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Top 13 COBOL Developers Available

cobol developers - Top 13 COBOL Developers Available

Eastern Europe’s tech scene isn’t alone in celebrating top developers – the COBOL community has its own modern champions.

Below is a ranked list of 13 of the best current COBOL developers, spanning open-source contributors, startup founders who still code, influential bloggers and evangelists, big-company engineers, and coding competition winners (all categories equally represented). These individuals are publicly active in 2024–2025 and are leading or advocating for modern COBOL use cases – from mainframe cloud integration to enterprise app modernization:

  1. Rosalind Radcliffe
  2. Simon Sobisch
  3. Gary Crook
  4. Misty Decker
  5. Jessielaine Punongbayan
  6. Venkat Pillay
  7. Joe Winchester
  8. Hartanto Ario Widjaja
  9. Steven Perva
  10. Liam Allan
  11. Anna McKee
  12. Melissa Christie
  13. Trevor Eddolls

Now, let’s delve deeper into their remarkable contributions and impact.

Rosalind Radcliffe

YouTube Video

Nationality: American

Rosalind is an IBM Fellow and CTO for IBM’s CIO Tech Platform, renowned for spearheading DevOps and modernization on the mainframe. With decades of experience, she has been on a mission to ensure that COBOL and IBM Z systems can be managed with state-of-the-art DevOps tools and practices.

Rosalind champions efforts like integrating COBOL development into VS Code and pipelines, helping younger developers feel at home with mainframe tech. She is a respected author and speaker who frequently emphasizes that modern Agile methods and cloud-native tooling can (and should) embrace mainframe COBOL. Under her leadership, IBM Z has adopted Git, CI/CD, automated testing and other modern workflows, bridging the gap between legacy systems and contemporary cloud platforms. As a top engineer at IBM with public influence, Rosalind continues to advocate for “modernization without displacement” – updating COBOL applications in place to keep them robust and relevant.

Simon Sobisch

Nationality: German

Simon is the project lead and maintainer of GnuCOBOL, the leading open-source COBOL compiler. He has contributed massively to modernizing COBOL’s toolchain in the open-source world – improving the compiler, updating documentation, and guiding GnuCOBOL’s evolution for contemporary needs.

A passionate developer, Simon ensures COBOL stays viable beyond mainframes: GnuCOBOL allows COBOL code to run on modern platforms, making it a bridge between COBOL’s legacy and future. In 2024, he even mentored a Google Summer of Code project to further enhance GnuCOBOL, underlining his commitment to educating and empowering the next generation of COBOL programmers. With over 20 years in the making, GnuCOBOL has reached “industrial maturity”, competing with proprietary COBOL compilers – thanks in large part to Simon’s leadership. His active presence on forums and community chats helps thousands of developers run COBOL on Linux, Windows, and cloud containers today.

Gary Crook

Gary Crook - Top 13 COBOL Developers Available

Nationality: British

Gary is the co-founder and CEO of Heirloom Computing, a company revolutionizing mainframe application migration. A former teenage COBOL programmer turned industry leader, he has guided Heirloom’s development of an innovative platform that automatically transforms COBOL and other legacy workloads into cloud-ready Java services.

Under Gary’s visionary leadership, Heirloom earned recognition as a multi-cloud leader in mainframe modernization, even winning him the “Cloud Migration CEO of the Year 2024” award. He still stays close to the technology – Gary’s team employs compiler techniques to preserve mission-critical COBOL logic while enabling deployment on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. He often notes that mainframes still run 70% of global transactions, and aims to bring that reliability into modern DevOps environments. A frequent speaker at cloud and mainframe conferences, Gary advocates “bridging past and future” – reimagining trusted COBOL systems as agile, scalable assets for decades to come. His influence has helped change the narrative from “rip-and-replace” to “transform with confidence” in the COBOL world.

Misty Decker

You don’t modernize COBOL by ripping it out — you modernize by unlocking its value.

Nationality: American

Misty is a highly visible mainframe modernization evangelist with a 30-year career focused on COBOL and enterprise systems. Formerly at IBM and Micro Focus, and now Modernization Solutions Leader at Kyndryl, she bridges technical and human aspects of COBOL’s future. Misty is known for her energetic talks and writings – she famously likened mainframe modernization to “the climate change of IT”, meaning an urgent and complex challenge requiring collective action.

A passionate advocate for training new COBOL talent, she has led academic initiatives and the Open Mainframe Project’s COBOL Working Group. Misty is also a frequent co-host of “Women of COBOL” panels, making the case that COBOL applications still deliver immense value and can be modernized for cloud and AI integration, rather than retired. As a blogger and speaker, she demystifies modernization strategies, sharing success stories of COBOL apps linking with APIs, DevOps and hybrid cloud. With her blend of technical depth and people focus, Misty inspires organizations to invest in their COBOL systems and programmers – ensuring this “old” language continues to drive innovation in the digital era.

