Lead Integration Engineer

About Cognita:
Cognita is a global leader in independent education. Founded in 2004, we are a growing community of 86 schools in 21 countries - in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East - serving more than 100,000 students. Each of our schools are proudly unique, however our collective purpose is to create an environment where everyone can, "Thrive in a rapidly evolving world".
Every school day, data moves between student systems, finance, HR and CRM.

When it flows, teachers teach and leaders lead. When it doesn't, schools feel it straight away.
As our Lead Integration Engineer, you'll own how it all connects. You'll be the senior technical authority for integration across Cognita's global Azure-based hub: setting the standards, solving the hardest problems and still getting your hands dirty building. You'll guide our move from legacy to future-state platforms without disrupting a single school day.
About

the Role:

•Designing and building. Leading the design of complex, multi-system integrations and delivering them hands-on with Azure Service Bus, Event Grid, Azure Functions, Data Factory, Logic Apps and API Management.
•Choosing the right pattern. Applying event-driven, message-based, API-led and orchestrated approaches across student systems, finance, HR, CRM, marketing platforms and third-party SaaS, in near real time and in batch.
•Building it to last. Baking in error handling, retries, dead-lettering, idempotency and logging from day one, and publishing quality-checked data to our Operational Data Store in line with the Common Data Model.
•Re-architecting. Taking systems from legacy to future-state, with transition plans that protect service continuity for schools.
•Setting the standard. Owning integration architecture decisions, reusable patterns and engineering standards. You'll review designs and code, and make sure documentation, runbooks and the integration catalogue are current and actually used.
•Being the safety net. Acting as L3 escalation for complex production incidents, leading root cause analysis and monitoring platform health with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and Application Insights.
•Automating delivery. Owning CI/CD in Azure DevOps (Dev, UAT, Prod), with infrastructure-as-code, Key Vault secrets management and role-based access control as standard.
•Leading people. Mentoring engineers, raising the bar for external delivery partners, shaping the roadmap with the Data Platform Manager and explaining technical priorities in plain English to senior stakeholders across Technology, Centres of Excellence, COGs and schools.
•Protecting what matters. Championing secure-by-design, privacy-aware practice wherever integrations touch personal or safeguarding-related data.
Who We Are Looking For:
Someone who has run serious integration work in production, knows what good looks like, and can bring others with them.
You'll have:
•5+ years in integration engineering or platform integration roles, with production-grade enterprise integrations to your name.
•Strong hands-on experience building integrations in Microsoft Azure, including Azure Service Bus and Azure Functions.
•Proven ability to design event-driven, message-based and API-led architectures, with a solid grasp of enterprise integration patterns and distributed systems.
•Experience delivering both batch and near-real-time integrations across multiple systems.
•A strong understanding of REST APIs, JSON, XML and integration contract design.
•Experience with CI/CD (ideally Azure DevOps) and infrastructure-as-code.
•A firm grip on secure cloud integration: identity, authentication, access management, managed identities and secrets management.
•A track record as a technical lead or escalation point, including incident leadership and driving lasting fixes.
•Experience setting engineering standards, documentation and runbooks, and making sure they're followed.
•Clear written and verbal communication, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, technical or not.
•A methodical approach to problem-solving, and the ability to work asynchronously across regions and time zones.
To view the role profile, click here
Benefits at Cognita:

• Competitive salary based on experience
  
• Private Medical Insurance & Healthcare Cash Plan
  
• GPP Pension
  
• Life Assurance
  
• 25 days annual leave allowance (plus Bank Holidays)
  
• Employee Assistance Programme
  
• Employee Discounts Site
  
• Professional Subscriptions
  How to Apply:
  Complete this application before the closing date. The Closing Date for Applications is: Sunday 29th November 2026
  Cognita Schools is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to safer recruitment checks, including an enhanced DBS check.  Our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy is available on the school website. Details on Recruitment of Ex-Offenders is included within the Application Guidance.
  We are an equal opportunities employer committed to diversity and treating all employees with dignity and respect regardless of background.
  We understand the value of AI tools and recognise the benefits they can offer to people who may need support with their writing. However, please be aware that we are increasingly rejecting CVs, expressions of interest and applications where the use of AI has resulted in content that feels generic, lacks personality or is indistinguishable from other submissions.
  By using your own words, experiences and ideas to demonstrate your motivation for applying and your alignment with the role, you will give yourself the best opportunity to stand out in a highly competitive field.
  Early applications are encouraged, we reserve the right to interview and appoint prior to closing date for the right applicant.