Cobol Developer Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
COBOL developer roles attract H-1B visa and EB-3 visa sponsorship from banks, insurers, and federal contractors who can't find enough qualified candidates domestically. Mainframe experience is the differentiator, employers move fast when you have it. For detailed occupation requirements, see the O*NET profile.
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Get Access To All JobsAs a Sr COBOL Software Engineer, you will be considered a technical expert in one or more phases of application and/or systems engineering. This role supports Thrivent’s Annuity Policy Servicing & Maintenance (APSM) product area and focuses on the design, development, modernization, and support of business-critical annuity policy administration solutions. You will provide technical leadership for COBOL-based enterprise applications and mainframe technologies, partnering with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to deliver stable, scalable, and reliable servicing capabilities. The ideal candidate brings strong experience developing, enhancing, and supporting complex business processing systems, insurance policy administration platforms, and mission-critical production environments. Experience with DXC insurance platforms and products, including wmA, is highly desirable.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Designing Solutions
- Apply technical knowledge to drive outcomes for customers
- Ability to work and problem solve independently on initiatives that align to the broader software engineering strategy
Developing Software
- Works independently and collaboratively with the team to develop core software solutions that deliver business outcomes
- Consistently delivers software that meets or exceeds team expectations for stability, scalability, resilience, and maintainability
- Design, develop, maintain, and support COBOL applications that enable annuity servicing, policy maintenance, and policy administration capabilities
- Analyze business requirements, system behavior, and production issues to deliver reliable software solutions for complex policy administration processes
- Support modernization efforts by helping integrate mainframe applications with APIs, data services, event-driven patterns, and other distributed technologies
Learning and Applying New Techniques
- Shares new ideas and techniques with team; Encourages junior engineers to invest in learning as a part of their job
Collaborating within the Team
- Participate in team’s collaboration sessions to provide technical expertise to solve a problem/remove technical roadblock for the team
- Participate in product planning and implementation. Helps team to understand and decompose work
Defining Engineering Standards and Patterns
- Contribute to develop engineering practices, templates and frameworks in collaboration with the team
DevOps
- Continuously assessing technology to build more stable, scalable, and resilient software; Use data to measure progress
- Promote and expand on the use of the CI/CD pipeline to improve the deployment and build process
- Participates in the team support rotation and provides expert knowledge on focus subsystems
Selecting & Managing Technology Vendors
- Contribute to define the selection criteria for selecting the right technology vendors
- Participate in proof of concept / technology along with the vendor
Coaching Engineers
- Provide training, mentoring, technical guidance, and domain expertise to junior engineers to accelerate their growth and effectiveness
- Provide technical expertise and help the team to solve technical/software issues
- Provide domain expertise on software products in their area to junior engineers to help them learn/grow their skills and contribute as part of the team
Recruiting/Building Talent
- Engage in the tech community to build the Thrivent technology brand and position as the employer of choice in the market
- Participate in the interview process or be part of the panel to recruit the right talent to the team
- Contribute to the recruitment to define the structure of the interview process to hire the right talent to the team
- Models Thrivent’s leadership competencies – courage, collaboration, and commitment by demonstrating resiliency, working together to make the best decisions, and holding yourself and others accountable. Supports and/or develops an environment in which Thrivent employees and colleagues are focused on continuous improvement, exceptional employee engagement, and an unwavering commitment to our clients. Shapes and/or supports a culture that represents the Thrivent purpose, promise and values, ensuring that Thrivent’s trust and reputation remain strong with its clients.
QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:
Required:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or other technical field or equivalent work experience
- 7+ years of experience in engineering environments, taking abstract concepts and ideas and formulating a detailed software engineering plan to deliver
- 7+ years of experience developing and supporting COBOL-based applications in enterprise environments
- Experience working with mainframe technologies including JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM, and batch processing
- Sound knowledge of industry standard Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) practices
- Sound knowledge of version and revision control practices and procedures
- Sound knowledge of systems design concepts that provide security and stability
- Expertise in debugging code and/or complex log files for troubleshooting and analysis of product defects
- Expert knowledge/experience with querying databases for complex data lookup/update
- Perform code reviews with associate team members
- Ability to analyze business requirements and translate them into technical solutions
Preferred:
- Financial Services industry experience
- Experience in the life insurance or annuity industry
- Experience supporting policy administration systems
- Experience with DXC insurance platforms, including wmA or related products
- Knowledge of annuity contract servicing, payouts, policy maintenance, and policy administration operations
- Experience working with hybrid mainframe and distributed architectures, including APIs, event-driven integration patterns, and cloud-enabled solutions
- Experience working in Agile and iterative software delivery environments
Pay Transparency
Thrivent’s long-term growth depends on attracting, rewarding, and retaining people who are committed to helping others thrive with purpose. We accomplish this by offering a wide variety of market competitive compensation programs to attract, reward, and retain top talent. The applicable salary or hourly wage range for this full-time role is $104,063.00 - $140,793.00 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. The base pay actually offered will be determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, location, relevant experience, skills, and knowledge, business needs, market demand, and other factors Thrivent deems important.
