Solution Architect

Founded over 35 years ago, First Quality is a family-owned company that has grown from a small business in McElhattan, Pennsylvania into a group of companies, employing over 5,000 team members, while maintaining our family values and entrepreneurial spirit. With corporate offices in New York and Pennsylvania and 8 manufacturing campuses across the U.S. and Canada, the companies within the First Quality group produce high-quality personal care and household products for large retailers and healthcare organizations. Our personal care and household product portfolio includes baby diapers, wipes, feminine pads, paper towels, bath tissue, adult incontinence products, laundry detergents, fabric finishers, and dishwash solutions. In addition, we manufacture certain raw materials and components used in the manufacturing of these products, including flexible print and packaging solutions.

Guided by our values of humility, unity, and integrity, we leverage advanced technology and innovation to drive growth and create new opportunities. At First Quality, you’ll find a collaborative environment focused on continuous learning, professional development, and our mission to Make Things Better®.

We are seeking a Solution Architect for our First Quality Enterprises, LLC facility located in King of Prussia, PA.  This position will be responsible for Solution Architecture (Business Process, Application, Platform, Data, and Infrastructure) of the assigned functional or business process

Primary responsibilities include:

• Establishment of 3-year strategic functional roadmaps for Sales & Marketing and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) processes and aligned to business strategy and respective business requirements

• Development of a supporting 3-year strategic technical roadmap to support the functional roadmap for Sales & Marketing and PLM.  Where appropriate, justified and in compliance with EA guidelines, introduce innovation and automation

• Development of solution architecture by aligning and complying with Enterprise Architecture Standards.  To do this the Solution Architect will partner closely with the Enterprise Architect

• Development of Reference Architecture Documents for the Sales & Marketing and PLM business processes and respective supporting systems

• Establishment of High-Level Design for New Business Processes and Projects and hand over to IT Build/Engineering for Detailed Low-Level Design.  High Level Designs include:

  Architectural diagrams

  Data Flow (logical) diagrams

  Reference wireframes

  Security architecture (in partnership with IS)

  Infrastructure architecture (in partnership with IT Infra)

• Direct Management of the Sales & Marketing Plan and Build teams including recruiting, team management and team growth and development

• Develop yearly demand plans, budget and resource plans for assigned areas

• Provide direction in terms of execution strategy including sequencing based on functional and technical dependencies

• Collaborate with Project Managers to develop program and project plans in a proactive manner

• Ensure all solutions are architected with BCP and DR objectives built-in

• Development of Implementation Guidelines as well as Build/Development Standards

• Ensuring all proposed projects have properly vetted business cases and are aligned with the 3-Year Strategic Roadmap

• Development of Functional Specifications to hand over to the IT Build/Engineering team

• Development of Testing Plans at the Use-Case level to ensure the solution ultimately meets business requirements

• Create user training strategy to hand over to the IT Build/Engineering team for detailed training planning and execution

• Provide hypercare support as needed

• Collaborate with and support Sourcing and Vendor Management for assigned business processes

• Develop Service Strategy and Service Design plans for newly created IT services

• Provide L4 support as required (escalation based)

• Collaborating with business leaders and COE teams throughout the enterprise organization

The ideal candidate should possess the following:

• 7+ years of IT experience supporting assigned business processes

• 7+ years of Solution Architecture experience designing enterprise level solutions from the process, technology, people and data perspectives. 

• 5+ years of Solution Architecture experience designing solutions within a established set of Enterprise Architectural guidelines and principles

• 7+ years experience designing new IT business services

• 5+ years of solution engineering experience building solutions under direction of established and accepted solution high level and architectural designs

• 5+ years of Project Management experience or exposure

• 5+ years of CPG Manufacturing experience

• 5+ years of Business Process Design experience

• 5+ years of respective technology stack experience

• 5+ years of Enterprise Level Integration capabilities

• Excellent interpersonal skills to build, develop and maintain solid relationships, both internally and externally and partners cross-functionally on a regular basis 

• Genuine collaborator and team player with solid judgement and integrity

• Strategic mindset

• Excellent Change Management and Communications capabilities

• Ability to thrive in entrepreneurial, dynamic, and fluid environment while delivering results

• Comfortable with agility, with the ability to handle ambiguity and pivot strategy due to changing dynamics internally and externally

• Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent experience)

Estimated annual base salary range for this position is 170-185k/year.

Base pay is only part of our total compensation package, which also includes an attractive annual discretionary bonus and robust suite of employee benefits for which you are eligible to participate in starting on your first day of employment.

Base pay offered will be determined on an individualized basis and we will consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

What We Offer You

We believe that by continuously improving the quality of our benefits, we can help to raise the quality of life for our team members and their families. At First Quality you will receive:

• Competitive base salary and bonus opportunities

• Paid time off (three-week minimum)

• Medical, dental and vision starting day one

• 401(k) with employer match

• Paid parental leave

• Child and family care assistance (dependent care FSA with employer match up to $2500)

• Bundle of joy benefit (years’ worth of free diapers to all team members with a new baby)

• Tuition assistance

• Wellness program with savings of up to $4,000 per year on insurance premiums

• ...and more!