Integration Architect

Integration Architect

As an Integration Architect, you own the integration workstream for Element451's API-based integrations during implementation, and support escalated integration issues post-launch in partnership with Customer Success(CS). You report to the Manager of Integrations and coordinate between the engineer building the integrations and campus IT and Admissions teams to deliver managed integrations.

You're not writing core production code, but you are deeply technical: you test APIs and workflows, troubleshoot auth and sync failures, validate data integrity, update configurations, read the integration scripts, help build the runbooks that prevent repeat issues, and bring ideas for the approach when a customer's setup needs something different.

What you'll do

• Own the delivery of API-based integrations between Element451 and partner systems such as Ellucian Ethos (Banner/Colleague), Populi, Workday, and Anthology, from kickoff to go-live

• Partner with Implementation Leads to align integration timelines with go-live milestones and unblock dependencies early

• Apply our standard integration approach for each customer, including running existing scripts, data mappings, and validation checks

• Coordinate between the engineer that is building the integration and the customer testing it: relay requirements, test results, and fixes, and keep everyone on the timeline

• Bring ideas for how to approach setups that don't fit the standard approach, and work on the solution with Engineering and the team that scoped the work

• Document mappings, assumptions, and edge cases in a way that is usable for CS and Support post-launch

Troubleshooting & reliability

• Diagnose integration issues using logs, error payloads, and testing tools (e.g., Postman)

• Identify root-cause issues across auth, endpoints, payload formatting, source data, or scheduling

• Resolve issues independently where possible; escalate to Engineering only when required — with clear reproduction steps, logs, impact, and artifacts

• Establish monitoring habits and proactive checks to catch failures before customers report them (no silent failures)

Cross-functional enablement & scale

• Help build and maintain integration runbooks, troubleshooting playbooks, and "known failure modes" guides

• Create reusable integration patterns for common higher-ed ecosystem combinations to reduce time to go-live, custom work, and rework

• Surface recurring issues and integration friction as structured signals to Product/Engineering (patterns, not anecdotes)

• Provide technical expertise on integrations for Partnerships, Sales, and Customer Success

• Maintain thorough documentation of integrations, partner systems, and APIs for internal and external audiences

What you bring

• 3–6 years in integrations, technical support, data operations, implementation engineering, or similar roles with APIs as a core responsibility

• Demonstrated ability to lead client-facing projects with strong communication and project management skills; experience leading integration projects is a plus

• Experience with REST/API fundamentals: auth patterns, reading docs, testing endpoints, debugging, handling errors, pagination, rate limits

• Ability to give engineers clear requirements and review their work

• Working knowledge of higher-ed SIS and ERP concepts, terminology, and how campus data flows

• Experience with systems such as Ellucian Ethos (Banner or Colleague), Populi, Workday Student, or Anthology is a plus

• Strong coordination skills: keeping customers, engineers, and timelines aligned through testing and launch

• Strong written communication — clear for campus IT and precise for internal teams

Technical background

Expertise with these tools and concepts is preferred:

• ETL/ELT workflows

• Data mapping and validation

• Low-code/no-code tools like Zapier

• Data orchestration tools like Dagster

• Python

How We Measure Success

• Integration go-live success: integrations go live on schedule without blocking implementations

• Integration health: fewer silent failures and recurring data quality issues

• Time-to-resolution: faster recovery when issues occur

• Engineering escalation rate: a high percentage of issues are resolved without Engineering involvement

• Documentation coverage: mapping docs and runbooks are complete, current, and actually used

• Scalability impact: reusable patterns reduce time to go-live over time

What This Role Is Not

• Not a software engineering role (you won't build core production features)

• Not a generalist implementation role (integrations are the core responsibility)

• Not passive ticket triage and not on-call support — you prevent repeats and improve reliability

• Not documentation-optional — if it isn't documented, it doesn't scale