Quick overview
Job description
Salary: £80,000 - £92,000 per annum
Employment type: Permanent
Hours per week: 37
Reporting into: Head of Cloud Platforms
Department: IT
Click here to read the full job description and view our excellent benefits here
This role operates primarily on a remote working arrangement that will require little to no travel into our Coventry head office or various campuses. Our working model arrangements are a non-contractual benefit so please note that an Arden work location is added to our employment contracts.
Unfortunately we cannot sponsor skilled worker visas for this role.
About Arden University:
We are an aspirational and multi-award-winning university, delivering rapid growth with ambitious plans to disrupt the HE sector through our passion for innovation and digital education. Our vision is to become the first-choice university for career-focused lifelong learners worldwide, ensuring that everyone, everywhere can access higher education, by leading the thoughtful integration of AI into teaching and learning and equipping our students to thrive in an AI-enabled world.
There has never been a more exciting time to join Arden University, as we expand into new disciplines, forge worldwide partnerships, and expand our locations..
About our Department:
The Integration Engineering Manager sits within our Technology Department that is crucial to making sure our employees and students can work effectively, deliver projects, find the right solutions and ensure we develop the technology that will make the biggest difference.
Our IT team is made up of around 100 employees with a vast range of skills from Software Development to IT Operations and Security.
Our IT Department values employee development and we have lots of great examples of employee progression and promotions within the team.
About the Opportunity:
As the Integration Engineering Manager at Arden University, you will lead the team responsible for developing, delivering and maintaining our integration services. You will provide leadership across people, delivery and service reliability, ensuring our integration capability is secure, scalable and aligned with the University’s evolving digital priorities.
You will drive the development of a sustainable in-house engineering function, strengthening technical expertise and retaining institutional knowledge . Working closely with stakeholders across the University, you will prioritise demand, oversee technical quality and manage operational risk, ensuring reliable integration across our student, learning, academic, customer and AI-enabled platforms. You will also oversee the governance and support of API management and event-driven services connecting Arden’s systems with cloud-based and agentic AI capabilities, helping enable the University’s ongoing digital transformation.
About You:
Essential Skills Experience:
Proven experience leading a software engineering, cloud platform, middleware or integration engineering team, including people management, coaching and performance development.
Experience translating organisational priorities into an integration roadmap, prioritised backlog and achievable delivery plans.
Strong understanding of software engineering, API management, event-driven architecture, cloud integration, DevSecOps and service management.
Experience overseeing integration solutions across AWS and GCP, including APIs, messaging, data integration and event-driven services.
Ability to provide technical assurance across architecture, security, resilience, supportability and cost.
Experience managing production services, major incidents, problem management, change and release processes, service continuity and continuous improvement.
Experience establishing engineering standards, quality controls, documentation practices and measurable service outcomes.
Experience managing permanent staff, contractors and suppliers while building sustainable in-house capability.
Strong stakeholder, supplier and financial management skills, including budget oversight, cloud costs, workforce planning and resource allocation.
Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to engage technical teams, senior stakeholders and suppliers.
Calm, structured leadership when managing major incidents, competing priorities and organisational change.
Desirable Skills / Experience
Relevant certifications in cloud technologies, architecture, IT service management, security or leadership.
Formal training in Agile, product, programme or portfolio management.
Experience establishing or managing a platform or integration centre of enablement.
Knowledge of emerging integration patterns for AI-enabled and agentic services.
Experience working within security and compliance frameworks, such as PCI DSS, Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001 or ISO 42001.
Familiarity with Azure integration services, including Service Bus, Logic Apps, Function Apps and API Management.
Experience supporting integrations in higher education, cross-cloud environments or AI-enabled services.
Understanding of resilient messaging, API governance, observability and service continuity principles.
Why Arden:
At Arden, you will become a part of a passionate and dedicated team who are committed to removing unnecessary barriers to learning and making education more accessible. Our people work hard to ensure our students journeys are the best they can possibly be, as such we want to reward our people with fantastic benefits. Employees benefit from:
30 days holiday + bank holidays on-top, and even a Christmas closure!
A generous Aviva pension plan, company contributions starting from 7%
BUPA Cash Plan
Private Medical Insurance coverage (applies to certain job roles)
Access to Perkbox benefits
Study any Arden course for free, with a discount for all family and friends
Plus, other excellent benefits
Our ‘Golden Ticket’ which allows you to gift anyone in your life a free Arden education
Our Values:
Stand out, Progressive, Accessible, Resourceful, Kindness, reflect who we are as an institution, a team and as individuals. If they also reflect you and you are excited by the chance to be the driving, creative force within a growing business, we want to hear from you.
There has never been a more exciting time to join Arden University, as we expand into new disciplines and locations.
Closing Date: 24th November
We reserve the right to close this vacancy before the specified closing date should we receive sufficient applications or in order to respond to business needs. In order to avoid missing an opportunity to apply please submit your application as early as possible.
If you are a current Arden student or have an upcoming course with us, you are not eligible to apply for Student Experience roles due to a conflict of interest related to system access.
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion:
Arden University is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. This means that if you have a disability, as defined by the Disability Equality Act 2010, you may be guaranteed an interview if you meet the essential criteria for the role.
If you wish to be considered under this scheme, you can indicate via the application form below. By doing so, you are also consenting for this information to be shared with the hiring team. For more details on what qualifies as a disability under the Disability Equality Act 2010, please refer to the guidance here.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Therefore, we make sure that our recruitment and selection processes never discriminate based upon people's age, disability, gender, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances, and actively welcome applications from all groups.
Sponsorship statement:
Please be aware that some roles may not meet the points requirement for a sponsored Skilled Worker visa, or fulfil the criteria we have for providing sponsorship. However we welcome applications from candidates who do not currently have the right to work in the UK but may be eligible for a visa through an alternative route.