks, and post‑migration assurance.
- Managing cutover, dress rehearsals, and parallel runs in large transformation programs
Benefits:
Joining Cognizant will give you the opportunity to learn and collaborate with some of the most talented people in the industry, while having your finger on the pulse of emerging industry trends and working on the cutting edge of technology in your field of expertise.
We recognize that our people perform at their best when they feel valued as significant contributors and that is why at Cognizant, taking care of our employees is a priority:
· You can pursue innovative career tracks and opportunities here
· You can enhance your professional development through education and dedicated training
· We’ll give you the skills you need to keep pace with the changing workplace while our compensation, benefits and wellness packages help you stay healthy and plan for the future.
Next Steps:
Please reach out to our friendly and welcoming team today to apply and register your interest for this full-time role. We'd love to help you get your next role and enable you to fulfil your professional ambitions.
What we offer
- The chance to work with impact. Here, you’re empowered to bring your biggest thinking to help our company and clients improve everyday life.
- Ownership over your career. Stay at the top of your game through our award-winning learning and development ecosystem. And when your ambitions change or we offer new opportunities, we help you pivot by providing reskilling, on-the-job learning and guidance to find new roles that might be a better fit.
- The opportunity to thrive on a high caliber team with heart. We celebrate each other’s experiences and perspectives and promote a sense of belonging through our affinity groups and diversity and inclusion initiatives.
- A comprehensive total rewards package, including a competitive salary and a pension plan with matching contributions.
- Flexible health and financial benefits to support you and your eligible dependents—from day one.
- True work-life balance. Be at your best through paid time off, flexible work arrangements, volunteering opportunities, social events, and so much more.
About us
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is an AI Builder and technology services provider, building the bridge between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization’s unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, realize tangible returns and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant.
Other employment-related information
Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial or local laws.
If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email [email protected] with your request and contact information.
Language requirements vary depending on roles, but we ask that all candidates have basic English proficiency for company-wide communications purposes. For roles based in Quebec, professional English proficiency is required, as you’ll deliver services to and collaborate with stakeholders outside the province who may not speak French.
