Business Systems Architect & Development Lead

Southern Irrigation is actively seeking a motivated and reliable individual to join our team for our Chilliwack location.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Business Systems Architect & Development Lead

Location: Chilliwack, BC
Rate of Pay: $160,000–$200,000 per year, depending on experience

Job Purpose

The Business Systems Architect & Development Lead is responsible for the technical integrity and long-term direction of Southern Irrigation's core business systems.

This role owns Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Power BI, our webstore, and the integrations connecting them to other business applications.

We are not looking for a ticket-taking programmer. We need someone who can develop and troubleshoot directly, but whose greatest value is knowing what should be built, how it should be built, and whether it has been built properly.

This person will set technical direction, guide internal and external developers, challenge weak solutions, and ensure our systems remain dependable, scalable, maintainable, and ready for future growth.

This is a full-time, in-person position based in Chilliwack, BC. It is not a remote contract role. Applicants must already be legally entitled to work in Canada without employer sponsorship. Southern Irrigation is not offering immigration sponsorship or relocation assistance for this position.

Key Result Areas

• Business Central is stable, efficient, maintainable, and properly architected.
• Internal and external development meets appropriate technical standards.
• Power BI reporting is accurate, dependable, efficient, and scalable.
• Business Central, Clover, the webstore, Power BI, and other applications integrate reliably.
• Systems continue to perform as data volumes, users, locations, and business requirements grow.
• Technical debt and poor architecture are identified and reduced.
• Problems are resolved at the root cause rather than repeatedly patched.
• Southern retains appropriate ownership, documentation, source code, and knowledge of its systems.
• Technical decisions balance immediate needs with long-term scalability, security, maintainability, and cost.
• Employees and leadership can trust the systems and information they rely on.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

• Own Business Central architecture and development standards.
• Design, develop, test, deploy, troubleshoot, and maintain extensions and applications using AL.
• Assess business requirements and determine the right technical solution.
• Review existing customizations, extensions, and processes for performance, maintainability, and technical debt.
• Refactor or redesign weak or overly complex solutions.
• Troubleshoot issues and address root causes.
• Ensure custom development remains compatible with Microsoft updates.
• Maintain appropriate testing, version control, deployment, and documentation practices.

Development Leadership & Architecture

• Set technical standards across Southern's business systems.
• Direct and review work completed by employees, contractors, consultants, and third-party developers.
• Review significant solutions before development begins.
• Assess work for architecture, code quality, performance, security, reliability, and maintainability.
• Hold external development partners accountable for the quality of their work.
• Determine when work should be completed internally or externally.
• Prevent unnecessary customization, duplication, and short-term solutions that create long-term problems.
• Maintain a clear understanding of major applications, integrations, and data flows.
• Anticipate system needs and recommend improvements before growth creates problems.

Power BI & Data

• Own the architecture and reliability of Southern's Power BI environment.
• Design and maintain efficient data models, datasets, connections, and reporting structures.
• Ensure reporting is accurate and consistent.
• Establish clear definitions for key business metrics.
• Troubleshoot data discrepancies, failed refreshes, performance issues, and reporting errors.
• Reduce duplication and inefficient reporting structures.
• Ensure reporting scales with company growth and increasing data volumes.
• Build reports directly where appropriate and guide others completing Power BI development.

Integrations & Business Applications

• Own the design and reliability of integrations between Business Central and other systems.
• Design and maintain appropriate API and data-integration architecture.
• Oversee integrations involving Clover, the webstore, Power Platform, third-party applications, and future systems.
• Ensure integrations include appropriate logging, monitoring, error handling, authentication, and recovery.
• Troubleshoot failed or inconsistent data flows.
• Evaluate new applications based on how well they fit Southern's existing environment.
• Establish clear system ownership and authoritative data sources.
• Reduce unnecessary manual entry and duplication through appropriate automation.

Webstore

• Provide technical ownership and architectural direction for Southern's webstore.
• Ensure product, pricing, inventory, customer, order, payment, and related data flows are reliable.
• Work with internal stakeholders and external developers on new functionality.
• Review proposed architecture and third-party development before implementation.
• Ensure webstore development considers performance, security, maintainability, dependencies, and growth.

Continuous Improvement & Support

• Work with employees across Southern to understand business processes and system needs.
• Translate business requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Prioritize permanent improvements over repeated manual fixes.
• Maintain documentation of systems, integrations, development, and key technical decisions.
• Stay current with Business Central, Power BI, Power Platform, Azure, and related technologies.
• Recommend improvements where they provide clear business value.
• Complete other related duties as required.

Competencies

Required

• Extensive hands-on experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and AL development.
• Strong understanding of Business Central architecture, extensions, APIs, events, data structures, and integrations.
• Proven ability to design and deliver production-grade Business Central solutions.
• Strong experience with REST APIs and modern integration methods.
• Strong Power BI experience, including data modelling, reporting architecture, performance, and troubleshooting.
• Strong software architecture and engineering fundamentals.
• Experience with Git/source control and controlled development practices.
• Ability to review another developer's work and assess whether the approach is technically sound.
• Ability to diagnose complex problems across connected systems.
• Strong understanding of application integration and data-flow concepts.
• Ability to move between architecture decisions and hands-on technical work.
• Strong judgment and willingness to challenge poor technical approaches.
• Clear communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong ownership, organization, dependability, and attention to detail.

Preferred

• Experience with Azure Functions, Logic Apps, Service Bus, API Management, or related Azure services.
• Experience with Microsoft Power Platform and Dataverse.
• Experience with .NET/C# or other backend development.
• Experience integrating Business Central with ecommerce, point-of-sale, payment, or web applications.
• Experience directing third-party developers or consultants.
• Experience improving environments with significant customization or technical debt.
• Previous experience as a Technical Architect, Solutions Architect, Development Lead, or similar senior technical role.

What Success Looks Like

The systems you are responsible for work, scale, and remain understandable.

When something fails, you find the cause and fix it properly. When development is proposed, you consider how it affects the wider system. When outside developers complete work, you can review it and hold them to the standard Southern expects.

You leave systems cleaner, simpler, and more maintainable than you found them.

Most importantly, Southern's leadership and employees can trust the systems and information they depend on.

Core Values

The Business Systems Architect & Development Lead is expected to demonstrate Southern Irrigation's Core Values in their decisions, communication, relationships, quality of work, and service to fellow employees and customers.

• Work Hard

Be punctual, dependable, knowledgeable, and efficient.

• Win as a Team

Support your coworkers professionally and personally, and contribute to the success of the whole team.

• Wow Our Customers

Treat customers with respect and provide personal, practical, and efficient service.

As a provider of intelligent water solutions, Southern Irrigation strives to be best in the industry, and in return we provide amazing opportunities for our people.

Southern Irrigation offers impressive employee benefits such as 100% employer-paid health benefits plan, RRSP matching, culture and community events, and opportunities for employee bonuses.

At Southern Irrigation we know our success is based on having all “A” players rowing in the same direction. Our Work (hard), Win (as a team), and Wow (our customers) attitude makes the environment at Southern Irrigation both challenging and fun.