
COBOL Experts in Frankfurt
, matched in minutes from over 15,000 CVsHire experts who maintain mainframe applications, modernize batch processing and integrate COBOL systems with APIs, databases and cloud services. FRATCH finds vetted, available freelancers with the right experience through fast, precise AI matching.
Meet FRATCH Experts in Frankfurt, who have recently used COBOL
Ulm P.
Last position:
DataStage ETL Expert at ING Bank
- Datastage 11.7, dbt, Oracle 19, Python 3.12 / PySpark 3.5, Azure GitHub, Azure DevOps, Automic
- Development of migration jobs to transfer data from the collection DWH to the new Risk Mart, as well as development of ETL pipelines to migrate historical data from the old Mart to the new Risk Mart.
- Storage of the silver layer on Hadoop and the gold layer in Oracle.
- Translation of DataStage jobs into dbt to publish reporting data in Google Cloud to a PostgreSQL database.
- Creation and optimization of complex SQL queries for data extraction from a data vault, taking into account historical data in the point-in-time tables.
- Creation of Oracle table definitions (DDL) and adjustment of existing stored procedures.
- Versioning changes in GitHub and deployment via the CI/CD portal.
- Refactoring long-running DataStage jobs into Python using PySpark to reduce server load.
- Migration of SAS scripts to PL/SQL, including new development of distribution functions that have no direct equivalent in Oracle.
- Development of Automic jobs to run DataStage pipelines and Python scripts (PySpark jobs) that control the population of the SME and institutional risk tables in the Risk Mart and perform business calculations.
- Participation in the agile process, including creating user stories, estimations, and planning in Azure DevOps.
- Handling Azure DevOps tickets and close collaboration with testers and business teams for error analysis and resolution.
Dieter K.
Last position:
SAP Senior Consultant at Shop and Catering
Implementation of MM and SD with integration of Diebold-Nixdorf cash registers
Capturing the required processes (inventory management, procurement, sales, and cash register processes)
Customizing MM and SD
Project planning and control
Master data upload and inventory recording using LSMW based on Excel spreadsheets
Cash register data transfer via EDI and IDoc processing (MBGMCR and ACC_DOCUMENT)
Creating extensive documentation for internal staff
No middleware; instructing and training customer staff in customizing; SAP standard as prerequisite
SAP ECC 6.0 modules MM, SD, FI
Theo L.
Last position:
Project Manager, Consultant at Umicore
- Led the migration of local SharePoint sites to SharePoint Online, including planning, coordination, and communication
- Advised on governance, security, and data protection
- Created project documents: project charter, project plan, communication strategy plan, risk and risk mitigation plan, scope of work documents
- Analyzed manual processes and developed automated solutions
Leonid R.
Last position:
IT Business Analyst / Requirements Engineer at S-Payment GmbH / Sparkasse (DSV-Gruppe)
- Business analysis of payments for the introduction of Wero EPI in Germany.
- Analysis and optimization of merchant processes in the context of acquiring and issuing.
- Analysis of interfaces for instant payments.
- Analysis of SCT-Inst processes, settlement mechanisms and reporting processes.
- Identification and clarification of gaps in merchant processes.
- Analysis and documentation of clearing and settlement processes.
- OSPlus process analysis and documentation.
- Coordination and alignment with scheme management as well as various payment service providers and financial institutions on merchant processes.
- Preparation and follow-up as well as active participation in EPI meetings on technical coordination and regulatory topics in payments, including content familiarization and prioritization.
- Preparation and documentation of project and steering committees in the EPI environment.
- Creation of status reports for the subproject.
- Maintenance and structuring of Confluence pages for project documentation.
