Want to know if this job is worth applying to?
United States
Remote only
Element451 is the AI-first CRM and student engagement platform for higher education. Our platform helps colleges and universities manage the full student lifecycle, from first inquiry through enrollment and student success. Institutions run their admissions, marketing, engagement, and retention operations on Element451, which means our platform has to connect reliably with the systems campuses already depend on - starting with their Student Information System.
The Role
Integrations are the connective tissue between Element451 and the systems campuses run on - student information systems first, and learning management and other API-based systems over time. Today we sell a managed integration package: rather than handing customers an API and a manual, Element451 scopes, builds, and maintains each institution's integration for them. That model is a competitive advantage, and it needs a single owner on the delivery side.
We're hiring a Senior Director, Integrations to own the entire post-sales integration lifecycle. Your organization takes the baton once a deal is signed and owns everything downstream: validating the signed SOW, architecting the integration, building it, and keeping it healthy for the life of the account. You'll lead an existing team of integration architects, integration engineers, and live support specialists.
This is a hands-on leadership role, not a slide-deck one. You are the senior subject-matter expert on SIS integrations - you don't need to write the code, but you must understand deeply how these integrations are built so you can scope them, direct your architects and engineers, and pressure-test an approach yourself. This isn't a Product role, but you'll be one of Product's closest partners - helping shape what we build natively so integrations become progressively less custom over time.
What You'll Own
SOW validation. Own the technical handoff from Sales into Delivery. Once a deal is signed, validate that the integration as scoped and sold is technically feasible and correctly sized before your team commits to the build — and surface gaps, risks, or missing requirements early, before they become escalations.
Integration architecture and scoping. Be the senior SME who, working with your integration architects, defines how each integration is designed — data models, sync patterns, authentication (OAuth, SAML, API keys), error handling, and how we ride frameworks like Ellucian Ethos. Set the reference patterns and standards that make every new build faster and more repeatable, and grow the IA team's depth in this space.
Integration build. Own the integration engineering team and the delivery of every integration through build, UAT, and go-live — after which bidirectional syncs between Element451 and the SIS run as Dagster jobs (cron schedules plus event-driven sensors) over the Ethos API. Own build quality, timelines, and the tooling and runbooks that let the team deliver consistently.
Flat-file and one-off integrations. Own integrations beyond the managed SIS set: flat-file exchanges (SFTP-delivered CSV and fixed-width files) for student information systems we don't cover with a managed connector, application-source feeds such as Common App, and bespoke one-offs — for example, syncing application data into another CRM. These are lower-volume and more custom, and your team scopes, builds, and maintains them to the same standard as everything else.
Care and maintenance. Own the operational lifecycle after go-live: sync health and monitoring, versioning as vendor APIs change, and enhancements to live integrations. You are the senior escalation point when an integration breaks the week before decisions go out.
Live support. Own the chat-based Live Support experience that helps customers with integration issues — staffing, quality, response standards, and the feedback loop from support back into build and architecture.
Delivery execution: people, process, and tools. You own how the integrations function runs. Set the operating model, hire and develop the team, define the process from handoff through maintenance, and choose the tooling that makes delivery reliable and scalable. Accountable for delivery outcomes — quality, reliability, throughput — not commercial margin.
Product partnership. Work hand in hand with Product and Engineering to shape where the platform goes on native integrations. Bring the view from the field — what customers ask for, where delivery gets hard, which patterns keep repeating — and partner on turning it into configurable, native capabilities the whole team can build on. Collaborate closely on specs, trade-offs, and sequencing so that, over time, the platform absorbs what your team handles by hand today.
A critical voice in the integrations strategy. Help shape Element451's full integrations strategy as it expands beyond the SIS — into LMS integrations and a “Bring Your Own Integrations” model, where customers build their own integrations against our API. You bring the delivery reality to those decisions: what's feasible, what customers actually need, and where to invest so the platform and the team scale together.
Measurement. Define and report the KPIs that prove the function works: time-to-integrate, on-time delivery against SOW, sync reliability and uptime, escalation and support volume, and resolution time.
Serve as an escalation point. Provide the team with support when necessary with customer escalations to navigate situationally with the customer.
Who You Are
Deep, hands-on SIS expertise. You have real depth in at least one major student information system - ideally Ellucian Banner or Colleague via the Ethos API - and understand how campus IT, registrars, and enrollment teams actually operate.
CRM and SIS integration exposure. Hands-on experience integrating a CRM with an SIS. The CRM doesn't have to be Element451 — Slate, Salesforce, or another enterprise or higher ed CRM is just as relevant. You understand how student and application data flows between the two systems and the pitfalls that show up in practice.
8+ years in integration delivery or implementation in higher ed or B2B SaaS, with 3+ years leading technical teams (architects and/or engineers). You've owned delivery outcomes across a portfolio, not just individual builds.
A scoping and solutioning expert. You can validate a signed SOW, size effort and risk, and shape the integration approach with your architects. You hold the line on what's feasible without needing an engineer to translate for you.
Technically fluent enough to lead the build without doing it. REST and SOAP APIs, webhooks, and scheduled and event-driven data-pipeline orchestration (we run Dagster). Comfortable with authentication patterns like API keys, bearer/session tokens, and basic auth, with integration frameworks like Ellucian Ethos, and around a Python/AWS stack (ECS, Secrets Manager, S3) with MongoDB and a Snowflake/dbt data layer. You can read a payload and pressure-test an architecture even when you're not the one writing the code.
A team builder. You've grown and structured technical delivery teams — architecture, engineering, and support — and set the process and tooling that make delivery repeatable and reliable.
A clear communicator who moves fluently between campus registrars, IT directors, your own engineers, executives, and Sales and Product partners.
Nice to Have
Experience at a higher ed SaaS company (CRM, SIS, enrollment or curriculum tech).
Depth across more of the platforms we integrate - Workday Student, Anthology/Campus Nexus, Populi, Destiny One, or CFNC - in addition to Banner and Colleague.
Experience turning a managed/services offering into productized, repeatable capabilities in partnership with Product.
Hands-on with code-based orchestration (Dagster or similar), event-driven architectures, containerized deploys (Docker/AWS ECS), and integration monitoring/observability (e.g., Sentry).
Why Element451
You'll own a function that touches every customer - integrations are often the deciding factor in whether an institution can adopt us at all. You'll inherit an established team of architects, engineers, and support specialists, executive backing, and a clear mandate: run integration delivery as a tight, reliable operation and steadily turn high-touch custom work into a scalable, productized advantage.
Impactful not Immediate - We prioritize and invest in initiatives that will be most impactful.
Progress before Perfection - We are action-oriented people. We are empowered to make decisions and achieve our goals.
Learners before Masters - We are curious and humble people who strive to constantly improve.
Together not Alone - We rally behind each other and pitch in to support the greater whole.
Customer Success not Support - We solve partner goals and prioritize their success.
