Manager, Integration & Development

The Paper Store•Concord, NH

2d•$110,000 - $140,000•Hybrid

About The Position

TPS Group Holdings, a family of brands including The Paper Store and Uncharted, is dedicated to creating destinations that inspire, delight, and surprise. Our mission is to connect with every customer through carefully chosen products, immersive shopping experiences, and service that goes the extra mile. The Manager, Integration & Development is a hands-on technical leadership role responsible for designing, building, and governing TPS's integration platform and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) aggregation layer that enables AI agent capabilities across the enterprise. This role owns our cloud-based integration and automation platform as the control plane for enterprise system connectivity from architecture and standards through to day-to-day delivery. In Phase 1, this role operates as an individual technical contributor and architect, with accountability to recruit, build out, and lead a developer pool supporting platform enhancements and application support as headcount is approved. This is a builder role first. The right candidate is equally comfortable setting integration architecture standards and writing integrations directly on the platform. They will be the primary owner of how TPS systems talk to each other, how AI agents access enterprise data, and how the organization reduces its reliance on external vendors for integration work. The Manager, Integration & Development reports directly to the VP of Technology.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field — or equivalent hands-on experience in a technical integration leadership role.
5+ years of experience in enterprise integration, iPaaS development, or application development, with at least 2 years in a technical leadership or management capacity.
Hands-on iPaaS experience is required the ability to build, test, and deploy production-ready integrations and automated workflows from day one is a non-negotiable expectation of this role.
Platform certifications (Automation Pro or equivalent) are strongly preferred.
Demonstrated experience designing and implementing MCP (Model Context Protocol) integrations, or direct experience building governed AI agent integration layers on an iPaaS or API management platform.
Candidates must be able to speak to how they have structured AI-to-system access with security controls, reusable capabilities, and audit logging.
Deep understanding of REST API design, OAuth 2.0, webhook architecture, event-driven integration patterns, and data transformation with the ability to set standards others build to, not just follow existing patterns.
Experience migrating legacy integrations — file-based ETL, custom scripts, or point-to-point APIs — to a modern iPaaS platform, including dependency mapping, sequencing, and cutover planning.
Demonstrated ability to recruit, manage, and develop technical staff — setting clear expectations, reviewing technical work, balancing development capacity against support demand, and growing individual capability over time.
Experience building a team from scratch is a plus.
Experience working with retail or e-commerce technology environments is strongly preferred — familiarity with enterprise POS, order management, merchandising, or e-commerce platforms is a meaningful advantage.
Candidates without retail platform experience must demonstrate the ability to develop deep system knowledge quickly.
Familiarity with AI agent frameworks and the Model Context Protocol specification — understanding of how AI agents interact with enterprise systems, what makes an integration AI-safe, and how to structure reusable capabilities for agent consumption.
Experience integrating with cloud data warehouses — understanding of how integration output design affects downstream analytics and AI/ML pipelines.
Strong documentation discipline — this role is expected to build institutional knowledge the organization does not currently retain internally. Candidates must demonstrate a consistent practice of documenting integration architecture, system contracts, and operational runbooks.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills — able to diagnose integration failures, design root-cause solutions, and implement preventive standards rather than reactive fixes.
Strong cross-functional communication skills — able to work with business stakeholders who do not have technical backgrounds, translate business requirements into integration specifications, and communicate technical constraints and tradeoffs clearly to leadership.
Collaborative and adaptable — comfortable operating in an environment where the integration platform is being built while the business continues to run. Able to balance migration work, new development, and operational support simultaneously.
Ability to work a minimum of 3+ days per week at the Corporate Office in Acton, MA.
Professional presentation in attire, demeanor, and appearance.

Nice To Haves

Platform certifications (Automation Pro or equivalent) are strongly preferred.
Experience building a team from scratch is a plus.
Experience working with retail or e-commerce technology environments is strongly preferred — familiarity with enterprise POS, order management, merchandising, or e-commerce platforms is a meaningful advantage.
Candidates without retail platform experience must demonstrate the ability to develop deep system knowledge quickly.

Responsibilities

Be a TPS brand ambassador.
Own and operate the enterprise iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) as TPS's integration and automation control plane including recipe and workflow architecture, connection governance, environment management, error handling standards, monitoring, and platform roadmap.
Build integrations directly on the platform from day one the role is hands-on.
Design, develop, test, and deploy integrations for new business initiatives, legacy migration, and AI agent enablement without dependency on external resources for routine work.
Lead the migration of legacy server-dependent and file-based integrations to the modern platform beginning with integrations that block cloud server migration and progressing to externally maintained interfaces to reduce vendor maintenance costs and internal overhead.
Design, build, and maintain the MCP (Model Context Protocol) aggregation layer establishing the governed, reusable capability layer through which AI agents interact with enterprise systems including e-commerce, point-of-sale, merchandising, and data platforms.
Define and enforce integration standards across the organization covering event schemas, action definitions, system contracts, API patterns, error handling, retry logic, audit logging, and documentation requirements. All integrations built internally or transitioned from external vendors must conform to these standards.
Establish and chair the cross-IT MCP working group partnering with Data & Analytics, Store Systems, Back Office, and Digital & Marketing teams to ensure MCP-published capabilities accurately reflect real system behavior and meet AI and analytics pipeline requirements.
Recruit, onboard, and develop a developer pool over time as headcount is approved, hire and lead application developers responsible for platform enhancements and Tier 2 support across core retail and e-commerce systems.
Set clear expectations, review technical work, and ensure primary focus remains on development with support as a defined secondary responsibility.
Own the internal integration development pipeline plan, prioritize, and deliver new integration requests through the IT intake process, replacing the current model of routing routine integration work to external vendors at hourly rates.
Partner with the Data & Analytics team to ensure integration and MCP output design meets data warehouse ingestion requirements, supports AI and ML model consumption, and maintains data consistency across the integration layer.
Define and maintain integration security standards in partnership with the Security & Compliance function including access controls, secrets management, OAuth and API key governance, audit logging, and agent permission boundaries within the MCP layer.
Manage external integration vendor relationships directing major integration project work where scope warrants external engagement while progressively reducing routine maintenance dependency as internal capability matures.
Maintain comprehensive documentation of all integration architecture, platform workflows, MCP capabilities, system contracts, and operational runbooks building the institutional knowledge the organization requires for long-term self-sufficiency.
Participate in the IT intake triage committee providing technical feasibility input on integration and AI requests submitted by business teams, and committing delivery capacity against approved work.
Stay current on iPaaS platform capabilities, MCP protocol developments, and enterprise AI integration patterns bringing recommendations to the VP of Technology on how TPS should evolve its integration and AI enablement strategy.