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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Integration Support Analyst

💰 $60,000 - $100,000

ITIntegrationSupportMiddlewareSoftware

🎯 Role Definition

The Integration Support Analyst is the technical specialist responsible for monitoring, troubleshooting, maintaining and evolving cross-application integrations and middleware solutions that connect internal systems, partners and cloud services. This role combines operational support, incident and problem management, technical configuration of connectors and APIs, testing and deployment activities, and stakeholder communication to ensure reliable, secure and performant data flows across enterprise applications. Core responsibilities include incident triage and escalation, root cause analysis, configuration and deployment of integration components, data mapping/transformation, monitoring and SLA reporting, and collaboration with developers, business analysts and vendor partners to deliver stable production integrations.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Application Support Analyst or Help Desk with strong technical aptitude
  • Junior Developer or Software Engineer with API and integration exposure
  • Business Systems Analyst or EAI/ETL Junior Analyst familiar with data flows

Advancement To:

  • Senior Integration Analyst / Senior Application Integration Engineer
  • Integration Architect or Enterprise Integration Lead
  • Technical Lead, Solutions Architect, or Platform Engineer (middleware/API platform lead)

Lateral Moves:

  • DevOps Engineer (automation and CI/CD focus)
  • Data Engineer (ETL, data pipeline development)
  • Application Support Lead or Release Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Monitor integration platforms, API gateways and message queues (e.g., MuleSoft, Dell Boomi, BizTalk, Kafka, RabbitMQ) to proactively detect anomalies, respond to alerts, and maintain SLA targets for availability and throughput.
  • Troubleshoot and resolve production integration incidents including API failures, message processing errors, EDI transmission problems, connectivity and certificate issues, performing first- and second-line support and coordinating vendor escalations when required.
  • Perform root cause analysis (RCA) for recurring integration issues, document findings, identify permanent fixes, and coordinate implementation with development and operations teams to reduce incident recurrence.
  • Manage end-to-end incident lifecycle: triage, classification, impact assessment, work-around or remediation, stakeholder communication, post-incident review and RCA documentation.
  • Configure, deploy and manage integration artifacts (connectors, endpoints, flows, mappings, transformation scripts) across dev/test/stage/prod environments following change control and release management processes.
  • Design, implement and maintain data mappings and transformation logic between source and target systems using XML/XSLT, JSON transformations, scripting (JavaScript, Python) or platform mapping tools.
  • Build and execute integration test plans, unit tests, regression tests and coordinate user acceptance testing (UAT) with business owners to validate integration changes and new interfaces.
  • Validate and reconcile transactional data between systems, perform data integrity checks, and resolve data-related discrepancies by tracing messages and payloads through the integration pipeline.
  • Implement and maintain authentication and authorization for integrations including OAuth, JWT, TLS/SSL certificate management, API keys and secure credential handling.
  • Maintain and tune performance of integration processes, including throughput optimization, batching strategies, queue management and failure recovery design to meet SLAs under peak loads.
  • Create and maintain runbooks, standard operating procedures (SOPs), technical runbooks and playbooks for incident response, on-call handoffs and routine operational tasks.
  • Collaborate with application owners, business analysts and project teams to translate functional requirements into integration design, identify integration points, and provide effort estimates.
  • Participate in change advisory board (CAB) meetings and ensure integration changes comply with governance, security, and compliance requirements (PCI, HIPAA, SOC) where applicable.
  • Manage version control, CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment processes for integration artifacts using Git, Jenkins, Azure DevOps or equivalent tools to ensure repeatable, auditable releases.
  • Implement monitoring, logging and observability for integrations using Splunk, ELK, New Relic or cloud-native solutions, create dashboards and alerts that support proactive operations.
  • Coordinate with third-party vendors and partners for onboarding, testing and ongoing support of external integrations and EDI trading partner interfaces.
  • Provide on-call rotation coverage and timely after-hours support for critical incidents, including remedial actions and communication to stakeholders during outages.
  • Assist in application and middleware upgrades, patching and platform migrations by testing integrations, updating connectors, and executing deployment plans to minimize downtime.
  • Document interface specifications, API contracts, message schemas (XSD), sample payloads and mapping documents to support maintainability and knowledge transfer.
