First Quality was founded in 1989 and has grown to be a global privately held company with over 4,000 employees. Its corporate offices are located in Great Neck, New York, with manufacturing facilities and offices in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, and Canada. First Quality is a diversified family of companies manufacturing consumer products ranging from Absorbent Hygiene (adult incontinence, feminine care, and baby care), Tissue (bath and towel), and Industrial (print and packaging materials), serving institutional and retail markets throughout the world. First Quality focuses on private label and branded product lines.

We are seeking a Solution Architect, OTC-PTP-Procurement for our First Quality Enterprises working remotely. The Solution Architect – OTC – PTP – Procurement- is responsible for designing technical solutions that will drive the transformation of the Order to Cash/Plan to Produce/Procurement business functions efforts to support the company’s operations, enable its growth and achieve cost-effective and process-efficient best practices. This position will also drive the technology roadmaps that will drive the functions in scope into the future leveraging technology and industry innovation.

Primary responsibilities include:

Develop and maintain a detailed understanding of the business processes and associated software configuration with respect to Order To Cash, Plan To Produce and Procurement applications in scope (SAP is the ERP supporting these functions)

Foster and maintain ongoing internal relationships with the functional teams and their respective Centers Of Excellence (COEs)

Establishment of 3-year strategic functional roadmaps for the business processes in scope that are aligned to business strategy and respective business requirements

Development of a supporting 3-year strategic technical roadmap to support the functional roadmap.  Where appropriate, justified and in compliance with Enterprise Architecture guidelines, introduce innovation and automation into solutions architecture

Development of Reference Architecture Documents for the functions and business processes in scope and respective supporting systems

Establish/create High Level Design for New Business Processes and Projects that deliver solutions to business problems and opportunities.  Hand over to IT Build/Engineering for Detailed Low-Level Design. High Level Designs include:

a. Architectural diagrams

b. Data Flow (logical) diagrams

c. Reference wireframes

d. Security architecture (in partnership with IS)

e. Infrastructure architecture (in partnership with IT Infra)

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

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

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

Ensure all solutions are architected with BCP and DR objectives as part of the solution

Development of Implementation Guidelines as well as Build/Development Standards. Understand and comply with the Systems Development Life Cycle methodology

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

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

Provide post-project 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

Minimal travel to manufacturing sites and other First Quality locations to address IT procurement-related needs

The ideal candidate should possess the following:

10+ years of IT experience supporting the functions business processes in scope based on tools including, but not limited to, SAP, Qlik, Ariba (or similar), APO/IBP (or similar)

10+ 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 an established set of Enterprise Architectural guidelines and principles

10+ 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

3+ years of Project Management experience or exposure

3+ years of CPG Manufacturing experience

5+ years of Business Process Design experience

5+ years of assigned technology stack experience.  SAP (ECC 6.0, APO, EWM, TM, IBP, Ariba), Qlik

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)

Intermediate to advanced skills in Microsoft Office

Effective communication skills, verbal and written, including the ability to present comfortably to management

Strong work ethic and elevated level of integrity

Ability to effectively plan and manage multiple projects, tasks, and initiatives simultaneously

Proficient at building and maintaining relationships

High level of organizational skills and be detail oriented

Problem solving skills

First Quality is committed to protecting information under the care of First Quality Enterprises commensurate with leading industry standards and applicable regulations.  As such, First Quality provides at least annual training regarding data privacy and security to employees who, as a result of their role specifications, may come in to contact with sensitive data.

First Quality is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identification, or protected Veteran status.