Systems Analyst - Principal

Independence Pet Group•Chicago, IL

About The Position

Independence Pet Holdings (IPH) is a corporate holding company established in 2021, managing a diverse portfolio of pet health brands and services across North America. We aim to simplify the pet parenting journey and improve pet well-being through innovative solutions. As a leader in the pet category, IPH provides comprehensive resources, capital, and services to support pet parents through its multi-brand, omni-channel approach, including its own insurance carrier, brands, and partner brands. The Principal D365 CRM Functional Lead will provide enterprise-wide functional ownership, strategic direction, and subject matter leadership across Sales, e-Commerce, Customer Service, CI-CDP, Contact Center, Marketing, and related CRM capabilities. This role is responsible for defining and driving end-to-end functional strategy and delivery, encompassing business discovery, fit-gap analysis, solution design, configuration oversight, and testing. The ideal candidate will serve as the primary strategic liaison, influencing business and technology leadership to ensure scalable, standardized, and high-impact CRM solutions aligned with business priorities. This role requires deep Dynamics 365 CE expertise, a data-driven mindset, and experience leading within complex, global, matrix environments.

Requirements

15+ years progressive experience in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM / CE
Proven experience delivering at least 3 complete life cycles enterprise scale D365 CE implementations
5+ years in US insurance or healthcare industries serving retail customers
5+ years’ experience in global, enterprise-scale transformations, including functional design and fit-gap workshops
Demonstrated ability to work in cross-functional, matrixed organizations
Excellent business communication and cross functional collaboration skills
Microsoft Certifications in D365 and Power Platform

Responsibilities

Serve as the enterprise functional owner for D365 CE modules, leading and mentoring the functional configuration team.
Set and drive strategic direction across CRM capabilities, ensuring alignment with enterprise objectives.
Partner with and influence business leadership and SMEs (service, sales, marketing, ecommerce, and insurance) stakeholders to ensure CRM capabilities support operational goals, customer experience standards, and reporting needs.
Establish and govern enterprise functional standards, governance, and documentation practices.
Ensure consistent and trusted customer data across CRM, analytics, and downstream activation use cases.
Establish direction for and oversee system configuration, driving towards a common, harmonized solution template that incorporates both IPH-level as well as individual brand-level specific design elements.
Drive adoption of out-of-the-box capabilities, engaging stakeholders in discussing design alternatives that minimize the need for customization.
Evaluate and define strategy for CRM ISV solutions, coordinating with vendors and internal technical teams.
Drive alignment across adjacent enterprise workstreams (e.g., Financials for quote-to-cash, eCommerce, Databricks, Martech, etc.).
Act as the functional bridge across business, technology, data, and Integration teams.
Ensure CRM solutions align with enterprise architecture standards and strategic design principals.
Partner with the IPH design authority to influence and approve changes impacting sales, service, and customer data.
Guide and oversee configuration and functional design; resolve complex gaps, define solution alternatives, and secure design authority approvals from IPH design authority.