- Coordination and alignment with the issuing teams on individual customer processes as well as aligning with bank processes and acquirer processes in the Wero environment.
- Communication with payment service providers regarding merchant and bank processes in the Wero environment.
- Organizational support for project management in special tasks in the EPI and Wero environment.
- Digital filing and documentation in Confluence and Microsoft Teams.
- Planning, implementation and tracking of work packages and steps.
- Quality assurance and project control.
- Consulting on IT strategy, IT architecture and interface management in the EPI and Wero environment.
- Technical environment: Jira, Confluence, XML, JSON, MS Office (Word, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint), SharePoint, Draw.io, Innovator, 3rd-level support, ITIL, creation and updating of software documentation, interface management, OSPlus, Scrum, KYC, payment, European Payments Initiative (EPI), Wero, Microsoft Loop, Instant Payments, SCT-Inst.
Andreas S.
Last position:
Project Management, Development and Test- (Defect-) Management at safarica.com
- Creation and implementation of a multilingual, relational MariaDB database to reflect the requirements of a booking system designed for safaris in Africa
- Testing the front- and backend functionality, registration of clients and suppliers, the editorial system and the payment workflow
- Defect management and documentation via BugHerd
- Implementation of an automatic internal deployment of deliveries provided by an external company via bash scripts
- Coordination of external companies in the function of a project manager (Stakeholder Management)
Abdullah A.
Last position:
Technical Program Manager - IT & Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Maxon Computer GmbH (a Nemetschek Company)
Led cross-functional compliance and IT programs spanning infrastructure, security, legal, and executive stakeholders, ensuring audit readiness and regulatory alignment.
Acted as single point of ownership for IT governance and CSR programs, defining scope, milestones, risks, and success metrics.
Partnered directly with VP of IT as a governance and control counterpart, supporting security incidents, compliance posture (ISO 27001, GDPR, SOC 2), and executive reporting.
Supported organizational readiness for emerging EU regulations, including the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and EU AI Act, by analyzing regulatory requirements, identifying governance and compliance impacts, and aligning internal policies and control processes.
Designed and scaled data collection and reporting processes for CSR and regulatory reporting across group and subsidiary level.
Drove process improvements and standardization, increasing transparency, predictability, and audit readiness.
Technologies and tools: Office 365 Power BI, MS SharePoint, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Teams, Zendesk, Confluence, JIRA, Vanta.
Hassan E.
Last position:
SAP Authorization Consultant at msg/Denios
- Support for the DENIOS S/4HANA greenfield transformation. - Role development based on the organizational model and structure. - Creation of roles based on process and steps in swimlanes. - Derivation of catalogs, spaces, pages and sections from process IDs. - User assignment via the organizational structure. - Authorization administration in the S/4HANA landscape with a Fiori-first approach. - Consulting and development in the S/4HANA greenfield area.
Panagiotis T.
Last position:
IT Manager at XCMG – XFL
- Gather basic requirements
- Plan the project
- Create RfP and tender
- Interview five vendors
- Review proposals and contracts
- Create a vendor shortlist based on hard facts (criteria catalog, price, licenses) and soft facts (quality of documents, software user experience, reputation and references)
- Support the initiation and RfP & vendor selection phases
- Plan the implementation & go-live and hypercare phases for 2025
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Statistics of experts using COBOL
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
21 years (Germany: 31 years)