Jessielaine Punongbayan

Jessielaine Punongbayan - Top 13 COBOL Developers Available

Nationality: Filipino

Jessielaine (“Jelly”) is a rising star in the COBOL and mainframe community, celebrated for her innovative approach to modernization and enthusiasm for knowledge-sharing. Originally from the Philippines, she started her career straight out of college as a COBOL developer and steadily rose through the ranks.

Now based in Austria as a Mainframe Tech Evangelist and Senior Engineer at Dynatrace, she integrates mainframes with cutting-edge AIOps and DevOps tooling. Jessielaine has become a prominent blogger, speaker, and Open Mainframe Project ambassador, showing how to monitor z/OS with open telemetry, use Zowe APIs, and bring cloud-like observability to COBOL systems. She is also a passionate advocate for women in tech and diversity in the mainframe field – mentoring others as she herself was mentored. Whether through her technical tutorials, conference talks, or YouTube videos, Jessielaine’s mission is clear: to inspire and educate the next generation of COBOL/Mainframe professionals in an ever-evolving IT landscape.

Venkat Pillay

Nationality: Indian

Venkat is the CEO and co-founder of CloudFrame Inc., a startup at the forefront of COBOL-to-cloud modernization. A coder at heart, he began his career as a mainframe COBOL programmer 30+ years ago and has witnessed the skills shortage firsthand. Now a hands-on tech founder, he led CloudFrame to develop tools that automatically convert monolithic COBOL systems into cloud-native Java applications.

Venkat’s approach emphasizes gradual modernization: CloudFrame’s products let companies refactor COBOL business logic into modern architectures at their own pace. Under his leadership, CloudFrame secured funding and industry attention for tackling the “800 billion lines” of COBOL still running core business processes. Venkat remains actively engaged in R&D – from addressing COBOL’s numeric edge cases to leveraging cloud DevOps principles. He often speaks about balancing reliability with innovation, and his work gives enterprises a practical path to run legacy COBOL workloads on modern, cost-efficient platforms without a risky full rewrite.

Joe Winchester

Joe Winchester - Top 13 COBOL Developers Available

Nationality: British

Joe is an IBM Senior Technical Staff Member known for bridging mainframes with open source and modern development practices. Over the past 15 years, he has led the way in making z/OS more accessible and intuitive for new generations of developers. Joe was a founding contributor to Zowe (the open-source mainframe framework) and continues to champion it as a game-changer that connects COBOL systems with web interfaces, APIs, and DevOps tools.

He frequently demos how Zowe and other open projects can streamline mainframe workflows, sharing insights at IBM Guide Share Europe and SHARE conferences (where he even chairs the Zowe track). One of Joe’s proudest moments was helping launch Zowe in 2019, an event he recalls gave him “energy and hope that Zowe was mainstream” as industry leaders embraced it. Beyond coding, Joe actively mentors and highlights others in the community – from open source innovators to IBM Champions like Dr. Cameron Seay – underscoring his belief in a diverse, collaborative mainframe ecosystem.

Hartanto Ario Widjaja

Nationality: Singaporean

Hartanto is a young developer from Singapore who emerged as a Grand Prize Winner of the 2020 Master the Mainframe contest, distinguishing himself among tens of thousands of participants globally. With a background in Information Systems, he was inspired by a high school teacher to try coding and stumbled onto IBM’s COBOL and z/OS Coursera course – which sparked his interest in mainframes.

Hartanto dove headlong into the contest and excelled, completing all challenges including an advanced “Grand Challenge” involving hybrid COBOL/Java solutions. Now an IBM Z Ambassador and student mentor, he remains an active advocate for mainframe technology on social media and at regional events. Hartanto emphasizes that one doesn’t need to be a “tech genius” to start – just curious and persistent. He has explored modern tools like Zowe and z/OSMF REST APIs, even building Python automations to interact with COBOL jobs on z/OS. His enthusiasm is contagious; he often demos how mainframes can work with AI, cloud and DevOps, inspiring other students in Asia to give COBOL a chance.

Steven Perva

Steven Perva - Top 13 COBOL Developers Available

Nationality: American

Steven is a young IBM Champion turned Mainframe Innovation Engineer at Ensono, notable for his relentless advocacy of COBOL and mainframe tech across generations. He first gained recognition by actively promoting mainframe modernization and hybrid cloud integration at global conferences.

