Lead IBM Sterling Engineer

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.

Role Summary:

We are looking for an experienced Lead Sterling Engineer with strong expertise in IBM Sterling B2B Integrator / Sterling File Gateway / Sterling Secure Proxy and hands-on experience working in the banking or financial services domain. The ideal candidate should have strong technical leadership capabilities, deep understanding of B2B file transfer platforms, payment/file processing flows, secure data exchange, and banking compliance requirements.

The role requires leading Sterling platform design, development, support, integration, migration, and enhancement activities while collaborating closely with business, operations, infrastructure, security, and vendor teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead design, development, configuration, and support activities for IBM Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling File Gateway, and related Sterling components.
• Work on onboarding, configuration, and maintenance of trading partners, communication protocols, file routes, business processes, maps, envelopes, certificates, and mailbox configurations.
• Manage high-volume file transfer and transaction processing across banking applications, external partners, payment networks, vendors, and regulatory systems.
• Design and develop Sterling maps using Map Editor, including complex transformations, validations, and translation logic.
• Work with different message and file formats such as Flat Files, XML, EDI, ISO formats, CSV, SWIFT-related formats, NACHA, ACH, payment files, and banking-specific layouts.
• Configure and support communication protocols such as SFTP, FTPS, FTP, AS2, Connect: Direct, HTTPS, MQ, and Web Services, as applicable.
• Lead Sterling production support, incident resolution, root cause analysis, and performance tuning activities.
• Review and optimize Sterling business processes, workflows, adapters, schedules, services, and routing rules.
• Support Sterling upgrades, migrations, patching, environment setup, disaster recovery activities, and platform modernization initiatives.
• Ensure secure file transfer practices including encryption, decryption, PGP, certificates, SSL/TLS, key management, and secure authentication.
• Collaborate with banking business teams to understand file movement, payment processing, reconciliation, settlement, regulatory reporting, and downstream system integration requirements.
• Provide technical leadership to development and support teams, including task allocation, technical reviews, mentoring, and issue escalation.
• Prepare technical design documents, mapping specifications, operational runbooks, deployment plans, and support documentation.
• Coordinate with infrastructure, network, database, middleware, information security, and application teams for end-to-end Sterling delivery.
• Ensure adherence to banking compliance, audit, data security, and operational risk requirements.
• Participate in release planning, change management, deployment validation, and post-production support.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to improve platform stability, monitoring, automation, and operational efficiency.

• Strong hands-on experience with IBM Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling File Gateway, and Sterling ecosystem components.
• Experience in Sterling maps, business process design, partner onboarding, mailbox setup, envelope configuration, and protocol configuration.
• Strong experience handling high-volume file transfer processing, preferably in banking or financial services environments.
• Good understanding of banking file exchange, payments, transaction processing, settlement, reconciliation, clearing, and regulatory reporting flows.
• Experience working with formats such as EDI, XML, Flat File, CSV, ISO 20022, SWIFT MT/MX, ACH, NACHA, or other banking-specific file formats.
• Strong knowledge of secure transmission protocols including SFTP, FTPS, AS2, HTTPS, Connect: Direct, MQ, and Web Services.
• Experience with encryption and security standards such as PGP, SSL certificates, TLS, SSH keys, digital certificates, and key rotation.
• Knowledge of Linux/Unix commands, shell scripting, SQL queries, and basic database troubleshooting.
• Ability to troubleshoot Sterling process failures, translation errors, adapter issues, file routing failures, and partner connectivity issues.
• Experience with monitoring, alerting, job scheduling, incident management, problem management, and production support processes.
• Strong understanding of enterprise release management, change management, and ITIL-based support processes.
• Ability to lead technical discussions, guide junior team members, and collaborate with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong documentation, analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills.

• Experience in large banking, payments, cards, treasury, corporate banking, or capital markets environments.
• 8+ years of overall IT experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on IBM Sterling B2B Integrator / Sterling File Gateway experience.
• 2+ years in a technical lead or senior engineer role.
• IBM Sterling B2B Integrator certification or relevant IBM middleware certification is preferred.

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.