  • Support creation of proof-of-concepts and pilot integrations for new platforms, APIs, or partner connections to evaluate fit, performance and operational impact.
  • Implement retry, DLQ (dead-letter queue) and poison-message handling patterns within integration flows to improve resilience and error handling.
  • Analyze metrics and SLA reports to identify trends, capacity requirements and opportunities for automation or re-architecture to reduce manual interventions.
  • Provide end-user support and training for business users and operations teams on integration behavior, manual reconciliation steps and reporting access.
  • Participate in architecture and design reviews to ensure integrations adhere to enterprise standards, reusable patterns and secure design principles.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Prepare monthly and quarterly integration health reports and KPIs for management review.
  • Maintain a knowledge base of known issues, troubleshooting steps and frequently encountered integration scenarios.
  • Mentor junior Integration Support team members in troubleshooting and platform best practices.
  • Support business continuity planning and run tabletop exercises related to integration platform failures.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Strong experience with API technologies: REST and SOAP web services, JSON and XML payloads, API design and debugging.
  • Hands-on experience with integration/middleware platforms such as MuleSoft (Anypoint), Dell Boomi, Microsoft BizTalk, IBM App Connect, or similar.
  • Proficiency in EDI standards and tools (X12, EDIFACT) and knowledge of trading partner onboarding processes.
  • Familiarity with message broker technologies (Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ) and asynchronous messaging patterns.
  • Solid SQL skills for querying, data validation, reconciliation and troubleshooting of integration data flows.
  • Scripting and automation skills (Python, Bash/Shell, JavaScript) to build utilities, payload transformations and operational scripts.
  • Experience with monitoring and logging tools (Splunk, ELK/Elastic Stack, Datadog, New Relic) and building operational dashboards.
  • Understanding of CI/CD and version control using Git, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, or GitHub Actions for automated deployments.
  • Knowledge of authentication and security technologies: OAuth 2.0, JWT, TLS/SSL certificate management and secure credential storage.
  • Experience with cloud platforms and services (AWS, Azure, GCP) and native integration services (API Gateway, Lambda, Logic Apps) is a plus.
  • Familiarity with ITIL processes, incident/problem/change management, and SLA-driven operations.
  • Basic knowledge of networking, DNS, firewall rules and connectivity troubleshooting for cross-system integrations.
  • Experience with data mapping tools, XSLT transformations, and schema validation (XSD/JSON Schema).
  • Ability to read and interpret logs, stack traces and error messages to diagnose root causes across multiple technology stacks.
  • Experience with performance tuning and capacity planning for integration workloads.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a structured approach to diagnose complex integration issues.
  • Clear, concise and proactive communicator — able to translate technical issues into business-impact explanations for stakeholders.
  • Strong stakeholder management and customer-service orientation; able to work with cross-functional teams and external partners.
  • Ability to prioritize incidents and tasks under pressure while maintaining attention to detail and follow-through.
  • Collaborative team player who contributes to continuous improvement and shares knowledge with peers.
  • Adaptability and willingness to learn new integration platforms, protocols and cloud services quickly.
  • Time management and organizational skills to balance operational duties, project work and on-call responsibilities.
  • Documentation mindset — writes clear runbooks, troubleshooting guides and interface documentation.
  • Critical thinking and judgement to recommend permanent fixes versus tactical workarounds.
  • Resilience and composure during production outages and high-severity incidents.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or related technical discipline — OR equivalent work experience in integration or application support.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
  • Professional certifications (preferred): MuleSoft Certified Developer, Dell Boomi Professional Developer, AWS Certified Developer/Architect, Microsoft Azure certifications, ITIL Foundation.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Systems
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Technology
  • Data Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2 - 5 years of hands-on integration, middleware or application support experience.

Preferred: 3 - 7+ years with demonstrated experience supporting enterprise integration platforms, API management, EDI/trading partner interfaces and production incident management. Experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare, retail) or large-scale SaaS ecosystems is a strong plus.

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