Steven is inspired by both industry veterans and newcomers, and he works to cultivate a vibrant, cross-generational mainframe community. In online forums and events, he’s often the voice saying “COBOL isn’t going away – let’s integrate it”, demonstrating how to call COBOL from REST APIs or use Git with mainframe code. As part of the IBM zChampion program, he has mentored students and professionals alike to embrace enterprise computing. Steven also contributes to open-source projects and technical blogs (often highlighting tools like Zowe, IBM Z Xplore, and modern IDEs for COBOL). His efforts landed him among the Most Influential Mainframers of 2024, where he was praised for fostering cross-generational collaboration.

Liam Allan

Nationality: British

Liam is a well-known software developer and open-source advocate who, in his early 20s, became an IBM Champion (2017–2022) for his contributions to modernizing IBM i and COBOL development. Often called a “wunderkind” of the mainframe world, he built Code for IBM i, a free VS Code extension that enables development in RPG and COBOL on IBM i systems with a modern IDE.

This tool significantly improved the developer experience for legacy languages, offering features like syntax highlighting, Git integration, and editor support comparable to contemporary languages. Liam’s passion is bridging the gap between traditional AS/400-style programming and current best practices – he encourages the use of Git, automated testing, and CI/CD in COBOL/RPG shops. An active speaker and blogger, Liam has addressed conferences (COMMON, TechU) about attracting new talent to work on “legacy” platforms using open source.

Anna McKee

Anna McKee - Top 13 COBOL Developers Available

Nationality: American

Anna holds the distinction of being the first female champion of IBM’s Master the Mainframe competition, winning the North America region in 2017. A Texas native and University of North Texas alumna, Anna grew up with mainframe technology (both parents worked on IBM Z) but only discovered her own knack for it in college.

After her groundbreaking win – beating out over 17,000 other contestants – she became somewhat of a COBOL celebrity, featured in tech press for shattering a glass ceiling in a traditionally male-dominated field. Anna went on to win Master the Mainframe twice (2017 and again in 2018), demonstrating not only talent but consistency. Today, she works as an IBM Z systems engineer and “New to Z” ambassador, helping to onboard other young people into mainframe roles. Anna is a vocal proponent of diversity in enterprise IT – she often shares how her music and arts background gave her a unique problem-solving perspective in COBOL coding. Her continued public presence (speaking at IBM Think and SHARE events) and mentorship of other students have cemented her status as a role model.

Melissa Christie

Nationality: Canadian

Melissa is a career-changer who became a Master the Mainframe 2020 winner (Canada region) just two years after learning to code. With a background in manufacturing, she was inspired by COBOL’s history and Grace Hopper’s legacy to pivot into enterprise computing. Melissa seized the opportunity to retrain herself, seeing COBOL and mainframes as a “future-proof” niche where she could excel.

Her win in the contest – as a non-traditional student – garnered attention and proved the effectiveness of IBM’s outreach beyond typical CS programs. Melissa has since taken on a COBOL developer role and advocates for continuous learning; she emphasizes that modernization doesn’t mean throwing away the old. Instead, she’s written about integrating COBOL apps with new tech like APIs and Python analytics, something she experienced during the contest’s cloud-themed challenges. Melissa also contributes to the IBM Z community by mentoring other women considering tech careers, often saying “if I can learn COBOL, so can you – it’s never too late”.

Trevor Eddolls

Nationality: British

Trevor is a veteran mainframe expert who has parlayed 40+ years of COBOL and IBM Z experience into a role as one of the community’s most prolific bloggers and educators. As CEO of iTech-Ed Ltd. and an IBM Champion, he runs the popular “Mainframe Update” blog, where he writes in accessible terms about everything from COBOL modernization challenges to performance tuning tips.

Trevor is a popular speaker at industry events (such as SHARE and GSE UK) and has founded user groups like the Virtual IMS/CICS sessions to help share knowledge. He’s known for analogies and humor in explaining mainframe topics; for example, equating tech debt in COBOL systems to plotlines in long-running soap operas. Recognized as an IBM Z Community Influencer 2024, Trevor actively encourages seasoned professionals to mentor newbies. He believes in a hybrid future: mainframes and cloud working in tandem, a topic he explores often. Through Planet Mainframe articles and TechChannel pieces, Trevor highlights success stories of COBOL integration (like mainframe data feeding modern analytics) and dispels myths about “COBOL dead or alive.”

Wrap Up

These legends represent exceptional talent, making them extremely challenging to headhunt. However, there are thousands of other highly skilled IT professionals available to hire with our help. Contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your hiring needs.

Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top talent. However, if you believe a correction or addition is needed, feel free to reach out. We’ll gladly review and update the page.

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