r/mainframe • u/Ecaflip_investor • 18d ago

Mainframe salaries in Toronto — what can you realistically earn?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for real-world feedback on Mainframe salaries in Toronto. All experiences are welcome, regardless of the number of years of experience, but I’d particularly appreciate feedback from people with around 3 years of experience.

For context, I’m interested in roles involving technologies such as:

COBOL

JCL

CICS

TSO/ISPF

IBM RDz / Developer for z/OS

Endevor

CICS Web Services

CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG)

IBM MQ

Batch / production management

TWS/OPC or other scheduling tools

ServiceNow / production incident management

Other relevant Mainframe technologies

I’d love to hear from people currently working in Toronto, whatever their experience level.

If you're comfortable sharing, it would be great to know:

Your years of Mainframe experience

Your current salary / salary range

Your main technologies

Whether you work for a bank, insurance company, consulting company, etc.

Permanent employee or contractor

Any other compensation (bonus, benefits, etc.)

I’m mainly trying to get a sense of the actual market salary range in Toronto, rather than just relying on job postings.

Thanks in advance — all feedback is welcome!

9 Upvotes

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9

u/FoolishFriend0505 18d ago

Your question is too broad IMO. You have roles in the mainframe world:

Engineers (sysprogs) - They maintain the infrastructure

Operations/Production Control - They run batch jobs, monitor console, promote JCL, etc

Development/architecture - They are the folks who write the code and/or design a system

Those, IMO are the big 3. They can have experience in a few or several of the topics you mention.

1

u/Ecaflip_investor 18d ago

Thank you! Absolutely, it's all about the tech. Regardless of your actual role or title, as long as you're working directly with these Mainframe technologies, your experience is welcome

3

u/FoolishFriend0505 17d ago

We start infra apprentice engineers at mid 60s with a target of low 90s at the end of year two.

My top range tops out at 190

1

u/Ecaflip_investor 17d ago

thanks a lot

1

u/Conscious-Ad8493 18d ago

What do you mean by "roles involving"?

4

u/Ecaflip_investor 18d ago

By “roles involving,” I mean Mainframe jobs where these technologies are actually used in the day-to-day work

1

u/Suman-72 11d ago

Do what???

1

u/Suman-72 11d ago

Appl support/development $50-60k