Senior Strategist, Constituent Data Integrations

Position: Senior Strategist – Constituent Data Integrations

Hiring Range: This position’s hiring range is anticipated to be $100,000 - $130,000 annually depending on experience, plus great benefits!

Position Summary:

The Senior Strategist – Constituent Data Integrations leads the technical design, documentation, and delivery of integration architecture across the CRM, HubSpot, and the organization's connected platform ecosystem — the work that determines how constituent data moves between the systems the organization runs on. The role provides the technical capacity required to carry the organization through CRM migration and modernization, from current-state documentation through future-state design, vendor technical evaluation, and phase-gate delivery.

The role sits on the business side within Constituent Data & Business Analytics, designing integrations around how teams across the organization use constituent data. It partners closely with the rest of the team on this work.

The role contributes technical expertise to constituent data governance, ensuring architecture decisions align with the data standards approved through the Constituent Systems Governance Committee and flagging governance implications of technical design choices before they are built. It also serves as the team's technical lead on evaluating where AI and other emerging technologies can meaningfully improve the integration ecosystem.

This is a senior individual-contributor role with no direct reports and calls for both technical depth and a strong understanding of how the business uses its data: comfort in API documentation, data mapping, and integration tooling, and in leading requirements conversations with business teams.

Culture Statement and Responsibility:

We believe in treating everyone with kindness and compassion, building trust through authenticity and following through on commitments. We prioritize well-being alongside our mission, fostering strong relationships through open communication and transparent feedback. Diversity and inclusion are integral to our culture, enriching team dynamics by valuing diverse perspectives. Each team member is responsible for creating an inclusive environment where all voices are respected and contributing to a workplace that embodies our shared values and commitment to progress. By consistently aligning our actions with our Guiding Principles, we strengthen our culture and ensure that our values are lived every day.

Key Responsibilities:

Integration Architecture & Design

• Support and implement the technical design of new and existing integrations across the ecosystem (Workday, HubSpot, ShelterLuv, FundraiseUp, Snowflake, Airtable, Digital Cheetah, Maestro, Checkfront, Cvent, ControlShift, Cloud4Wi, Outlook, and future platforms) — data mapping, sync logic, APIs, and error-handling design, considering downstream impacts.
• Partner with business leads, IT, and outside vendors on implementation, translating business requirements into specifications and ensuring designs are built as specified and documented for long-term maintainability.
• Maintain the organization's current-state integration inventory and future-state architecture documentation.

CRM Modernization — Technical Execution

• Serve as a primary technical contributor to modernization-related integration work: defining integration requirements based on business needs ahead of vendor selection, documenting current-state architecture, and designing how integration patterns should change under a new platform.
• Partner with the Associate Director and IT to design identity resolution and system-of-record rules for the future-state platform, defining how constituent records are matched and linked across systems through migration and beyond.
• Provide technical evaluation input during CRM vendor selection — data model fit, integration/API capability, and migration technical risk — in partnership with the Associate Director.
• Support technical review and sign-off at migration phase gates for integration-related deliverables.
• Partner with the Senior Strategist – Constituent Data Systems, the program's business steward, on business direction for the CRM migration/modernization program; own the technical resolution once direction is set.

AI & Emerging Technology Evaluation

• Partner with the Associate Director and business stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and scope high-impact AI use cases within the integration ecosystem, translating ambiguous needs into well-defined technical requirements and roadmaps.
• Support delivery of AI-powered tools and workflows relevant to integration and data operations — including LLM-based applications, retrieval systems, and automation pipelines — balancing speed of iteration with security, accuracy, and responsible AI principles.
• Contribute to frameworks for evaluating AI and automation solutions (build vs. buy, vendor selection, model evaluation, cost/benefit analysis), in partnership with the Associate Director, and help define guardrails for safe and effective use.
• Identify and evaluate emerging technologies relevant to the integration ecosystem, deploying AI-powered solutions where they meaningfully outperform traditional automation and recognizing when a simpler, non-AI approach is the better fit.

Governance

• Contribute technical expertise to the Constituent Systems Governance Committee ensuring architecture decisions align with organizational data standards.
• Flag governance or data-standard implications of technical design choices before they're built.

Required Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in a technical role working with CRM or business systems (for example integration design, systems analysis, business systems administration, or data engineering), ideally within or in close partnership with a business team.
• Proven ability to translate business needs into clear technical requirements, and to explain technical tradeoffs in plain language to non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including leading requirements conversations with teams such as fundraising, marketing, and operations.
• Hands-on experience with REST APIs, data mapping, and sync logic: enough to design integrations, read API documentation, and evaluate how IT and vendors implement them.
• Working knowledge of at least one major CRM platform (HubSpot, Blackbaud CRM or Raiser's Edge, Salesforce, or comparable) and comfort working with SQL and data models.
• Experience creating documentation that works for both technical and business audiences, such as data flow diagrams, integration inventories, and requirements documents.
• Experience partnering with system owners, IT teams, and outside vendors on implementation and holding builds to agreed requirements.
• Sound judgment about when AI or automation is the right tool, and awareness of data privacy and security considerations when working with constituent data.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience supporting a CRM or enterprise system migration, implementation, or vendor evaluation.
• Experience with Blackbaud CRM and the BrightVine Data Link.
• Experience with HubSpot integrations, including bidirectional sync with a CRM of record.
• Experience with Snowflake or another cloud data warehouse, and with reporting tools such as Tableau or Sigma.
• Experience with integration or automation platforms (for example Boomi, MuleSoft, Workato, Make, Zapier, or n8n).
• Hands-on experience building with LLM APIs, retrieval systems, or automation pipelines.
• Understanding of fundraising, donor, or constituent engagement processes, ideally in a nonprofit or animal welfare setting.

Thank you for your interest in pursuing a career at Best Friends Animal Society. Best Friends Animal Society is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, or domestic partner status.

Applicants for employment in the U.S. must have valid work authorization that does not now and/or will not in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the U.S. by Best Friends Animal Society.

About Us

Who we are underneath the fur (and feathers)

Best Friends believes in being kind to all, both two- and four-legged beings. Compassion drives our work to save the lives of animals.

And it drives our daily lives. We do not judge. We respect one another. We embrace new ideas, solutions and differences. We welcome people from all backgrounds and appreciate where you are in your professional journey.

We are quirky. We never take ourselves too seriously, and we know that humor is important in this field. We operate with love and seek to spread positivity.

We are determined to create a safer, brighter world for homeless pets and to Save Them All.