Senior Lead Application Developer

Join Our Team In 2025, USA Today recognized Primerica as a Top Workplace USA for the fifth year in a row, and Newsweek named Primerica one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity for the second consecutive year. In 2024, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution named Primerica as a Top Workplace for the eleventh consecutive year, and Forbes recognized Primerica as one of America’s Best Employers for Women for the fifth year in a row. In addition, for the tenth time Primerica has been voted a Best Employer by Gwinnett Magazine. Primerica is a great place to work! About This Position The Senior Lead Application Developer serves as a system-level authority across Primerica’s financial systems, combining deep mainframe expertise with the ability to improve how knowledge, ownership, and operational processes are distributed across the team. This role focuses primarily on mainframe application development, integration, and operational excellence, with a preference for candidates who also bring exposure to modern development stacks. The ideal candidate is someone who thinks in terms of system impact, knowledge sharing, and operational improvement, and who can apply modern ideas—like automation and structured documentation—into a legacy environment in a practical, low-risk way. Location: Duluth, GA. This role is not eligible for Visa sponsorship. The salary range for this role is $120k - $140K. Responsibilities & Qualifications Duties and Responsibilities: System Level Ownership Act as a technical authority across multiple financial systems, providing guidance on design, behavior, and cross-application impacts Evaluate upstream and downstream effects of changes across batch, online, and integrated processes, ensuring decisions are made with full system awareness Provide system-level guidance during complex production and delivery issues, leading root cause analysis and ensuring corrective actions address cross-system impacts and long-term stability Provide consultation on complex functional and technical questions, helping stakeholders understand system behavior, dependencies, and potential impacts across applications Make informed technical decisions in the absence of complete information, balancing risk, system impact, and urgency Knowledge Distribution Translate undocumented system behavior and institutional knowledge into structured, reusable assets, including: -System diagrams -Technical specifications -Operational runbooks and reference materials Maintain accurate, up-to-date technical documentation and operational procedures, ensuring information is accessible, actionable, and aligned with current system behavior Promote knowledge transparency across the team, reducing reliance on individual expertise and enabling broader ownership of systems Mentoring & Team Enablement Provide guidance and mentorship to less experienced team members, helping them build confidence and independence in supporting complex systems Translate technical solutions into clear, repeatable approaches and lead structured knowledge-sharing practices (e.g., mentoring, documentation, guidance) to improve team self-sufficiency Review selected deliverables to ensure alignment with approved designs, standards, and business requirements Recognize patterns of repeated escalation and take targeted action to equip team members with the knowledge and context needed to take ownership independently Foster a team environment that promotes autonomy, ensuring developers are increasingly able to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve issues without escalation Operational Excellence Serve as a primary escalation point for complex production and delivery issues, ensuring timely resolution and clear direction Identify recurring issues, support trends, and operational inefficiencies through analysis of incidents, production metrics, and system behavior Drive root cause resolution and continuous improvement, reducing manual intervention and eliminating recurring issues. Partner with the Team Leader to recommend technical, process, and tooling improvements that increase delivery efficiency, strengthen system stability, and reduce operational risk Own technical design, complex development efforts, and key decision-making for high-risk or high-impact work, ensuring solutions are aligned with system architecture and long-term maintainability Required Education Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience Required Skills Strong hands-on experience with core mainframe technologies, including COBOL, JCL, SQL (DB2 or equivalent), VSAM, CICS, TSO/ISPF, and z/OS Unix System Services (USS), along with modern debugging and diagnostic tools (e.g., Intertest, Xpediter, IBM Debugger) Deep understanding of mainframe architecture and application design, including batch processing, online transaction processing (OLTP), job scheduling, and data integration patterns Proven expertise in batch processing environments, with a strong grasp of job flow dependencies, scheduling, and performance considerations within complex financial systems Experience supporting regulated, audit-driven financial systems, including an understanding of production controls, change management, and compliance requirements Demonstrated ability to operate at a system level, including: -Explaining complex technical and system interactions in a clear, structured manner -Making sound decisions with incomplete information while balancing risk and urgency -Communicating technical risks, tradeoffs, and impacts to both technical and business stakeholders Strong collaboration and leadership skills, with the ability to effectively partner across distributed teams and varying levels of experience Preferred Skills Exposure to automation, scripting, or modernization initiatives Experience using Jira, Confluence, SharePoint, or similar tools Financial services or insurance domain experience Exposure to or working knowledge of modern development stacks such as Python, Pega, or distributed services Understanding of Workday EIB and/or Studio integrations Knowledge of BAI/BAI2 banking file formats and financial data exchange processes FLSA Status This position is exempt (not eligible for overtime pay): Yes Our Benefits Day one health, dental, and vision insurance 401(k) Plan with competitive employer match Vacation, sick, holiday and volunteer time off Life and disability insurance Flexible Spending Account & Health Savings Account Professional development Tuition reimbursement Company-sponsored social and philanthropy events It has been and will continue to be the policy of Primerica, Inc., and its subsidiaries to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal opportunity to all qualified individuals regardless of race, sex, color, religious creed, religion, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, pregnancy, ancestry, military service or veteran status, genetic or carrier status, marital status, sexual orientation, or any classification protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. At Primerica, we believe that diversity and inclusion are critical to our future and our mission – creating a foundation for a creative workplace that leads to innovation, growth, and profitability. Through a variety of programs and initiatives, we invest in each employee, seeking to ensure that our people are not only respected as individuals, but also truly valued for their unique perspectives.