COGNOS ADMINISTRATOR

Requisition Number

51882BR

Job description

Senior Cognos Analytics Administrator

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Cognos Analytics Administrator to lead the administration, configuration, security, performance optimization, and operational support of our IBM Cognos Analytics platform. This individual will be responsible for maintaining highly available Cognos environments, supporting enterprise reporting initiatives, managing application upgrades, and ensuring the platform delivers reliable, secure, and scalable business intelligence solutions.

The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in Cognos Analytics architecture, security integration, performance tuning, and infrastructure support across distributed enterprise environments. The role requires strong troubleshooting skills, experience with Cognos Content Manager and Content Store administration, and the ability to collaborate with application, database, infrastructure, and business teams

Key Responsibilities

Cognos Platform Administration

Install, configure, maintain, and support IBM Cognos Analytics environments across development, testing, and production.

Administer distributed and high-availability Cognos architectures.

Manage Cognos gateways, dispatchers, Content Manager services, and Content Store databases.

Configure and maintain report services, job services, scheduling services, and batch reporting environments.

Perform Cognos platform upgrades, migrations, patches, and environment refreshes.

Manage system configuration and enforce platform standards.Security and Authentication

Configure and maintain Cognos security, including users, groups, roles, and permissions.

Integrate Cognos with enterprise authentication providers such as Active Directory, LDAP, SAML, OpenID Connect (OIDC), or other SSO solutions.

Implement role-based and row-level security models.

Conduct security reviews and ensure compliance with enterprise policies.

Troubleshoot authentication, authorization, and namespace-related issues.Performance and Capacity Management

Monitor platform performance and system health.

Analyze dispatcher utilization, service workloads, and report execution metrics.

Optimize JVM, memory allocation, concurrency settings, and service configurations.

Identify and resolve bottlenecks involving Cognos, databases, application servers, or infrastructure.

Support capacity planning and scalability initiatives.Operational Support

Provide Tier 2 and Tier 3 support for Cognos platform issues.

Troubleshoot report execution failures, scheduling problems, and security-related incidents.

Investigate system outages and perform root-cause analysis.

Develop monitoring, alerting, and operational reporting solutions.

Participate in on-call support rotations as required.Database and Infrastructure Collaboration

Work closely with database administrators to optimize query performance and troubleshoot connectivity issues.

Support SQL Server, Oracle, or other enterprise databases used by Cognos.

Collaborate with infrastructure teams on server administration, networking, load balancing, certificates, DNS, and web services.

Support backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity processes.Governance and Documentation

Develop and maintain operational procedures and technical documentation.

Establish administration standards, deployment processes, and platform best practices.

Mentor junior administrators and provide technical leadership.

Participate in project planning and architecture reviews.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or equivalent work experience.

7+ years of experience administering IBM Cognos Analytics or IBM Cognos BI environments.

Strong understanding of Cognos architecture, including:

Gateway

Dispatcher

Content Manager

Content Store

Report Services

Batch Report Services

Experience administering distributed and high-availability Cognos environments.

Strong knowledge of Cognos security architecture and enterprise authentication integration.

Experience supporting Cognos upgrades, migrations, and patch management.

Advanced SQL skills and experience working with relational databases.

Experience supporting Windows and/or Linux server environments.

Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.x and 12.x administration experience.

Experience with:

Microsoft SQL Server

Oracle Database

LDAP/Active Directory

OIDC, SAML, or ForgeRock integrations

IIS or IBM HTTP Server

Load balancers and web application infrastructure

Shell scripting, PowerShell, or automation tools

Audit databases and performance monitoring solutions

Financial services or banking industry experience.

IBM Cognos certifications preferred.

Technical Skills

Enterprise Reporting & Analytics

IBM Cognos Analytics

Cognos Administration

Content Manager

Content Store

Framework Manager

Transformer

Scheduling & Job ManagementInfrastructure

Windows Server

Linux

IIS / IBM HTTP Server

Networking

DNS

SSL/TLS Certificates

Load BalancingDatabases

SQL Server

SQL Query Optimization

Database Connectivity TroubleshootingSecurity

Active Directory

LDAP

Single Sign-On (SSO)

OIDC

SAML

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

CJAP

PingIDMonitoring & Performance

JVM Tuning

Capacity Planning

Root Cause Analysis

Performance Optimization

Operational Monitoring

Success Measures

Maintain high platform availability and reliability.

Ensure on-time completion of upgrades and maintenance activities.

Reduce report failures and performance issues.

Maintain compliance with security and audit requirements.

Improve system scalability, monitoring, and operational efficiency.

Provide outstanding support to business and technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

Graduate

Range of Year Experience-Min Year

7

Range of Year Experience-Max Year

10