CRM Practice Lead

Summary:

Owns delivery excellence and resource management within the CRM practice. Serves as the escalation point for project and team issues, ensuring alignment between solution delivery and business outcomes.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• LMA for the delivery team, ensuring alignment to organizational goals and performance expectations.
• Partner with the Client Sponsor and internal leadership to maintain strategic alignment with customer objectives and business outcomes.
• Own the overall customer relationship, acting as the primary escalation point for delivery risks, performance issues, and offshore/nearshore coordination.
• Oversee all work and active projects within the assigned practice, ensuring delivery excellence and adherence to scope, schedule, and budget.
• Review KPIs, risks, escalations, and budget burn-down regularly to maintain visibility into project health.
• Conduct governance meetings with key stakeholders (monthly or at project milestones) to review progress, outcomes, and client satisfaction.
• Support Project Managers with risk mitigation, issue resolution, and client communications, serving as an escalation path when necessary.
• Maintain and enforce delivery standards, ensuring compliance with established methodologies, documentation practices, and quality controls.
• Collaborate with Sales and Pre-Sales teams to support scoping, estimation, and solution design for new opportunities.
• Conduct quality assurance reviews of project deliverables, solution designs, and technical implementations to ensure accuracy, scalability, and adherence to best practices.
• Drive team performance, mentorship, and professional development, including certification tracking, skill progression, and coaching.
• Ensure alignment to customer business outcomes—focusing on value realization and measurable impact rather than task completion alone.
• Collaborate with the VP of Professional Services to establish performance goals and provide feedback for 90-day and annual employee reviews

Requirements:

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of experience delivering Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM/CE solutions, with at least 3–5 years in a leadership or management role.
• Proven track record managing complex, multi-project D365 CRM implementations, integrations, and delivery teams.
• Experience managing offshore/nearshore teams and cross-functional project delivery.
• Demonstrated success in aligning solution delivery to customer business outcomes and organizational goals.
• Experience working with Business Central or other ERP platforms is strongly preferred

Technical Skills

• Deep expertise in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CRM/CE) practices, including Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, and Field Service modules.
• Strong experience with Power Platform: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and their integration with D365 CE solutions.
• Proficient in solution architecture, configuration, and customization of D365 CRM, adhering to best practices.
• Experience with data migration, data management, and reporting within Dynamics 365 CRM.
• Knowledge of security roles, workflows, business rules, forms, and business process flows in D365 CE.
• Familiarity with ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) and DevOps pipelines for D365 CRM deployments.
• Ability to conduct quality assurance and solution reviews for D365 implementations, ensuring scalability, accuracy, and alignment with client outcomes.
• Understanding of CRM governance frameworks and delivery methodologies specific to Dynamics 365 projects.

Leadership & Management

• Proven ability to lead, mentor, and develop delivery teams, including project managers and consultants.
• Strong resource management skills, including capacity planning, workload balancing, and performance management.
• Experience serving as the primary escalation point for project, team, and client issues.
• Ability to set and enforce delivery standards, KPIs, and quality controls across multiple projects.
• Experience collaborating with Sales and Pre-Sales teams to support scoping, estimation, and solution design.
• Ability to drive team performance and professional development across the practice.

Client & Business Acumen

• Proven experience managing strategic client relationships, including stakeholder engagement and risk escalation.
• Ability to align delivery to customer business outcomes, focusing on measurable value rather than task completion alone.
• Strong financial acumen to monitor budgets, burn-down, and project profitability.
• Skilled at conducting governance meetings, reviewing KPIs, and providing visibility into delivery performance.

Soft Skills

• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution abilities.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a focus on risk mitigation.
• Ability to drive process improvement and organizational change across a delivery practice.
• Coaching mindset with a focus on team growth and career progression.

Certifications (Preferred)

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement certifications (e.g., MB-200, MB-210, MB-230, MB-400).
• Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect
• Project Management Certification (PMP, PMI-ACP) preferred.
• ITIL Foundation certification or experience with IT service management frameworks a plus.