Thrivent is unique in our commitment to helping people to be wise with money and live balanced and generous lives. That extends to our benefits.
The following benefits may be offered: various bonuses (including, for example, annual or long-term incentives); medical, dental, and vision insurance; health savings account; flexible spending account; 401k; pension; life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance; supplemental protection insurance; 20 days of Paid Time Off each year; Sick and Safe Time; 10 paid company holidays; Volunteer Time Off; paid parental leave; EAP; well-being benefits, and other employee benefits. Eligibility for receipt of these benefits is subject to the applicable plan/policy documents. Thrivent’s plans/policies are subject to change at any time at Thrivent’s discretion.
Thrivent provides Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all employees and job applicants.
Thrivent is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please let us know by sending an email to human.resources@thrivent.com or call 800-847-4836 and request Human Resources.
As a Sr COBOL Software Engineer, you will be considered a technical expert in one or more phases of application and/or systems engineering. This role supports Thrivent’s Annuity Policy Servicing & Maintenance (APSM) product area and focuses on the design, development, modernization, and support of business-critical annuity policy administration solutions. You will provide technical leadership for COBOL-based enterprise applications and mainframe technologies, partnering with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to deliver stable, scalable, and reliable servicing capabilities. The ideal candidate brings strong experience developing, enhancing, and supporting complex business processing systems, insurance policy administration platforms, and mission-critical production environments. Experience with DXC insurance platforms and products, including wmA, is highly desirable.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Designing Solutions
- Apply technical knowledge to drive outcomes for customers
- Ability to work and problem solve independently on initiatives that align to the broader software engineering strategy
Developing Software
- Works independently and collaboratively with the team to develop core software solutions that deliver business outcomes
- Consistently delivers software that meets or exceeds team expectations for stability, scalability, resilience, and maintainability
- Design, develop, maintain, and support COBOL applications that enable annuity servicing, policy maintenance, and policy administration capabilities
- Analyze business requirements, system behavior, and production issues to deliver reliable software solutions for complex policy administration processes
- Support modernization efforts by helping integrate mainframe applications with APIs, data services, event-driven patterns, and other distributed technologies
Learning and Applying New Techniques
- Shares new ideas and techniques with team; Encourages junior engineers to invest in learning as a part of their job
Collaborating within the Team
- Participate in team’s collaboration sessions to provide technical expertise to solve a problem/remove technical roadblock for the team
- Participate in product planning and implementation. Helps team to understand and decompose work
Defining Engineering Standards and Patterns
- Contribute to develop engineering practices, templates and frameworks in collaboration with the team
DevOps
- Continuously assessing technology to build more stable, scalable, and resilient software; Use data to measure progress
- Promote and expand on the use of the CI/CD pipeline to improve the deployment and build process
- Participates in the team support rotation and provides expert knowledge on focus subsystems
Selecting & Managing Technology Vendors
- Contribute to define the selection criteria for selecting the right technology vendors
- Participate in proof of concept / technology along with the vendor
Coaching Engineers
- Provide training, mentoring, technical guidance, and domain expertise to junior engineers to accelerate their growth and effectiveness
- Provide technical expertise and help the team to solve technical/software issues
- Provide domain expertise on software products in their area to junior engineers to help them learn/grow their skills and contribute as part of the team
Recruiting/Building Talent
- Engage in the tech community to build the Thrivent technology brand and position as the employer of choice in the market
- Participate in the interview process or be part of the panel to recruit the right talent to the team
- Contribute to the recruitment to define the structure of the interview process to hire the right talent to the team
- Models Thrivent’s leadership competencies – courage, collaboration, and commitment by demonstrating resiliency, working together to make the best decisions, and holding yourself and others accountable. Supports and/or develops an environment in which Thrivent employees and colleagues are focused on continuous improvement, exceptional employee engagement, and an unwavering commitment to our clients. Shapes and/or supports a culture that represents the Thrivent purpose, promise and values, ensuring that Thrivent’s trust and reputation remain strong with its clients.
QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:
Required:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or other technical field or equivalent work experience
- 7+ years of experience in engineering environments, taking abstract concepts and ideas and formulating a detailed software engineering plan to deliver
- 7+ years of experience developing and supporting COBOL-based applications in enterprise environments
- Experience working with mainframe technologies including JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM, and batch processing
- Sound knowledge of industry standard Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) practices
- Sound knowledge of version and revision control practices and procedures
- Sound knowledge of systems design concepts that provide security and stability
- Expertise in debugging code and/or complex log files for troubleshooting and analysis of product defects
- Expert knowledge/experience with querying databases for complex data lookup/update
- Perform code reviews with associate team members
- Ability to analyze business requirements and translate them into technical solutions
Preferred:
- Financial Services industry experience
- Experience in the life insurance or annuity industry
- Experience supporting policy administration systems
- Experience with DXC insurance platforms, including wmA or related products
- Knowledge of annuity contract servicing, payouts, policy maintenance, and policy administration operations
- Experience working with hybrid mainframe and distributed architectures, including APIs, event-driven integration patterns, and cloud-enabled solutions
- Experience working in Agile and iterative software delivery environments
Pay Transparency
Thrivent’s long-term growth depends on attracting, rewarding, and retaining people who are committed to helping others thrive with purpose. We accomplish this by offering a wide variety of market competitive compensation programs to attract, reward, and retain top talent. The applicable salary or hourly wage range for this full-time role is $104,063.00 - $140,793.00 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. The base pay actually offered will be determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, location, relevant experience, skills, and knowledge, business needs, market demand, and other factors Thrivent deems important.
