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".
Great schools run on great data, and that data has to move. As our Integration Engineer, you'll build the secure, resilient connections that keep Cognita's schools, Cogs and core systems talking to each other, in real time and at scale.
You'll work inside our global Azure-based integration hub, shipping integrations that people rely on every day and shaping the patterns the rest of the team builds on. If you like clean engineering, clear standards and seeing your work make a real difference to schools, read on.
About the Role:You'll design, build and run the integrations that move data and events between our enterprise systems. Day to day, that means:
- Building integrations that last. Deliver event-driven, message-based and API-led solutions using Azure Service Bus, Event Grid, Functions, Data Factory, Logic Apps and API Management.
- Connecting the business. Run near-real-time and batch integrations across student systems, finance, HR, CRM, marketing platforms and third-party SaaS, publishing to our Operational Data Store in line with the Common Data Model.
- Making it resilient from day one. Build in error handling, retries, dead-lettering, idempotency and logging from the start, with data quality checks and data contracts where needed.
- Shaping the solution. Contribute to design discussions and reviews, choosing the right transformation, routing and orchestration patterns for each need.
- Shipping safely. Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps (Dev, UAT, Prod), with infrastructure-as-code, Key Vault secrets management and role-based access control.
- Keeping it healthy. Monitor with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and Application Insights, resolve production incidents, and drive root cause analysis and improvements in performance, reliability and cost.
- Raising the standard. Apply and refine our engineering standards, reusable patterns and templates, and keep documentation, runbooks, interface specs and the integration catalogue up to date.
Working Arrangement: 4 days per week in Dubai office, 1 day working from home.
Who We Are Looking For:You're a hands-on integration engineer who has shipped production-grade work and knows how to keep it running. You'll bring:
- Strong hands-on experience building enterprise integrations in Microsoft Azure, including Service Bus and Functions.
- Solid grounding in event-driven, message-based and API-led architectures, enterprise integration patterns and distributed systems.
- Experience delivering both batch and near-real-time integrations across multiple systems.
- A strong grasp of REST APIs, JSON, XML and integration contract design.
- CI/CD experience (ideally Azure DevOps), automated deployment and infrastructure-as-code.
- Secure cloud know-how: identity, authentication, access management, managed identities and secrets management.
- A track record of troubleshooting and supporting production workloads.
- Clear written communication, so you can document your work and talk to technical and non-technical colleagues alike.
- A methodical approach to problem-solving, the habit of asking for help early, and the ability to work asynchronously across regions and time zones.
To view the role profile, click here
How to Apply: Complete this application before the closing date. The Closing Date for Applications is: Sunday 29th November 2026Cognita Schools are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff, volunteers and other third parties to share this commitment. Safer recruitment practice and pre-employment background checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed.
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.
