Principal Engineer - Enterprise Architecture (Hybrid, Chicago, IL)

This role is part of the Advantage Solutions strategy & architecture team within the corporate IT organization.  The Principal Enterprise Architect will play a key role in advancing and influencing the  IT strategy of Advantage Solutions as well as providing strategic architecture direction to ensure the enterprise can achieve that strategy.  This individual will define approaches and provide guidance to technology teams and their functional stakeholders.  Highly skilled with broad, advanced technical and cloud experience especially related to IT disciplines, this role serves as a key leader to challenge/direct all levels across the organization to align ideas to the IT strategy, connect program roadmaps, and adopt enterprise architecture best practices and technology standards. The individual will also apply enterprise and business architecture governance over solutions that provide technical capabilities.

This role will be accountable and responsible for the development and ongoing administration of company-wide consistent and integrated set of processes, tools, methodologies, and programs used by the Advantage Solutions technology community.

The role reports to the VP Architecture and Transformation, in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer.

Outcomes directed have a significant impact on the organization's short- and long-term results, specific customers and/or partners.

Job Responsibilities

• Collaborate with IT leadership, domain solution architects, and product leaders in the design and development of the strategic direction and vision for IT and Enterprise Architecture.
• Develop technical standards, reference architectures, design patterns, and architecture decision frameworks – especially those requiring alignment and integration of multiple technologies and applications across the business.
• Develop and maintain the Advantage Solutions enterprise architecture processes, tools, and ways of working to foster adoption of the Advantage Solutions IT strategy. Develop and implement plans to automate and continuously improve efficiency of these processes and data.
• Develop and manage a technical strategy and coordinates adoption. Architect enterprise guidance that conveys standard processes and common pitfalls for system design, infrastructure integrations, application development practices, and operations.
• Align enterprise architecture practices with business architecture concepts for shaping IT investment plans, making decisions on IT assets and their dispositions, and evaluating IT asset costs and roadmap inter-dependencies. Define cross-domain roadmaps for plans with program teams whose work will enhance the technology strategy.
• Manage the architecture review process by creating validation checklists, reviewing architectural artifacts, and providing domain specific guidance to drive architectural alignment across the enterprise. Direct architecture governance processes to make decisions and enable Sr. IT leadership to shape investments to IT strategy and budget.
• Maintain the enterprise IT asset inventory of software, utilities, and data integrations.  Develop and establishes standards and polices for IT asset portfolio management and collaborate with business and IT teams to inventory and classify existing new IT assets. Evaluate options and plan implementation of architecture portfolio management processes, tools, and data. 
• Create and maintain the enterprise architecture roadmap to guide decisions for the lifecycle disposition of current IT assets and the addition of new technologies into the enterprise application architecture.
• Manage a software rationalization program for the IT organization, working with IT leadership and peers to plan IT asset dispositions and the plans, responsibilities, and tasks for their retirement.  Work with third-party partners and teams to guide the program as needed.  Prepare and review executive reporting and issue management with leadership.  
• Apply enterprise and business architectural concepts to design solutions that meet operational requirements, such as scalability, maintainability, security, reliability, extensibility, flexibility, availability, and manageability. Partner with engineering and product counterparts to ensure solutions are delivered with quality. 
• Conduct research, develop Proof of Concepts, and recommend options on technologies to recommend new solutions for emerging business needs. Research, enforce, and drive the adoption of design patterns throughout the enterprise and evangelize standard processes for solution design and development.
• Play a critical role in translating business strategy into technical strategy and defines end-to-end technology architectures that support the strategy. Collaborate across IT portfolios to leverage common solutions and extend the adoption of architecture standards and common, shared IT assets. 
• Develop and maintain relevant Enterprise Architecture and Business Architecture artifacts, including current state architecture, standards, reference architectures, capability maps. Communicate architecture best practices throughout the IT community.  Build and enhance relationships with IT, business, and external contacts.
• Provide guidance, oversight, and coaching to the Domain and Solution architects. Review and sign off architecture designs.  Drive improvements of architecture processes, methodologies, and services, ensuring the quality of architecture assets.

Basic Qualifications & Interests (BQIs)

• Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, other computer related field required
• Minimum 10 years of demonstrable experience of which at least five years of relevant Architecture experience
• Prior experience as a Principal Enterprise Architect, Business Architect, Lead Solution Architect in a large-scale organization
• Experience leading technology teams and setting technology direction, providing guidance, and defining strategy for how companies should deal with technology.
• Strong analytical skills and technical acumen to understand and drive decisions on a wide range of IT assets.
• Work with Domain Architects and Solution Architects in preparation for Architecture Review Board (ARB), Architecture Portfolio Management, Architecture Assessment
• Develop architecture metrics and plans to achieve results, and experience managing work with cross-functional teams.
• Deep hands-on experience in leading the design, development and deployment of business software at scale
• Good experience in technology infrastructure, network, compute, storage, and virtualization. Familiarity with Microsoft technologies (cloud, power platforms, enterprise applications)
• Prior experience of managing challenges of migrating systems and workloads to the Cloud
• Experience with change management though process engineering and/or participating in or leading IT change / transformation programs
• Deep understanding of cloud computing technologies and workload transition challenges
• Ability to partner within and across teams to gain consensus and enable change
• Executive presence and good communication skills for creating and sharing presentations to multiple levels of audiences of partners - i.e. senior leaders in business and IT, architects, developers, etc.
• Stakeholder management experience in a large matrix organization. Experience managing teams across multiple company divisions or business units.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship

Fiscal/Budget Requirements:

• At least 5 years of experience contributing to financial business decisions in the workplace.

Management Requirements:

• At least 5 years of direct leadership, indirect leadership, and/or cross functional team leadership.

Travel Requirements:  (if required)

• Not applicable if located in the Chicago metro area.
• A balance of remote work and in-office cross-team collaboration at the Advantage Solutions Chicago office as required.  

 Preferred Qualifications & Interests (PQIs)

• Professional project and / or IT certifications as needed
• Fluency in English
• Experience in Retail and/or Consumer Packaged Goods industry, services, and data
• Experience in Service industry company operations, Managed Services models

Job Will Remain Open Until Filled

The Company is one of North America’s leading sales and marketing agencies specializing in outsourced sales, merchandising, category management, and marketing services to manufacturers, suppliers, and producers of food products and consumer packaged goods. The Company services a variety of trade channels including grocery, mass merchandise, specialty, convenience, drug, dollar, club, hardware, consumer electronics, and home centers. We bridge the gap between manufacturers and retailers, providing consumers access to the best products available in the marketplace today.

Main Responsibilities

• Collaborate with stakeholders to determine an IT operations architecture strategy that aligns with Advantage Solutions' business objectives.
• Create high-level solution specifications and design documents, including conceptual and physical diagrams.
• Provide the IT operations team with architectural blueprints to follow.
• