The Mainframe
Path

IBM Z systems still run the world's banking, insurance, and healthcare backbones, and I've spent my final years at Wolverhampton building real depth here, not just curiosity. I was one of the top IBM Z Student Ambassadors globally, served as Secretary / Vice-President of the Mainframe Student Society, earned a perfect score in my High Performance Computing module, and shipped JCLcheck, a real lexer/parser/AST validation engine for JCL. Open to graduate and entry-level mainframe engineering roles.

100%

High Performance Computing

8

Credly Badges

Superstar

IBM Z Student Ambassador Tier

1

Live JCL Validation SaaS

Roles & Advocacy

2025 – 2026

IBM Z Student Ambassador Program

Global · Ambassador

IBM Z Student Ambassador — Highest Tier Achieved

  • Reached the highest tier in the ambassador program by championing mainframe technologies across university channels and digital platforms.
  • Featured in an exclusive interview on the official IBM Z Student Ambassador program page to discuss personal experience and technology advocacy.
  • Recognised and featured by the Open Mainframe Project for promoting open-source enterprise computing through technical writing.
IBM Zz/OSEnterprise SystemsAdvocacy

2025 – 2026

Mainframe Student Society, Wolverhampton

MaSS UoW

Secretary / Vice-President

  • Organised and facilitated weekly technical meet-ups and high-profile educational events, including "Mainframe and Computer Science" aimed at bridging the knowledge gap for CS students.
  • Managed society operations, community outreach, and social media advocacy to grow student engagement with IBM Z technologies.
Community LeadershipEvent OrganisingOutreach

Summer 2026

Mainframe Open Education

LFX Mentorship

Mentee, Educational Content & Advocacy

  • Accepted into the highly selective, unpaid Summer 2026 mentorship programme to develop technical content for mainframe beginners.
  • Acting as a relatable voice for the student and early-career community, translating foundational technical workflows into interactive learning modules.
Open Mainframe ProjectTechnical ContentMentorship

Conferences & Events

Attended

Conference · 2025

WAVEZ Spring Event 2025

Conference · 2026

WAVEZ Spring Event 2026

Conference · 2025

GSUK 2025

Built on Systems Fundamentals

My BSc (Hons) Computer Science at the University of Wolverhampton finished with a First Class classification, and my final-year module work leaned directly into the systems fundamentals that mainframe and enterprise computing are built on.

High Performance Computing (6CS005), a Level 6 module covering parallel and concurrent computation at scale, was graded 100% (P100), the same discipline that underpins how mainframe workloads are managed and optimised in production. I paired that with modules in Complex Systems, Distributed and Cloud Systems Programming, and Numerical Methods and Concurrency, all part of building a genuine, examined understanding of large-scale system behaviour, not just an interest in it.

Module

6CS005 — High Performance Computing
Grade: 100% (P100) · Level 6

Related Modules

5CS022 — Distributed and Cloud Systems Programming (P82)
5CS021 — Numerical Methods and Concurrency (P90)
6CS014 — Complex Systems (P71)

Degree

BSc (Hons) Computer Science
First Class · University of Wolverhampton

Badges & Certifications

Verified via Credly — full profile at credly.com/users/zubairidrisaweda ↗

Mainframe Writing

I write beginner-friendly explainers on mainframe internals, published on Medium, with an interactive companion series built for the way I wish I'd first learned this material.

JCLcheck

JCLcheck is a real, self-contained JCL validation engine — lexer, parser, AST, and rule-engine — that I built and shipped as a live SaaS-style product. It runs entirely without a mainframe: paste JCL into the browser workbench and it's validated against rules distilled from the IBM JCL Reference.

The engine checks statement ordering, DD-statement rules, keyword legality (with Levenshtein-distance "did you mean…" suggestions), DISP/SPACE/DCB/REGION/TIME/DSN value syntax, and full in-stream PROC resolution with symbolic parameter (&SYM) validation and DD-override matching, every diagnostic ships with a plain-English message and a suggested fix, built for people still learning the syntax.

The frontend is a Vue 3 workbench with a 3270-terminal-styled editor, line-numbered diagnostic gutter, and PF-key action bar (F1 Help / F5 Validate / F9 Sample / F12 Clear) — built for learning JCL and training new mainframe developers without needing z/OS access.

Launch JCLcheck ↗ View Source ↗

Role

Sole Engineer & Founder

Architecture

Hand-written lexer → paren/quote-aware param tokenizer → parser → AST → rule engine, orchestrated by a validation pipeline. Node.js/Express API, Vue 3 + Vite frontend.

Status

Live at jclcheck.xyz ↗

Stack

Node.js Express Vue 3 / Vite Lexer / Parser / AST JCL IBM JCL Reference

Open to Mainframe Roles

I'm looking for graduate or junior mainframe engineering roles where I can keep building on IBM Z/z/OS foundations — JCL, enterprise batch processing, and the systems that keep banking and insurance infrastructure running. If your team is hiring, or you just want to talk mainframes, I'd love to hear from you.

Reach me directly at zubairidrisaweda@gmail.com

Mainframe Engineering

Graduate / Junior Mainframe Roles

IBM Z, z/OS, JCL, enterprise batch systems. Eager to keep building on the foundations from the Student Ambassador programme and MaSS leadership.

Download CV ↗