Four or more years' professional experience in systems engineering, data engineering, database administration or business applications consultancy, specifically within the Microsoft ecosystem (Dynamic
Demonstrated experience configuring and extending ERP, CRM, DMS or HRIS platforms to meet business requirements, including hands-on configuration experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Centra
Hands-on experience administering Microsoft 365, particularly SharePoint Online site and architecture design, permissions and governance.
Advanced SQL skills, with experience in relational database administration covering performance tuning, backups and security, and in building and maintaining data pipelines, warehouses and lakehouses.
Proven experience designing and building integrations using REST APIs, JSON, webhooks and middleware or iPaaS tooling.
Strong data modelling skills and advanced proficiency in a modern business intelligence and analytics platform, covering data modelling, calculation languages, dashboard design and security.
Experience designing and deploying process automation, including robotic process automation where applicable.
Practical experience building AI agents, copilots or generative-AI-integrated workflows, including grounding, prompt design and evaluation.
Experience building applications, forms and workflows using low-code and no-code platforms.
Proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language, such as Python or PowerShell, for data extraction, automation and systems integration.
Nice to have
Experience with the wider Dynamics 365 family, including Customer Engagement, and with SharePoint architecture.
Experience with Microsoft Fabric (Data Factory, Data Engineering, Data Warehouse and Real-Time Intelligence workloads), Azure SQL or Microsoft Dataverse.
Proficiency with Microsoft Power Apps, both Canvas and Model-Driven.
Advanced Power BI skills, including DAX, Power Query, Power BI Service administration and row-level security.
Experience with Power Automate, including RPA components and custom connectors.
Experience with Microsoft Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry.
Experience with other ERP, CRM or DMS platforms beyond the Microsoft ecosystem.
Prior experience within a non-profit organisation environment, including NPO-specific finance, grant and fund accounting, or donor and CRM management processes.
Relevant Microsoft certifications, including PL-200, PL-300, DP-700 or DP-203, MB-800, MB-910 or MB-920, Microsoft 365 Teamwork Administrator Associate, MS-102, DP-300, and AI-102 or Copilot Studio an
Other relevant vendor-neutral certifications, such as database administration or cloud data engineering.
Full description
The Business Systems & Data Solutions Engineer supports, maintains and enhances m2m's business systems - including Finance, CRM, ERP, Document Management, HR and general line-of-business systems-and the integrations, databases and reporting that connect them. Working under the direction of the IT Manager, who sets priorities, approves designs and manages vendor and stakeholder relationships, the role brings specialist technical knowledge to keep these systems stable, secure and useful.
The role configures and extends core business platforms, engineers and administers databases and data pipelines, automates cross-departmental workflows, builds AI-assisted and intelligent automation capabilities, and delivers actionable dashboards and reporting. It is defined by competencies rather than by any single vendor's toolset, since the underlying platforms for ERP, CRM, document management, business intelligence, integration and AI tooling may evolve or vary across business units.
Key Performance Areas
Business Systems Support and Enhancement
Customise, configure and maintain core enterprise business systems, including ERP, CRM, DMS, HRIS and related line-of-business applications, to align with evolving business workflows.
Set up and administer collaboration and document management structures, including metadata schemas, content and record types, retention rules, and secure internal and external sharing, in line with approved designs.
Develop low-code and no-code application extensions, including forms, workflows and custom modules, that integrate cleanly with core business system frameworks.
Act as a day-to-day technical contact for functional owners of Finance, CRM, ERP, DMS and HR systems, gathering business requirements and preparing technical options for the IT Manager's approval.
Provide second-line technical support for business systems, resolving incidents and escalating to the IT Manager or vendors as agreed.
Business Intelligence and Analytics
Build and maintain the business intelligence environment to agreed designs, including data modelling using star and snowflake schemas, advanced query and calculation logic, and interactive executive and operational dashboards.
Manage BI service environments, including workspace and environment administration, gateway and data-source connections, scheduled refreshes, and row-level and object-level security.
Provide ongoing maintenance and support for existing reports and dashboards, resolving refresh failures, data discrepancies and performance issues.
Partner with business stakeholders to define and capture KPIs and reporting requirements, and translate them into governed, reusable data models.
System and Business Process Automation, including AI
Exceptional ability to work with non-technical business stakeholders across Finance, CRM and Sales, Operations and HR, documenting requirements and translating them into concrete technical solutions.
Demonstrated ability to learn and work across multiple vendor ecosystems, with deep Microsoft platform expertise.
Develop, test and deploy automated workflows to agreed designs, both cloud-based and robotic process automation, to eliminate manual cross-system processes.
