Solutions Architect – Cloud Platforms

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 Solutions Architect – Cloud Platforms for our First Quality Enterprises company working remotely.

The Cloud Services Team within IT Infrastructure provides strategic direction, technical/functional expertise, and platform management for First Quality’s Public Cloud hosting environments and DevOps platforms, including Microsoft Azure and future builds in AWS.

The Cloud Platform Architect will ensure that cloud platform designs are scalable, reliable, optimized for performance, cost-effective, secure, maintainable, and seamlessly integrate with current on-premises and existing cloud infrastructure. They will design and implement solutions that adhere to First Quality IT architectural standards as well as follow industry best practices. They will ensure that all cloud platforms and environments are designed and delivered at optimal levels, while maintaining the highest levels of security readiness. They will establish policies and provisions to prevent unauthorized access or misuse of cloud environments.

This individual is responsible for developing processes and procedures as they pertain to DevOps CI/CD Pipeline management, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) deployments, configuration management, lifecycle management, operations, administration, and maintenance of cloud platforms and environments both in the public and private cloud. They will work closely with the Cloud Platform Build Team and Operations Team to ensure service transition is completed according to First Quality standards.

This position serves as the lead IT Infrastructure design resource for Azure and future AWS cloud platforms including, but not limited to compute, storage, networking, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, security & identity, management, and monitoring. As such this person is responsible for service transition to the Support Organization and serves as the L4 support escalation point for these services. The person in this position owns their assigned system(s) and interacts with all divisions and departments within First Quality.

This person will be held accountable for the initial design, deployment, and configuration of cloud platforms and environments with the goal of fully utilizing their capabilities. The person in this position will work closely with the leaders and associates of First Quality’s IT and Information Security organizations to maintain a complete end-to-end Cloud Platform lifecycle (architecture, delivery, to support).  As such, proven evidence of being a “team player” is critical for success in this role

Primary responsibilities include:

• Responsible for establishing enterprise architectural standards and producing reference architecture documents related to Public and Hybrid- Cloud environments.

• Defines Cloud DevOps processes, procedures, and CI/CD pipelines to govern Cloud Infrastructure as Code (IaC) deployments.

• Creates technology roadmaps with an emphasis on delivering “value to the business” and aligning with organizational goals.

• Assists with demand planning, scheduling, and managing projects.

• Attends customer / internal customer facing meetings as required to properly gather requirements and understand the business needs.

• Works closely with business relationship managers to understand business needs and deliver high value solutions.

• Documents Business Requirements, identify opportunities, establish justification, and create High-Level Design (HLD) documents for cloud related projects.

• Collaborates with Cloud Engineers to create Low-Level Designs (LLD), IaC templates, and CI/CD pipelines to support the build process.

• Ensures designs adhere to First Quality IT architectural standards

• Works closely with Cloud Platform Engineers to ensure all products and services are delivered to the business which meet requirements both on time and up to standards.

• Partners with the Information Security Team to ensure the security posture of the solutions meet First Quality’s standards and align with industry best practices.

• Partners with the Data and Application teams to ensure the integrity of custom solutions meet requirements and align with industry best practices.

• Guarantees that all developed cloud solutions are transitioned to the Operations Team with full documentation and operational readiness.

• Reviews and maintains up-to-date as-built documentation, drawings, and diagrams for reference by the Operations Team.

• Keeps current on industry trends and technologies to ensure solutions that are delivered are the most up-to-date and effective.

• Provides L4 escalation support in related areas for incident and problem resolution.

• Oversees cloud backup, recovery, and testing practices through but not limited to resource redeployment, version controls, failover, and data integrity testing.

The ideal candidate should possess the following:

• Minimum 10+ years of IT experience.

• Minimum 5+ years of hands-on experience with major public cloud vendors.

• Microsoft Certified (AZ-305 and/or AZ-400) a plus.

• Experience with building hybrid cloud architectures that incorporate public cloud with on-premises environments.

• Knowledge of Azure Networking fundamentals: connecting environments with site-to-site VPN and ExpressRoute, local network gateways and virtual network gateways, segmenting networks with Virtual Networks and Subnets, routing, IP management, Load Balancers, and private endpoints.

• Experience with building and operating cloud environments via Terraform Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates, GitHub Enterprise, and Azure DevOps processes

• Proficiency building and maintaining Azure solutions using Terraform IaC templates: Management Groups, Subscriptions, Azure Policies, RBAC, Networking Resources, Azure Virtual Machines, Storage Accounts, App Services, and Databases.

• Knowledge of Azure PaaS platforms including, but not limited to: Data Factory, Machine Learning, Databricks, SQL MI, Logic Apps, Automation Accounts, Service Bus, Azure DNS, Azure Functions.

• Knowledge and experience maintaining cloud environments, leveraging Landing Zones, Management Groups, Subscriptions, Resource Groups, with appropriate RBAC strategy.

• Firsthand knowledge of securing Azure environments with Azure Secure Score, Network Security Groups, Azure Web Application Firewall, and Key Vaults.

• Proficiency with Identity and Access Management (IAM) services: Enterprise Applications, App Registrations, Managed Identities, and Azure Application Proxy.

• Experience with Azure logging, data collection, and analytics with Event Hub, VNet flow logs, and Log Analytics.

• Experience managing Cloud Economics and cost optimization strategies through rightsizing, reserved instances, and savings plans.

• Proven project and process management skillset.

• Experience in Change and Configuration Management is required.

• Experience in Manufacturing Environments is a plus but not required.

• Relies on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals

• Results oriented, customer-focused, team player

• Highly motivated, takes-initiative, and can work independently to identify and complete tasks, while maintaining high standards of performance

• Able to overcome obstacles and get things done in a fast-paced environment

• Strong problem solving and decision-making skills with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Ready to share ideas, mentor, and collaborate with others

• Ability to strategize and execute

• Sensitive to cultural diversities

• Strong desire to help the customer; demonstrates excellence and pride in workmanship.

• Demonstrates commitment to problem analysis and resolution

• Excellent organizational and time management skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate with both business and technical individuals.

• Ability to influence change

• Excellent listening and communication skills

• Shows consistent and appropriate responsiveness to both urgent and non-critical matters.

Work Environment:

• Majority office environment.

• The office environment will primarily be remote “home office,” with some in office (rarely) when needed.

• Ability to work in 24/7 environment.

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 (year's 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!

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.