Senior Director of Enterprise Applications

Enterprise Applications Senior Director

The Enterprise Applications Director is responsible for the day-to-day administration and stability of the organization's financial systems portfolio, with primary accountability for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365 F&O). Reporting to the VP of Finance Systems, this role serves as the operational backbone of the Finance Systems team—bridging the gap between technical system administration and the business needs of the finance organization. The Director will oversee vendor relationships, manage application licensing, maintain system integrity, and ensure that users across all legal entities have appropriate, compliant access to the platforms they depend on.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Technology Portfolio Management
• Serve as the primary operational owner of D365 F&O and other financial systems within the Finance Systems team's purview, ensuring platform stability, performance, and alignment with organizational requirements.
• Maintain a comprehensive inventory of applications, integrations, and data flows across the financial systems landscape; identify gaps, redundancies, and opportunities for rationalization.
• Partner with IT and business stakeholders to evaluate, onboard, and retire financial system components in a controlled, well-documented manner.
• Monitor system health, coordinate scheduled maintenance windows, and ensure adequate business continuity and disaster recovery planning is in place for critical financial platforms.
• Vendor Management
• Serve as the primary owner of day-to-day management of key technology vendors and implementation partners, including managed service providers, ensuring contractual obligations and service levels are met.
• Lead recurring vendor governance meetings; track open issues, escalate risks, and drive resolution in a timely manner.
• Evaluate vendor performance against defined SLAs; provide input into contract renewals and statement of work negotiations.
• Collaborate with Procurement and Legal as needed to manage vendor agreements, change orders, and compliance requirements.
• User Access Management
• Own the end-to-end user access lifecycle for D365 F&O and related financial systems, including provisioning, modification, periodic review, and termination.
• Maintain and enforce a robust security role framework aligned to the principle of least privilege, ensuring Segregation of Duties (SoD) policies are embedded into role design and access assignment.
• Lead periodic user access reviews in partnership with Controllership leadership and business control owners
• Maintain audit-ready documentation of access controls, role definitions, and SoD conflict matrices to support internal audit, external audit, and compliance reviews.
• Cost to Serve & License Management
• Own the financial systems cost model, tracking total cost of ownership across hosting, licensing, support, and implementation spend
• Administer D365 F&O and ancillary application licenses, ensuring the organization is appropriately licensed, cost-efficient, and compliant with vendor agreements.
• Evaluate licensing tiers to align user assignments with functional needs and minimize unnecessary license expenditure.
• Produce periodic cost-to-serve reporting for Finance leadership, highlighting variances, trends, and optimization recommendations.
• Master Data Maintenance
• Oversee master data governance for key financial system data domains, including chart of accounts, cost centers, financial dimensions, vendor/customer master records, and project master data.
• Establish and enforce data quality standards, creation workflows, and approval hierarchies for master data changes in D365 F&O.
• Partner with business stakeholders to manage master data requests ensuring timely, accurate execution and proper documentation of changes.
• Support new legal entity deployments by executing master data setup, system configuration, data migration, and ledger opening balance loading activities
• System Configuration & Maintenance
• Administer and maintain D365 F&O system configurations across a broad range of functional areas, including approval workflows (e.g. AP, AR, journal entries), bank account set-up and maintenance, financial report maintenance, and other system-level configuration required to support day-to-day finance operations
• Respond to configuration change requests across all administered functional areas; test, document, and deploy modifications in alignment with change management and internal control procedures
• Maintain current documentation of all system configurations, ensuring that configuration records are audit-ready and reflect the current state of the production environment at all times
• Proactively review configuration settings against evolving organizational structures (e.g., delegation of authority updates, new legal entities, personnel changes) to ensure configurations remain accurate and control gaps are mitigated
• Support the execution of application version upgrades per defined technology vendor deployment schedules, ensuring adherence to testing, change control, and deployment methodologies
• Application Help Desk & User Support
• Operate the Finance Systems help desk function, serving as the first point of escalation for end-user issues related to D365 F&O and connected financial applications.
• Triage, prioritize, and resolve (or coordinate resolution of) system issues, working with the managed service partner, Microsoft, or other vendors where escalation is required
• Track help desk metrics (volume, resolution time, recurring issues) and report trends to Finance leadership.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with company policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; conducting performance appraisals; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems. This role is expected to build and develop a high-performing Finance Systems operations team over time.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty with precision. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education & Certification

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field required; Master's degree preferred.
• CPA, CMA, or relevant technology certification (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics 365 certifications) preferred.

Experience

• 8+ years of progressive experience in finance systems administration, ERP operations, or a related field; at least 3 years in a leadership or senior individual contributor capacity.
• Hands-on experience administering Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365 F&O), including security role configuration, workflow administration, and master data management.
• Demonstrated experience managing vendor relationships and third-party implementation partners (e.g. Avanade, Hitachi, Accenture, or equivalent)
• Experience with application license management, cost modeling, and total cost of ownership analysis for enterprise financial systems.
• Familiarity with ERP user access management principles, including Segregation of Duties (SoD) frameworks and periodic access review processes.
• Experience supporting multi-entity environments and/or new legal entity deployments is required

Skills & Abilities

• Deep functional and technical understanding of D365 F&O architecture, including security framework, data model, and workflow engine.
• Strong working knowledge of finance business processes (AP, AR, general ledger, fixed assets, project accounting) and how they map to ERP configuration.
• Ability to translate complex technical system concepts into clear, business-friendly communication for finance leadership and non-technical stakeholders.
• Highly organized, with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficient in Microsoft 365 tools; familiarity with Azure DevOps, Power Platform, or Lifecycle Services (LCS) / D365 admin center is a plus.
• Collaborative team player with a customer-centric mindset and a track record of building strong cross-functional relationships.

Compensation

This role offers a base salary range of $200,000–$225,000, plus performance-based incentives, and a generous benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, paid vacation, and a 401(k) plan. Final compensation will be determined based on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Working Conditions

Location: Hybrid Opportunity - New York, NY or Norwalk, CT