Design, build and maintain AI-assisted agents and copilots, within approved guardrails, that support business processes such as document processing, customer and employee query handling, and workflow triage.
Evaluate and integrate generative AI and machine learning capabilities and recommend options to the IT Manager, and integrate approved tools into existing business systems and automations within agreed guardrails around data privacy, accuracy and security.
Build and maintain prompt and agent configurations, grounding data connections, and evaluation processes to ensure AI-driven outputs are reliable and auditable.
Stay current on emerging automation and AI tooling and assess its fit for the organisation's systems and data estate.
Integration, API and Data Synchronisation
Build, maintain and support the integrations connecting business systems, databases and third-party applications, including APIs, message and event-based integration, and middleware or iPaaS platforms, to designs approved by the IT Manager.
Build and maintain custom connectors and APIs, including REST, JSON and webhooks, to synchronise data and processes across disparate systems.
Monitor and maintain scheduled data syncs and integration jobs, resolving failures and data mismatches promptly.
Maintain a documented map of system-to-system dependencies and integration points to support troubleshooting, change management and business continuity.
Data Pipelines and Database Administration
Build and maintain scalable data pipelines to ingest, clean, transform and load data from business systems, databases and web APIs.
Administer and support relational and cloud databases underpinning business systems and analytics, including performance tuning, indexing, backup and recovery, capacity planning and patching.
Maintain the organisation's data warehouse infrastructure, monitoring performance and data integrity across environments and making approved schema changes.
Apply data governance, data security, access control and retention policies across all databases, pipelines and analytics repositories.
Monitor data quality and pipeline health, and resolve issues proactively before they affect downstream reporting or operations.
Qualifications, Experience and Competencies
Must Have
Four or more years' professional experience in systems engineering, data engineering, database administration or business applications consultancy, specifically within the Microsoft ecosystem (Dynamics 365 Business Central, Power Platform, Azure and Fabric, Microsoft 365, SharePoint) or a directly comparable enterprise platform stack.
Demonstrated experience configuring and extending ERP, CRM, DMS or HRIS platforms to meet business requirements, including hands-on configuration experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as the core finance and ERP system.
Hands-on experience administering Microsoft 365, particularly SharePoint Online site and architecture design, permissions and governance.
Advanced SQL skills, with experience in relational database administration covering performance tuning, backups and security, and in building and maintaining data pipelines, warehouses and lakehouses.
Proven experience designing and building integrations using REST APIs, JSON, webhooks and middleware or iPaaS tooling.
Strong data modelling skills and advanced proficiency in a modern business intelligence and analytics platform, covering data modelling, calculation languages, dashboard design and security.
Experience designing and deploying process automation, including robotic process automation where applicable.
Practical experience building AI agents, copilots or generative-AI-integrated workflows, including grounding, prompt design and evaluation.
Experience building applications, forms and workflows using low-code and no-code platforms.
Proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language, such as Python or PowerShell, for data extraction, automation and systems integration.
Exceptional ability to work with non-technical business stakeholders across Finance, CRM and Sales, Operations and HR, documenting requirements and translating them into concrete technical solutions.
Demonstrated ability to learn and work across multiple vendor ecosystems, with deep Microsoft platform expertise.
Nice-to-Have
Experience with the wider Dynamics 365 family, including Customer Engagement, and with SharePoint architecture.
Experience with Microsoft Fabric (Data Factory, Data Engineering, Data Warehouse and Real-Time Intelligence workloads), Azure SQL or Microsoft Dataverse.
Proficiency with Microsoft Power Apps, both Canvas and Model-Driven.
Advanced Power BI skills, including DAX, Power Query, Power BI Service administration and row-level security.
Experience with Power Automate, including RPA components and custom connectors.
Experience with Microsoft Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry.
Experience with other ERP, CRM or DMS platforms beyond the Microsoft ecosystem.
Prior experience within a non-profit organisation environment, including NPO-specific finance, grant and fund accounting, or donor and CRM management processes.
Relevant Microsoft certifications, including PL-200, PL-300, DP-700 or DP-203, MB-800, MB-910 or MB-920, Microsoft 365 Teamwork Administrator Associate, MS-102, DP-300, and AI-102 or Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry equivalents.
Other relevant vendor-neutral certifications, such as database administration or cloud data engineering.
Reporting & Team Structure
Reports to: IT Manager
Collaborates with: Functional owners of the Finance, CRM, ERP, Document Management and HR systems; business stakeholders across Finance, CRM and Sales, Operations and HR; third-party application and platform vendors, as directed by the IT Manager
Supervises: None
Working Conditions
Employment Type: Full-time
Location: Cape Town
Travel Requirements: None
Compensation and Benefits
Competitive salary and performance-based incentives