Job Description

About the Position:

The Data Integration Engineer provides primary technical support to ensure reliability, integrity, accessibility, and usability of George Mason University’s applications that support mission-critical business functions of the university by supporting data exchange and data sharing of university data across applications and platforms. This position is data-oriented and designs and implements integrations to connect multiple data sources, software platforms, and applications, including ERP, CRM, REST services, documents, and unstructured data.

The Data Integration Engineer provides expert problem solving with programming skills and abilities in multiple coding languages and frameworks. Performs troubleshooting to resolve errors, provide support, and develop procedures to navigate complex system overlaps.

This position supports users in diagnosing and resolving production problems and testing. Provides custom application and integration support using advanced programming techniques and tools (JAVA, Perl, Unix Shell scripting, XML, secure data transfer, web services, automated file sharing, and web programming).

Responsibilities:

Provides technical leadership and support for new initiatives that enhance the functionality of university applications through data exchange, data integration or application integration.

Guides and advises decentralized business analysts and functional experts in developing and utilizing formal specifications for all new initiatives, following Enterprise Data Integration Services and Reporting (EDIS-R) standards, as well as industry best practices. Ensures recommendations for business process changes are appropriate. Utilizes advanced techniques to build mission critical data exchange, data and application integrations between Banner and other Mason systems, and applications to fulfill institutional requirements.

Reads University ERP system and third-party vendor documentation to use existing Data APIs, web services, or software, and develops additional packages that will allow for reuse of code across applications;
Collaborates with other Banner institutions, communicating through established listservs, networking with counterparts, sharing ideas and code when possible;
Codes solutions following EDIS-R standards;
Documents and presents solutions to customers and peers for review and ongoing support;
Documents source-to-target-mappings (STTM) at both entity or object and attribute (column) levels;
Collaborates and engages with ITSO, Data Governance, and Data Stewards to review data manifests and documents data lineage, as needed;
Responsible for the design, development, and documentation of the data exchange, data or application integration, data mappings, scripting, implementation assets, and other components necessary to move data from sources to targets;
Responsible for code object or asset unit testing and conducting performance tuning for load performance optimization prior to system testing;
Assists in the development of test plans and test scripts, and supports the executions for system testing and user acceptance testing;
Provides thorough testing results to business analysts for their documentation review and signoff;
Prepares all migration and submits Team Dynamix tickets for migration to other university ERP database instances;
Deploys and supports data exchange and data or application integration solutions to the university Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) platform; and
Uses GitLab source control to maintain history of code change in support of baselining functionality and identifying changes.
Provides Technical Leadership in Ongoing Support for Production Data Exchange, Data, or Application Integrations:

Monitors daily data exchange, data or application integrations, availability of the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS) iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) platform, and programs and services implemented on other platforms, as needed;
Responsible for researching and resolving production problems, working closely with business analysts, technical analysts, DBAs, server support personnel, system engineers, and functional experts. When defects are found with Ellucian products (such as Banner, Ethos Integration Services, etc.), IICS, or implementations of solutions within the platforms, communicates with managers and business analysts to ensure this is addressed with the vendor’s Customer Support Center. Consults with and advises the Ellucian Product Development team or Informatica team when necessary to get critical issues corrected;
Uses knowledge of Banner, Ellucian Integration Platform, IICS, and third-party application systems to suggest work-arounds if defects cannot be corrected in a timely manner;
Tracks any open issues and communicates the status of these issues with users on a regular basis. Keeps management aware of progress and problems with timely status updates. Prepares and distributes meeting agenda (prior to meetings) and meeting notes (shortly after meetings);
Leads and supports upgrades to the IICS platform by applying and testing new releases. Regression tests integrations to proactively identify issues and raise with the manager to ensure this is addressed through the Informatica Customer Support Center. Acts as upgrade coordinator as assigned by the manager. Functions as the technical lead solutions architect within the group using and mentoring other staff in the use of leading-edge tools and techniques;
Works in partnership with the team to document IICS platform and coding standards to meet quality goals, and follows programming best practices to collaborate successfully;
Assesses solutions for compliance with IICS platform, coding standards, and application of best practices through peer reviews and acceptance testing;
Provides technical leadership and mentorship to team members to determine proof of concept for new data integration patterns; and
Performs root cause analysis for iPaaS platform interruption of service. Consults with Informatica Support (or other vendors, as needed) and recommends iPaaS (or other vendor software) configuration changes to increase platform availability and limit downtime. Identifies recurring problems and implements change by working with vendor support, team members, and other ITS support units.
Training and Technical Knowledge:

