Centry Services Limited
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Lead Solution Architect (Contract)
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Purpose
Architect a single Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central platform for a multi-entity UK group and lead the technical side of the deployment through build, testing and into production. The work runs on two tracks: refine the live BC environment of the entity already on the platform, and design the new build for the businesses still on legacy Dynamics NAV, including the migration strategy that gets them there.
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; validating the final tenant and environment architecture is part of 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, who runs the programme day to day; the sponsor is the group chief executive and progress runs through a steering group. Around the role: a BC consultant-developer recruited in parallel; 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; this role owns the solution design and the technical delivery within that frame.
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Key responsibilities
- Own the solution architecture: group chart of accounts, dimension design, company structure, intercompany and consolidation.
- Bring the live BC entity onto the group design through a controlled migration: a new company on the group chart of accounts, cut over at a period end and reconciled to Group Finance sign-off.
- Own the migration strategy for the businesses on legacy NAV and deliver it end to end: extraction, transformation, opening balance loads and reconciliations through to Group Finance sign-off.
- Build hands-on. Lead configuration, test cycles and cutover through each phased go-live alongside a mid-level consultant-developer, who carries the bulk of AL development; this role designs and then delivers, it does not hand drawings to others.
- Design the integration layer to the group's operational systems and set the development standards: AL extensions only, no base-code modification, and environment, release and upgrade management aligned to BC release waves.
- Work with finance superusers in each business on process design at the platform boundary; agree what BC does and what stays in the systems feeding it.
- Coach the consultant-developer and shape the team as it grows, including any third hire at the operational phase (phase two).
- Design the run model for handover: update cadence, permissions model, environment management and the internal support model, documented and transferred to the permanent support team before contract end.
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Essential experience
- Multiple full-cycle Business Central implementations delivered end to end, led from the finance side, including at least one greenfield chart of accounts and dimension design.
- A strong NAV and C/AL background combined with BC SaaS implementation experience; the legacy estate is heavily customised NAV on-prem and the target is SaaS.
- Data migration ownership on at least one implementation, from legacy extraction through reconciled opening balances.
- Multi-company configuration: intercompany, consolidation and group reporting structures.
- Integration design: APIs and OData, and at least one delivered interface to a non-Microsoft operational system.
- Working AL knowledge: enough to set extension standards, review all code and write production AL when needed.
- Power BI against ERP data: able to define the BC data model and reporting architecture and build hands-on where needed; consolidated group reporting lands in Power BI in phase one.
Desirable
- Personally led an end-to-end NAV (or on-prem BC) to BC SaaS migration.
- Familiarity with the wider Microsoft data estate: Azure Data Factory and data lake patterns.
- Sector exposure to job-costed or project-based businesses (removals, logistics, construction, field services).
Why this role
This is an end-user platform role, not a partner consultancy seat, with direct access to the day-to-day decision-maker and clear design authority. The mandate is approved and sponsored by the group's chief executive. The design is mainly greenfield: a new group chart of accounts, a clean company structure, and a phased rollout across the group's trading businesses, with the first go-live targeted within months of joining.
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