London & Kings Langley | 3 days in office and 2 days hybrid; travel to group sites around cutovers
Purpose
Build and configure Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central across a multi-entity UK group, working to an architecture set by a hands-on lead solution architect. Carry configuration, data loads, interfaces and testing through phased go-lives, provide hypercare at each cutover, and hand the platform to the permanent support team before contract end.
Context
Centry Services Group comprises four trading businesses in moving, relocation and related services, plus an overseas shared service centre running finance processing on the legacy estate. The largest business runs a heavily customised on-premises NAV 2009 R2 system across finance and operations; one entity's financials are already live on Business Central SaaS in its own tenant, with an Azure Data Factory and Power BI estate around it.
The programme consolidates the group onto one BC platform in two phases. Phase one delivers the group chart of accounts, the financial ledgers across the entities and consolidated group reporting in Power BI, targeted at three months subject to validation during mobilisation and discovery. Phase two covers the operational scope (job costing and billing, the integrations to the operational systems that feed the ledgers, and the remaining migrations off the legacy estate) over a further three to six months depending on design and complexity. BC SaaS is the preferred target; the lead solution architect validates the final tenant and environment architecture during mobilisation. Entity user counts and the integration inventory are being compiled and will be shared with shortlisted candidates.
Team and governance
The role reports to the Group Head of Finance, IT & Administration and takes day-to-day direction from the lead solution architect, recruited in parallel. Around the role: group IT, which maintains the legacy NAV estate and supports extraction and infrastructure, and finance superusers in each business, who carry UAT, with business superusers joining for phase two. Data cleansing sits with the businesses. Group Finance owns accounting policy, data quality, UAT acceptance and financial sign-off.
Key responsibilities
* Configure BC companies from the group template: posting setups, number series, journals, approval workflows and user permissions.
* Run data loads: configuration packages, master data, opening balances, and the reconciliation work that proves them through to Group Finance sign-off.
* Carry the bulk of AL development to the standards set by the lead solution architect: interim interfaces to the legacy NAV estate, integrations to the operational systems, and extensions where standard BC falls short.
* Run test cycles to the lead solution architect's plan: prepare scripts, support superuser-led UAT in each business, fix defects and retest.
* Support cutovers in person: training, floor-walking and first-week support at each go-live.
* Provide hypercare after each go-live and build the handover: support documentation, interface runbooks and knowledge transfer to the permanent support team before contract end.
Essential experience
* At least two years' hands-on Business Central delivery, with practical competence in both finance configuration and AL development; candidates may lean functional or technical but must work independently in both.
* BC finance configuration: posting groups and setups, dimensions, journals, approvals, permissions and the core sales, purchase and finance flows.
* Production AL delivery: VS Code, extensions and events, APIs, OData or web services, debugging, source control and controlled deployment through sandbox and production environments.
* At least one full implementation or major rollout from build through go-live.
* Hands-on data migration using configuration packages; RapidStart experience from NAV or earlier BC versions counts.
* Able to explain technical and data issues clearly to finance users, in person and in writing.
Desirable
* A NAV and C/AL background, including experience transitioning legacy customisations to AL extensions.
* A delivered interface to a non-Microsoft operational system.
* Power BI report building against BC data.
* AP automation ISVs (Continia or similar).
* Jobs, projects or costing module experience.
Why this role
This is an end-user platform role, not a partner consultancy seat. The mandate is approved and sponsored by the group's chief executive, the architecture is set by a hands-on lead, and the work is build, load, test and cutover from week one. The rollout is phased across the group's trading businesses, with the first go-live targeted within months of joining
Salary description
£1.00 - £2.00 per year