Integrations Architect
Element451 · United States · remote
INTEGRATIONS ARCHITECT
ABOUT ELEMENT451
Element451 is the AI-native CRM and agent platform built for higher education. We help colleges and universities modernize engagement, recruitment, enrollment, and student success with intelligent automation and a product customers genuinely love.
THE ROLE
As an Integrations Architect, you own the integration workstream during implementation and support the reliability of data flows post-launch in partnership with CS and Support. You are the technical bridge between Element451 and campus IT — translating institutional system reality into mappings, validations, and repeatable integration setups.
You're not writing production code, but you are deeply technical: you test APIs, troubleshoot auth and sync failures, validate data integrity, and build the runbooks that prevent repeat issues.
WHAT YOU'LL OWN
INTEGRATION DELIVERY (API + BATCH/FLAT-FILE)
- Configure, validate, and launch integrations between Element451 and institutional systems (SIS/ERP/financial aid/3rd parties)
- Implement and maintain batch workflows where APIs aren't available (SFTP, CSV specs, schedules, transformations/normalization, validation)
- Partner with Implementation Leads to align integration timelines with go-live milestones and unblock dependencies early
DATA MAPPING & GOVERNANCE
- Lead mapping sessions with campus IT and functional stakeholders: field definitions, formats, transformations, and "system of record" decisions
- Define data quality standards and validation checks so downstream workflows (automation, segmentation, reporting, AI agents) behave correctly
- 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 across auth, endpoints, payload formatting, source data, or scheduling
- Resolve issues independently where possible; escalate to Engineering only when required — with clear reproduction steps, impact, and artifacts
- Establish monitoring habits and proactive checks to catch failures before customers report them (no silent failures)
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL ENABLEMENT & SCALE
- 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
- Surface recurring issues and integration friction as structured signals to Product/Engineering (patterns, not anecdotes)
WHAT YOU'LL BRING
- 3–6 years in integrations, technical support, data operations, implementation engineering, or similar roles with APIs as a core responsibility
- Strong REST/API fundamentals: reading docs, testing endpoints, debugging, handling errors, pagination, rate limits
- Comfortable with auth patterns (OAuth2, API keys, tokens) and common failure modes
- Experience with SFTP/CSV/batch integration workflows and rigorous mapping/validation practices
- Working familiarity with higher-ed SIS/ERP concepts and terminology; experience with systems like Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, Workday Student, Jenzabar, etc. is a plus
- Strong written communication — clear for campus IT and precise for internal teams
HOW WE MEASURE SUCCESS
- Integration go-live success: integrations launch on schedule without blocking go-live
- Integration health: fewer silent failures, stale syncs, and recurring data quality issues
- Time-to-resolution: faster recovery when issues occur
- Engineering escalation rate: high % 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 production features)
- Not a generalist implementation role (integrations are the core responsibility)
- Not passive ticket triage — you prevent repeats and improve reliability
- Not documentation-optional — if it isn't documented, it doesn't scale