Position duration
1.3 years (Germany: 3.2 years)

Positions per freelancer
20 (Germany: 19)

Top business areas
Information Technology, Operations, Project Management

Top industries
Banking and Finance, Information Technology, Healthcare

Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Project Management
Bachelor's degree or higher
83% (Germany: 78%)
Master's degree or higher
67% (Germany: 49%)
Doctorate
17% (Germany: 7%)

Certifications per freelancer
4 (Germany: 3)

Most common languages
German, English, French

Speak two or more languages
100% (Germany: 95%)
Based on our profile pool as of 19 Sep 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this technology in Frankfurt are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range.
Average rates of experts in Frankfurt using COBOL
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 19 Sep 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
COBOL experts industry focus
See which industries our matched freelancers work in most often — every figure is calculated live from the freelancers on FRATCH.
- Banking and Finance (100%)
- Information Technology (88%)
- Healthcare (63%)
- Manufacturing (50%)
- Professional Services (50%)
- Retail (50%)
- Chemical (38%)
- Energy (38%)
Please note that freelancers can work across multiple industries, so percentages overlap.
About the technology
Core role
COBOL, short for Common Business-Oriented Language, is built for reliable business data processing. It remains central to banking, insurance, logistics, government and large-scale administration, where applications handle transactions, accounts, policies and records. Its emphasis on clear data structures and stable execution suits systems that must run consistently for years.
Main workloads
COBOL specialists work on applications that process high-volume transactions and scheduled business operations. Typical deliverables include:
- Mainframe transaction programs for CICS environments
- Batch jobs for billing, settlement and reporting
- Data processing with DB2, IMS or VSAM
- Interfaces between legacy applications and modern services
These systems often support essential operations rather than isolated features, so changes require careful analysis and controlled release planning.
Ecosystem and tools
The technology is closely connected to IBM z/OS, Enterprise COBOL, JCL, CICS, DB2, IMS and VSAM. Strong specialists understand compilation, linkage editing, job scheduling, source control and production monitoring in mainframe environments. They may also work with middleware, REST APIs, messaging systems, Java services and automated testing tools when COBOL applications are integrated with newer platforms.
When companies need help
Freelance expertise is useful when internal knowledge is limited or a critical system must change without disrupting operations. Common situations include:
- Migrating or upgrading mainframe applications
- Investigating production incidents and performance issues
- Documenting undocumented program logic
- Connecting COBOL workloads to digital channels
- Preparing a controlled modernization roadmap
In Frankfurt, this can support financial, insurance, transport and public-sector organizations that rely on established mainframe processes while introducing new services.
What strong specialists bring
Quality work starts with the ability to read unfamiliar copybooks, trace data through programs and understand the business rules behind them. Effective professionals test edge cases, assess downstream impacts and communicate clearly with operations, product teams and other technical specialists. They preserve proven behavior while identifying safe opportunities to simplify, automate or expose existing capabilities.
Collaboration and delivery
COBOL work can be performed remotely when secure access, documentation and release procedures are in place. Frankfurt-based teams may still prefer on-site workshops for system discovery, incident response or knowledge transfer, while distributed delivery can cover analysis, coding, testing and documentation. The right specialist adapts to the client’s language expectations, compliance controls and mainframe operating model.
Frequently asked questions
Everything clients usually want to know about COBOL, in one place.
COBOL is mainly used for business-critical processing in banking, insurance, government, logistics and large administration systems. It handles transactions, batch jobs, account data, billing, reporting and other workloads where accuracy and predictable operation matter.
COBOL is optimized for established business processing and long-running mainframe applications, while Java and similar languages are often chosen for newer services, web applications and broader cloud-native development. The right choice depends on the existing system, operational risk, integration needs and modernization goals.
A strong COBOL freelancer often works with IBM z/OS, JCL, CICS, DB2, IMS, VSAM and Enterprise COBOL. Useful complementary skills include API integration, messaging, source control, automated testing, batch scheduling and business-domain analysis.
The required background depends on the system’s complexity and risk. A COBOL specialist handling a production migration or core transaction flow should be able to trace dependencies, understand copybooks and data models, test safely and explain business rules, not just edit program code.
Yes, COBOL work can be remote when secure mainframe access, documentation and release controls are available. On-site collaboration in Frankfurt may be valuable for discovery, incident response or knowledge transfer, especially when system knowledge is held by several internal teams.
Ask a COBOL specialist to explain how they would analyze an unfamiliar program, trace a data issue and test a change across batch and online processing. Look for disciplined impact analysis, clear documentation, familiarity with the relevant z/OS tools and an understanding of the business process behind the code.
COBOL is often the foundation of modernization work because valuable business rules and data still run on mainframes. Specialists can help expose existing capabilities through APIs, connect them to newer services, improve delivery practices or plan a gradual replacement without forcing a risky rewrite.
A COBOL freelancer may deliver program changes, JCL updates, database adjustments, interface work, test evidence, production documentation or migration analysis. The exact output depends on whether the engagement focuses on maintenance, incident resolution, integration, modernization or knowledge transfer.
The average hourly rate of freelancers in Frankfurt, Germany who have used COBOL in their recent projects is 108 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 867 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers in Frankfurt, Germany who have used COBOL in their recent projects, 83% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 67% hold at least a Master's degree, and 17% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers in Frankfurt, Germany who have used COBOL in their recent projects have 21 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 1.3 years.
The most common languages among freelancers in Frankfurt, Germany who have used COBOL in their recent projects are German (100%), English (100%), and French (38%).
The most common industries among freelancers in Frankfurt, Germany who have used COBOL in their recent projects are Banking and Finance (100%), Information Technology (88%), and Healthcare (63%).
The most common business areas among freelancers in Frankfurt, Germany who have used COBOL in their recent projects are Information Technology (100%), Operations (88%), and Project Management (88%).
Main locations of FRATCH Experts, who have recently used COBOL
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Countries:
Request a free demo
Get in touch with the FRATCH team and we will get back to you within 4 hours.
Would you rather directly get in touch?
We always have the time for a call or email!

Hamburg
Munich
Dusseldorf