Thrivent is unique in our commitment to helping people to be wise with money and live balanced and generous lives. That extends to our benefits.
The following benefits may be offered: various bonuses (including, for example, annual or long-term incentives); medical, dental, and vision insurance; health savings account; flexible spending account; 401k; pension; life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance; supplemental protection insurance; 20 days of Paid Time Off each year; Sick and Safe Time; 10 paid company holidays; Volunteer Time Off; paid parental leave; EAP; well-being benefits, and other employee benefits. Eligibility for receipt of these benefits is subject to the applicable plan/policy documents. Thrivent’s plans/policies are subject to change at any time at Thrivent’s discretion.
Thrivent provides Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all employees and job applicants.
Thrivent is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please let us know by sending an email to human.resources@thrivent.com or call 800-847-4836 and request Human Resources.
See all 18,961+ Cobol Developer Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Visa Sponsorship as a Cobol Developer
Target financial institutions and government contractors first
Banks, insurance companies, and federal contractors run the largest legacy COBOL systems in the U.S. and sponsor visas most consistently. These employers have established immigration pipelines and are accustomed to the H-1B and EB-3 processes.
Frame your degree as a match for the specialty occupation standard
USCIS requires a directly related bachelor's degree for H-1B eligibility. Computer science, information systems, or software engineering degrees map cleanly. If your degree is in another field, document how your coursework directly supports COBOL development work.
Emphasize mainframe-specific skills that domestic candidates lack
JCL, VSAM, CICS, DB2, and IMS expertise are genuinely scarce in the U.S. labor market. Highlighting these in your application strengthens the employer's case for sponsorship and reduces pushback during the prevailing wage and LCA filing stages.
Expect EB-3 green card sponsorship alongside H-1B
Many COBOL employers sponsor both H-1B status and EB-3 permanent residency because turnover is costly and institutional knowledge is hard to replace. Ask about green card timelines during the offer negotiation phase, not after you've already signed.
Understand that COBOL roles often qualify as specialty occupations without dispute
The DOL consistently recognizes software developer and programmer analyst roles as specialty occupations. A job posting that specifies a bachelor's degree in a computing field and relevant technical skills is well-positioned for approval without an RFE.
Use Migrate Mate to find employers actively filing for COBOL roles
Not every employer advertising a COBOL position is open to sponsorship. Migrate Mate filters for roles where sponsorship is explicitly offered, saving you from applying to positions that will stall at the offer stage due to immigration constraints.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do COBOL developer roles qualify for H-1B visa sponsorship?
Yes. COBOL developer positions qualify as specialty occupations under USCIS guidelines because they require at least a bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field. Employers filing H-1B visa petitions for these roles rarely face challenges on the specialty occupation question, since the DOL's occupational classification for software developers and programmer analysts is well established. An RFE is more likely if your degree field doesn't closely match the role.
Which visa types are most common for sponsored COBOL developer jobs?
H-1B is the primary visa for COBOL developers already in the U.S. or coming from abroad through employer sponsorship. L-1B is an option if you're transferring within a multinational company with specialized COBOL knowledge. EB-3 is the most common green card pathway, and many large financial and government employers sponsor both H-1B status and EB-3 concurrently. Australians may also qualify for the E-3 visa, which has no lottery.
Does my degree need to be in computer science specifically to qualify?
Not strictly. USCIS accepts degrees in computer science, information systems, software engineering, mathematics, or closely related fields for COBOL developer roles. What matters is that the degree is in a specific specialty that's directly applicable to the position. A general business degree won't qualify, but a degree in management information systems typically will. If your degree is in a borderline field, a detailed employer support letter explaining the connection helps significantly.
Are COBOL developer sponsorship approvals higher than average?
COBOL and mainframe developer roles historically have strong approval rates because the specialty occupation standard is easy to meet and domestic labor market shortages are well documented. Employers who regularly sponsor these roles, particularly large banks and insurance companies, often have experienced immigration counsel who minimize RFE risk. The H-1B lottery remains the primary obstacle, not the petition itself. Browse sponsored openings on Migrate Mate to identify employers with active sponsorship programs.
Can I get sponsored as a COBOL developer if I only have work experience and no degree?
It's more difficult but not impossible. USCIS allows a combination of education and experience to satisfy specialty occupation requirements, with three years of specialized experience substituting for one year of formal education. For a four-year degree, you'd need 12 years of directly relevant COBOL experience. The employer would also need to document that the position normally requires a degree, which is a harder argument to make without one. An immigration attorney's assessment is strongly recommended before pursuing this route.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Cobol Developer jobs?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.