Participates fully in training to learn new skills. Incorporates practice time for new skills into daily/weekly schedule. Utilizes Linked-In Learning, Informatica Tech-Tuesday webinars, and other training opportunities to enhance or further skills. Learns new functionality of Banner 9.x and the use of Banner APIs or web services. Attends technical conferences as required;
Presents new ideas and concepts for improving solution development to the team during working sessions; and
Suggests or recommends training opportunities with new tools, techniques, or processes to the team.
Mentors and Supports Team Members and Functional Users:

Responsible as the technical expert for developing advanced data exchange, data or application integration solutions, and guiding and mentoring other team members;
Uses technical expertise to assist business analysts, DBAs, engineers, and functional experts in decision-making regarding production problems and programming solutions;
Mentors staff in the use of new technologies and techniques. Collaborates with team members to create and review new team policies and procedures to include coding standards, platform support organization, and team DevOps procedures;
Leads, participates, and promotes peer training and cross-team training by sharing knowledge not only within the EDIS team, but also with our SMEs and amongst other groups in ITS;
Acts as a role model on the team. Provides technical guidance to other EDIS developers when needed. Mentors junior staff in issues related to large-scale application development and system deployment;
Creates and edits Team Wiki pages to gather, communicate, and promote knowledge sharing of key team processes and procedures to include project and on-going support documentation, development tips and tricks, coding standing, how-to guides, troubleshooting guides, data exchange, application or data integration solution documentation, and other information critical to support new development or ongoing operations.
Communication and Status Reporting:

Communicates effectively with project team members, managers, and ITS staff to keep all informed of progress and potential or actual problems with software and systems;
Updates the status of all requests regularly in Team Dynamix;
Adheres to team best practices adopted from Agile and SCRUM methodologies to include status reporting at standup meetings and through the use of updates to assigned planner cards and creating planner cards for new work, as needed;
Meets regularly with manager to provide current status of all projects and any critical issues; and
Keeps manager informed of any work schedule changes. Abides by personal work schedule, and arrives to work on time.
Required Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience;
Progressively responsible experience in analysis, design, and coding of data exchange, data and application integrations;
Experience with at least one Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) such as Informatica or Mulesoft;
Expertise in use of chosen technologies for Enterprise API (or Web) Services, SQL, and ETL development;
Solid communication and collaboration skills at staff and inter-departmental levels;
Ability to effectively communicate with the University's IT management, Administrative Managers, and others;
Strong customer focus and enthusiasm for continuous improvement, innovation, and change;
Desire and ability to write and maintain detailed design artifacts;
Willingness to perform Tier 2 on-call production support for implemented data integration solutions;
Demonstrated ability to define customers' business requirements in order to analyze and design new data exchange or integration solutions to satisfy their needs;
Demonstrated ability to analyze technical issues and problems effectively;
Proven ability to mentor staff in advanced techniques;
Knowledge of secure data transmission and integration techniques; and
XML, JSON.
Preferred Qualifications:

Agile or SCRUM methodologies;
Management and customer services certification;
Higher education experience;
Java programming, PL/SQL, and GraphQL experience;
Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS), IICS Cloud Data Integration (CDI), IICS Cloud Application Integration (CAI), API Management;
Strong ability to self-organize, multi-task, and meet schedule requirements;
Knowledge or experience with Agile or SCRUM practices;
Advanced scripting language (PERL), Node.js; and
Salesforce CRM – Integration features.