IBM Db2 Database Platform Expert
IBM Db2 Database and Platform Expert Location: 100% Remote Contract Duration: 11/16/2026 - 05/14/2027 Our client is seeking an IBM Db2 Database and Platform Expert to evaluate, optimize, and guide the evolution of the Db2 environment behind a transportation management platform. This person will uncover performance and operational risks, deliver improvements, and lead a live production database move from Windows to Linux while keeping the business running without disruption. They will also work directly with IBM to resolve open issues. Responsibilities: Lead the migration of a large, existing production Db2 database from Windows to Linux, including the readiness assessment, migration plan, cutover, rollback procedures, validation, and post-migration stabilization. Diagnose and resolve production issues such as performance degradation, failed jobs, storage constraints, replication problems, backup or recovery failures, and availability concerns. Assess the current Db2 architecture, configuration, security, and support model, and analyze workload, SQL performance, execution plans, indexing, locking, deadlocks, schema design, tablespaces, buffer pools, memory, logging, and capacity to identify bottlenecks. Tune Db2 for high-volume transactional workloads that support dispatch, order management, rating, billing, settlement, reporting, and integrations. Partner directly with IBM support and engineering to work through open cases and drive them to resolution. Review custom SQL, understand the business workflow behind it, and tune or rewrite it, or recommend workflow or product changes when SQL is not the right fix. Benchmark application and database performance before and after the migration, and ensure backup, recovery, monitoring, high-availability, and disaster-recovery capabilities are maintained or improved. Configure and tune Linux environments for Db2, including file systems, storage mounts, permissions, resource limits, networking, processes, service automation, and monitoring. Review and optimize the Windows Server environment supporting Db2, including CPU, memory, paging, storage, disk latency, networking, service accounts, security settings, and antivirus exclusions. Build automation for health checks, configuration validation, and backup verification using PowerShell or similar tools, and establish performance baselines and monitoring standards. Produce clear technical findings, risk assessments, migration runbooks, and prioritized recommendations, and share knowledge with application, database, infrastructure, and support teams. Required Qualifications: Proven experience migrating a live, existing production Db2 database from Windows to Linux, including its data, custom SQL, and history. Experience with new Linux-only implementations does not meet this requirement. Extensive hands-on experience administering and tuning Db2 LUW in large, transaction-heavy production environments, including configuration, buffer pools, tablespaces, memory management, logging, backup and recovery, indexing, statistics, and SQL execution plan analysis. Deep Windows Server administration and performance-tuning experience for database workloads, including diagnosing CPU, memory, disk I/O, storage latency, paging, file system, and network issues. Proficiency with PowerShell for automation and diagnostics. Strong Linux administration skills relevant to Db2, including storage and file systems, permissions, user and group management, resource limits, process management, networking, and service automation. Established relationships with IBM, or the standing to escalate effectively with IBM support and engineering. Experience creating migration runbooks, cutover plans, rollback plans, validation checklists, and post-migration support plans. Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills in high-availability, business-critical environments. Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to turn technical findings into practical recommendations for technical and non-technical audiences. Preferred Qualifications: Experience supporting a transportation management system or a comparable platform with similar workloads, such as dispatch, order management, rating, settlement, billing, EDI, telematics, finance, and operational reporting. Familiarity with Db2 high-availability and disaster-recovery technologies, including HADR, replication, clustering, or pureScale. Experience with enterprise Linux distributions, ideally Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Background supporting 24/7 operational systems and executing planned maintenance or migration cutovers with minimal downtime. IBM Db2 certification, Linux certification, or equivalent demonstrated enterprise production experience.