D365 / Power Platform Project Operations Architect

Contract: Initial 1 Month + Potential 6-Month Extension
Start: ASAP
Location: Predominantly Remote / Yorkshire as required

The Role

We are looking for a senior, hands-on Dynamics 365 / Power Platform Project Operations Architect to undertake a health check and recovery review of an existing Microsoft Dynamics estate.

The current environment includes Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dataverse, Power Platform, Power Automate, integrations and Business Central, and has evolved through previous implementation partners alongside internal development.

Project Operations is already live and is being used across areas including project management, people/resource management and sales processes. However, the implementation has not been designed closely enough around the organisation’s business processes, and a number of technical and architectural issues now need to be reviewed.

The initial engagement will be a full audit / discovery exercise, expected to take approximately one month. The successful contractor will assess the current estate and provide clear recommendations on whether the existing implementation should be:

• Remediated in its current form

• Partially rebuilt/restructured

• Reimplemented more substantially

There is strong potential for the successful contractor to continue into a subsequent remediation or rebuild phase.

Key Responsibilities

• Undertake a detailed health check and audit of the existing D365 / Power Platform estate

• Review the existing Project Operations architecture, configuration and customisation

• Assess Dataverse structure, dependencies and technical design

• Review managed and unmanaged solutions, active layers and solution layering

• Identify issues created through previous supplier and internal development activity

• Review and improve the existing Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) approach

• Establish or recommend a robust DEV → UAT → Production deployment process

• Review the existing security model, roles and access

• Assess Power Automate flows, integrations and dependencies

• Review interfaces between Dynamics and other business systems, including Business Central where relevant

• Identify unnecessary customisation and opportunities to return functionality to Microsoft standard

• Understand the business impact of current technical issues before recommending remediation

• Work directly with Process Owners and internal stakeholders to understand current and future requirements

• Produce clear documentation covering the current-state estate, risks, recommendations and future-state solution

• Provide an options assessment covering remediation vs partial rebuild vs reimplementation

• Develop a practical roadmap for subsequent delivery

• Embed with the internal Power Platform team, providing technical leadership and knowledge transfer

• Potentially lead or support the subsequent implementation/remediation phase

Essential Experience

• Strong hands-on experience with Dynamics 365 Project Operations

• Senior-level Dynamics 365 / Power Platform Solution Architecture experience

• Previous experience recovering, reviewing or remediating inherited Dynamics environments

• Proven ability to assess an existing implementation and determine whether to repair, redesign or reimplement

• Deep understanding of Dataverse

• Strong knowledge of managed/unmanaged solutions and solution layering

• Dynamics / Power Platform ALM and deployment experience

• Experience designing or improving DEV, UAT and Production environments

• Strong understanding of Power Automate

• Experience reviewing and designing Dynamics integrations

• Good understanding of Dynamics security architecture

• Ability to work across both technical architecture and business processes

• Strong experience producing solution architecture, audit and design documentation

• Comfortable leading workshops with Process Owners and senior stakeholders

• Able to operate independently while embedding effectively with an existing internal technical team

Highly Desirable

• Experience of Dynamics Project Operations recovery or rescue programmes

• Experience reviewing environments previously worked on by multiple Dynamics partners

• Project Operations experience covering areas such as:

  • Projects and project planning

  • Resources / people management

  • Project costs and pricing

  • Time and expenses

  • Project invoicing

  • Revenue recognition

• Experience across wider Dynamics 365 CE / CRM

• Knowledge of Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations / Finance

• Experience with Dual-write

• Experience working alongside or integrating with Business Central

• Strong data migration / data architecture experience

• Previous Microsoft Partner or consulting background

Candidate Profile

This role is suited to someone significantly more senior than a standard functional consultant or developer.

We are looking for someone who can walk into an inherited Dynamics environment, quickly understand what has been built, why it is causing problems and what should happen next.

The successful person will need to be sufficiently technical to investigate the underlying environment themselves, but also commercially and operationally aware enough to recommend the most sensible route forward rather than simply proposing a rebuild.

Previous experience of taking over problematic, failed or heavily customised Dynamics implementations will be particularly important.

Engagement

Duration: Initial audit approximately 1 month
Extension: Potential further 6 months for remediation / rebuild
Start: ASAP
Location: Predominantly remote, with travel to Yorkshire for purposeful workshops, discovery sessions or handover as required
Working Pattern: Full-time preferred for the initial health-check phase
Contract Rate: To be agreed based on experience

Expected Outputs From Phase One

At the end of the initial engagement, the contractor should be able to provide:

• Current-state architecture / estate documentation

• Identification of key technical and functional risks

• Assessment of customisation and solution-layer issues

• ALM and deployment recommendations

• Integration and automation assessment

• Security review

• Gap analysis against business requirements

• Recommendation to remediate, partially rebuild or reimplement

• Proposed future-state architecture

• Prioritised remediation roadmap

• Indicative effort and approach for the next delivery phase