Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer
💰 $90,000 to $135,000 per year
CRMMicrosoft DynamicsSoftware Development
🎯 Role Definition
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer designs, customizes, integrates and maintains the Microsoft Dynamics 365 (or on‑premise Dynamics CRM) platform to enable business processes across sales, service, marketing and operations. This role partners with stakeholders, business analysts and IT teams to translate requirements into technical solutions, extend the platform via custom code, integrations and automation, and ensure high performance, maintainability and user adoption of CRM applications.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- CRM Administrator transitioning into development
- Junior .NET Developer with experience in Dynamics environments
- Business Systems Analyst with CRM configuration experience
Advancement To:
- Senior Dynamics CRM Developer / Lead CRM Developer
- Dynamics Solutions Architect or CRM Platform Architect
- Director of CRM Engineering or Head of Customer Engagement Systems
Lateral Moves:
- Dynamics 365 Integration Developer / Middleware Specialist
- Power Platform Developer (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages)
- CRM Consultant – Microsoft Partner Services
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Design and implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions: configure entities, relationships, forms, views, dashboards, business process flows, security roles and sharing models to meet evolving business needs.
- Build custom code using C#, .NET, JavaScript/TypeScript to extend Dynamics CRM with plugins, custom workflow activities, web resources and client‑side scripting to support bespoke business logic.
- Develop integrations between Dynamics CRM and external systems (ERP, marketing automation, data warehouse, REST/SOAP APIs, Azure services) to enable seamless data exchange and process automation.
- Lead data migration, import/export tasks, transformation of legacy CRM or other systems into Dynamics CRM, ensuring data integrity, performance and minimal disruption.
- Participate in all phases of the SDLC for CRM solutions: requirements gathering, technical design, development, unit/integration testing, deployment and post‑go‑live support.
- Conduct code reviews, enforce coding and architecture standards, optimise solutions for scalability, performance and maintainability in line with best practices.
- Monitor system performance (SQL queries, large data volumes, batch jobs, form load times) and implement enhancements to address bottlenecks, governor limits, user experience issues.
- Provide user training and technical documentation: write design specifications, user guides, release notes and knowledge‑base articles for Dynamics CRM configurations and customisations.
- Support deployments, sandbox management, metadata migrations, version control, CI/CD pipelines and release processes for the CRM environment.
- Collaborate closely with business stakeholders, product owners, architects and operations teams to align CRM solutions with business strategy, KPIs and user adoption goals.
- Maintain awareness of Microsoft Dynamics platform updates, Power Platform capabilities, new modules (Sales, Service, Marketing, Field Service) and propose enhancements to leverage these features.
- Design user interfaces and mobile responsive experiences within the CRM: develop Lightning web resources or Power Platform components as needed to improve UX.
- Manage system security: configure profiles, permission sets, roles, sharing, data access controls, auditing and ensure compliance with internal policies and regulations.
- Drive continuous improvement: identify technical debt, propose architecture improvements, refactor legacy customisations, and evolve the CRM solution architecture.
- Troubleshoot production issues: perform root cause analyses, resolve system bugs, monitor service health, and support incident resolution for CRM services.
- Participate in agile development processes: sprint planning, backlog grooming, stand‑ups, retrospectives and adapt to changing priorities in a fast‑paced CRM delivery environment.
- Configure application portals (Power Pages) or external user access scenarios and integrate with Dynamics CRM when required.
- Ensure reporting and analytics capabilities: build dashboards, SSRS/Power BI reports, data views and support stakeholders with actionable insights.
- Manage solution lifecycle: from sandbox design through QA, UAT, production roll‑out; manage environment refreshes, metadata upgrades and solution versioning.
- Mentor and support junior CRM developers/consultants: share best practices, run workshops, guide architectural decisions and contribute to capability building.
Secondary Functions
- Support ad‑hoc data requests, configuration inventories, sandbox usage metrics, system health reports and exploratory analytics of CRM usage.
- Contribute to the CRM team’s strategic roadmap: identify new modules, process improvements, migration opportunities and tool adoption (Power Platform, AI, automation).
- Collaborate across business units such as marketing, sales, operations and IT to align technical CRM capabilities with enterprise architecture and data strategy.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Proven proficiency in Microsoft Dynamics CRM / Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement: customisation, configuration, plugin development, workflows, form design.
- Strong development experience using C#, .NET Framework, ASP.NET, JavaScript/TypeScript, and related technologies.
- Solid knowledge of SQL Server, T‑SQL, database design, data migration, ETL tools and performance tuning.
- Experience integrating CRM systems with external applications and services using REST/SOAP APIs, Azure services, middleware or logic apps.
- Familiarity with Power Platform components (Power Automate, Power Pages), the Common Data Service/Dataverse and model‑driven apps.
- Working knowledge of architecture, design patterns, code review practices, and solution packaging/deployment in CRM environments.
- Experience with dashboards, SSRS/Power BI reporting, analytics, and interpreting usage metrics to inform improvements.
- Strong understanding of security model: roles, profiles, sharing rules, field‑level security and compliance requirements.
- Familiarity with agile development methodologies (Scrum/Kanban), version control, CI/CD for CRM/Power Platform deployments.
- Ability to work in a hybrid on‑premise/cloud environment, manage solution upgrades, compute environment refreshes and maintain system stability.
Soft Skills
- Excellent verbal and written communication: able to engage business stakeholders, explain technical concepts and collaborate across teams.
- Analytical mindset: able to translate business processes into technical solutions, troubleshoot complex problems and propose effective approaches.
- Self‑motivation and accountability: able to manage multiple workstreams, deliver quality output and own the CRM solution lifecycle.
- Adaptability and resilience: thrive in changing environments, shifting priorities and evolving platform capabilities.
- Collaboration and teamwork: comfortable working across business, IT, analytics, operations and supporting functions.
- Leadership and mentorship: support junior team members, champion best practices and build team capability.
- Attention to detail: consistently review code, configuration and processes to maintain high standards of quality and security.
- Strategic orientation: align technical solutions with enterprise goals, ROI and long‑term platform roadmap.
- Time‑management and prioritisation: effectively handle work on multiple projects, tasks and release cycles.
- Continuous learning mindset: stay up to date with Dynamics 365 updates, Power Platform innovations and emerging CRM trends.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering or a related technical field.
Preferred Education:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree plus Microsoft certifications (e.g., Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Developer Associate) and additional training in CRM and integration technologies.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Computer Science / Software Engineering
- Information Systems / Data Engineering
- Business Technology / CRM Systems
- Cloud Computing / Application Development
- Software Architecture / Integration