Integration Specialist at Unify Talent - IT, Digital & Tech Recruitment, United Kingdom, £650-£750 per day

Affiliate Network Integrations Specialist

Rakuten, AWIN or CJ

Location: Remote (UK-based preferred)

Contract Type: Short-term contract (minimum 3 months, extension possible)

Start Date: 10 August 2026

Day Rate: Ideally £650-750 per day, Outside IR35

Brief

We are looking for a senior integrations contractor to connect our clients platform to the major affiliate networks: Rakuten, AWIN and CJ. Their Impact integration is already live and serves as the reference implementation.

The architecture, integration pattern and draft API contract are being defined now and will exist before the start date - this is a delivery-focused engagement, not a discovery or strategy role. That said, we expect the contractor to bring real prior-implementation knowledge to bear: your first task is to critique and harden their draft contract against how these networks actually behave, not just build against it. We need someone who has implemented these specific networks before, knows their sharp edges, and can hit the ground running with minimal oversight.

Project Scope — What You'll Deliver

Three network integrations (adapters), each built to the same defined pattern

• Postback ingestion: network webhooks/postbacks delivered through their managed webhook infrastructure into their Open API as canonical order events. Transforms are mapping-only and version-controlled — no business logic in adapters
• Reconciliation polling: a scheduled poller against each network's reporting API providing a completeness check against the postback channel — including using the settlement-grade feed where the real-time API is not authoritative (e.g. Rakuten's Signature Reconciliation Feed vs its Events API). CJ is polling-only
• Full order lifecycle: creations, updates, cancellations and refunds handled as events referencing the original order
• Attribution edge cases: tested behaviour when journeys compete across tracking sources (e.g. their first-party link and a network link on the same purchase), with every claim preserved for downstream precedence resolution

Indicative Phasing

• Phase 1 (weeks 1–4): review and harden the draft ingest contract against real-world network behaviour — drawing on prior integrations with these networks — then first network adapter built and processing live traffic with a launch brand
• Phase 2 (weeks 5–8): second network adapter live
• Phase 3 (weeks 9–12): third network adapter, hardening, documentation and handover to our platform team

Key responsibilities also include: testing against sandbox and live network programmes, runbooks and documentation, structured handover to the in-house platform squad, and advising on per-network advertiser console configuration best practice (deduplication, coupon commissioning, credit groups

Definition of Done (Per Adapter)

Each adapter is complete when, as outcomes

• 14 consecutive days of live traffic processed, with a 100% push-vs-poll reconciliation match rate — every discrepancy explained and resolved
• Full order lifecycle verified end-to-end on the live programme: create, update, cancellation and refund events
• Competing-journey attribution behaviour tested and documented (e.g. our first-party link and a network link on the same purchase)
• Runbook and adapter documentation delivered and walked through with the platform team

You Will bring

• Independence and proactivity — able to own delivery end-to-end against a written spec with minimal oversight
• Outcome orientation — focused on live, reconciled order traffic, not just shipped code
• Crisp remote collaboration with engineers and commercial stakeholders

Must-Have Experience

• Proven hands-on implementation of affiliate network integrations on the partner/publisher side — ideally two or more of Impact, AWIN, Rakuten, CJ — covering postbacks, reporting APIs and sub-affiliatesetups
• Deep working knowledge of affiliate tracking mechanics: click IDs, postbacks, attribution windows, cross-network deduplication and payout precedence, coupon/sub-affiliate commissioning.
• Experience reconciling real-time postback feeds against network reporting APIs — and knowing which feed is settlement-grade on each network.
• Event-driven integration patterns: webhook verification, idempotency, retries, ordered processing (experience with Hookdeck or similar webhook infrastructure a plus).

A track record of delivering within fixed contract windows.

Nice-to-Have Experience

• Additional networks and channels: Partnerize, ShareASale, TikTok Shop, Amazon.E-commerce platform integrations (e.g. Shopify) and retail/consumer brand environments.
• Node.js / TypeScript.
• MongoDB, AWS ECS.
• Network advertiser-console configuration expertise (credit groups, cross-network deduplication, multi-touch commissioning).
• Exposure to the wider attribution ecosystem: MMPs (AppsFlyer/Branch), CDPs, conversions APIs

Engagement details

• Timeline: minimum 3 months from 10 August 2026; extension possible based on delivery.
• Location: remote-first with UK working-hours alignment preferred; possibly occasional travel to Bristol.

Apply by submitting your latest CV for immediate review by our Talent team.

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