Application Manager - Petaluma - Friedman's Home Improvement

Description

Friedman's Home Improvement is seeking a hands-on Applications Manager to own, lead, and continuously improve the enterprise applications that power our retail, supply chain, and digital operations. This is a working manager role ideal for a technically strong leader who enjoys coding, problem-solving, mentoring a small team, and partnering closely with the business to deliver measurable impact.

This role blends technical depth, people leadership, and operational excellence. You will be accountable for the reliability, scalability, and performance of core systems including Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, eCommerce (Sana Cloud Commerce), Retail POS, Warehouse Management, and Business Intelligence platforms.

The ideal candidate thrives in a lean, fast-paced environment, leads with curiosity and empathy, and embraces agile delivery, observability, automation, and software reliability engineering principles to reduce toil and create durable systems.

Top 5 Non-Negotiables

To be successful in this role, you must bring:

1. Hands-on (coding) experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
2. Hands-on engineering leadership with strong understanding of observability, monitoring, and automation
3. Power BI and data warehouse experience, with a track record of driving data-informed decisions
4. Proven ability to lead and develop a small, high-performing technical team while remaining technically hands-on
5. Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, fostering accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement across business partners

What You'll Do

Application & Platform Leadership

• Own the end-to-end enterprise applications portfolio, including D365 F&O, eCommerce (Sana Cloud Commerce), POS, Warehouse Management, BI, and integrated corporate systems
• Ensure high availability, performance, scalability, and security across all platforms
• Lead application upgrades, releases, and vendor-delivered enhancements with strong change-management discipline

Hands-On Technical Execution

• Act as a hands-on technical leader, designing, configuring, coding, and supporting enhancements and integrations—especially within Dynamics 365 F&O
• Drive automation of repetitive tasks using tools such as Power Automate, RPA, or Copilot to reduce manual effort and operational friction
• Lead root-cause analysis and implement durable fixes to improve system stability and reliability

Data, BI & Decision Enablement

• Own Power BI, Power On, and reporting ecosystems, ensuring data accuracy, governance, and performance
• Partner with business leaders to translate data into actionable insights, dashboards, and KPIs
• Oversee data pipelines, warehousing, and analytics capabilities that support enterprise decision-making

Agile, SRE & Continuous Improvement

• Apply agile methodologies to prioritize work, deliver iteratively, and adapt quickly to changing business needs
• Champion observability and SRE practices to proactively detect issues, optimize performance, and improve uptime
• Continuously identify opportunities to improve processes, tooling, and system efficiency

People & Partner Leadership

• Build, mentor, and lead a lean, high-performing team of Application Specialists
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and technical excellence
• Manage vendor relationships to ensure delivery against timelines, budgets, and service-level expectations
• Partner closely with functional leaders to align technology solutions with business outcomes

Financial & Operational Stewardship

• Provide accurate budgeting, forecasting, and cost management for application initiatives and vendor services
• Support special projects and strategic initiatives aligned with Friedman's business goals

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field or 8+ years of equivalent professional experience
• 6+ years of hands-on experience with Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
• 4+ years in retail or omnichannel environments
• Experience supporting Business Intelligence, data modeling, ETL, and analytics platforms
• Microsoft certifications (strongly preferred):
• Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Apps Solution Architect Expert
• Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultant Associate

Required Qualifications

• Deep technical and functional expertise in D365 F&O, including architecture, customization, integrations, and troubleshooting
• Experience with Power BI, Power On, data warehousing, ETL pipelines, Azure Synapse or similar platforms
• Strong familiarity with Agile, DevOps, and SRE practices, including observability tools (e.g., Azure Application Insights)
• Proven success translating business needs into scalable technical solutions
• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and grow a technical team while remaining hands-on
• Strong project management skills and experience leading cross-functional initiatives
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills—able to explain complex technical concepts in clear, business-friendly terms
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and process-driven, with a mindset of continuous improvement
• Customer-focused with strong follow-through and ownership mentality

Why Friedman's

At Friedman's, technology directly supports the people and operations that serve our communities. This role offers the opportunity to make a visible impact, work closely with business leaders, and build resilient systems that support a growing, values-driven organization.

We look forward to hearing from you