Integration Lead – Microsoft Fabric / Azure

The Integration Lead – Microsoft Fabric / Azure is responsible for leading the design, development, and delivery of enterprise data integration solutions for Higher Education institutions, with a particular focus on Advancement, fundraising, alumni relations, constituent engagement, and institutional data ecosystems. This role combines solution architecture, technical leadership, hands-on development, and client-facing consulting.

The ideal candidate understands that Advancement technology environments frequently span CRM, ERP, SIS, finance, HR, data warehouse, marketing, fundraising, and third-party platforms. This individual will help institutions modernize those ecosystems while establishing reusable integration patterns and reducing reliance on point-to-point interfaces and legacy batch processes.

The Integration Lead will be expected to lead technical discovery workshops, assess existing integration architectures, recommend future-state solutions, develop integration designs, oversee development, troubleshoot complex integration issues, and provide technical leadership throughout implementation.

Required Skills

• Lead integration architecture and delivery using Microsoft Fabric and Azure integration technologies.
• Facilitate client workshops to understand business processes, data flows, systems, integration requirements, security requirements, and operational dependencies.
• Translate functional and business requirements into detailed technical integration designs.
• Design integration patterns for batch, near-real-time, event-driven, API-based, and file-based integrations.
• Design and develop solutions using technologies including: Microsoft Fabric - Fabric Data Factory - Azure Data Factory - Fabric Lakehouse and Warehouse - OneLake - Azure Functions - Logic Apps - Azure API Management - Azure Service Bus - Event Hubs / Fabric Eventstream - Azure SQL.
• Lead integrations between Advancement platforms and enterprise systems such as: Salesforce Education Cloud / Nonprofit Cloud, Ellucian Advance, Blackbaud, Workday, PeopleSoft, Data warehouses, and analytics platforms.
• Define canonical data structures, transformation rules, mappings, interface specifications, and data contracts.
• Develop reusable integration frameworks, templates, logging standards, error-handling patterns, monitoring approaches, and deployment processes.
• Troubleshoot complex data and integration issues across multiple source and target platforms.
• Lead technical design reviews and provide guidance to integration developers and data engineers.
• Establish appropriate Dev/Test/QA/Production deployment and release-management practices.
• Support data reconciliation, validation, exception management, and operational monitoring.
• Partner with Data Migration, Data Governance, CRM, Analytics, and functional teams to ensure consistent data architecture across the broader transformation.
• Identify technical risks, integration dependencies, performance concerns, and opportunities to simplify the institution's integration landscape.
• Develop future-state integration roadmaps and recommend modernization opportunities.
• Provide technical estimates and support project planning, solutioning, and pre-sales activities when required.
• Mentor technical consultants and developers and establish delivery standards and leading practices.
• Higher Education / Advancement Experience: Candidates should have experience working within Higher Education, preferably supporting Advancement, fundraising, alumni relations, or constituent engagement.
• Experience should include an understanding of Advancement concepts such as: Constituents and organizations, Alumni and student relationships, Households, Gifts and pledges, Gift transactions and adjustments, Designations and funds, Campaigns and appeals, Opportunities, Prospect management, Moves management, Soft credits and recognition credits, Relationships and affiliations, Contact reports and interactions, Events, Memberships, Biographical and demographic data, Financial/Gift-to-GL integrations.
• Understanding of how Advancement systems interact with institutional platforms such as SIS, ERP, Finance, HR, CRM, identity management, data warehouse, marketing, and analytics systems.
• Strong hands-on experience designing and implementing solutions using Microsoft Fabric and/or Microsoft Azure data and integration services.
• Advanced experience with Fabric Data Factory and/or Azure Data Factory, including pipelines, triggers, transformations, parameterization, monitoring, and error handling.
• Strong understanding of Microsoft Fabric architecture, including OneLake, Lakehouse, Warehouse, pipelines, notebooks, semantic models, and Power BI integration.
• Experience designing enterprise integration solutions involving multiple cloud and on-premises applications. Strong understanding of: REST APIs, SOAP services, JSON, XML, CSV/file integrations, SFTP, Webhooks, OAuth 2.0, Service principals, Managed identities. Advanced SQL skills and experience working with relational databases and cloud data platforms.
• Experience designing batch, API, and asynchronous integrations.

Desired Skills

• Experience with Salesforce Education Cloud, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, or Salesforce Advancement implementations.
• Experience integrating with Ellucian Advance, Blackbaud CRM/Raiser's Edge, Affinaquest, Slate, Banner, PeopleSoft, Workday, or similar Higher Education platforms.
• Experience modernizing legacy ETL and integration solutions into Microsoft Fabric or Azure.
• Experience migrating solutions from SSIS, Informatica, Oracle, custom SQL jobs, or other legacy technologies.
• Experience with medallion architecture and modern Lakehouse design patterns.
• Experience with Microsoft Purview for data governance, cataloging, lineage, and data discovery.
• Experience with Power BI semantic models and understanding downstream analytics requirements.
• Experience with Azure DevOps, Git, automated deployments, and infrastructure-as-code concepts.
• Experience with Python, PySpark, or Fabric notebooks.
• Experience designing enterprise integration frameworks and reusable integration accelerators.
• Familiarity with Master Data Management, data governance, data quality, and identity resolution.
• Experience with large-scale CRM or Advancement transformation programs.
• Consulting experience working directly with institutional executives, IT leadership, functional leadership, and technical teams.
• Ability to evaluate existing architecture and challenge legacy approaches rather than simply reproducing existing point-to-point integrations.

Years of Experience

7+ years of professional experience in data integration, application integration, data engineering, or enterprise technology consulting. 4+ years of experience working with Microsoft Azure data and integration technologies. 2+ years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric strongly preferred. 3+ years of experience leading technical teams, integration workstreams, or enterprise integration projects. Prior experience delivering projects within Higher Education is strongly preferred.

Certifications

Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate
Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate
Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate
Microsoft Applied Skills credentials related to Microsoft Fabric, Azure integration, or data engineering

Additional Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to build trusted advisor relationships with clients
• Experience supporting sales and business development
• Position requires flexibility to travel periodically based on business and client needs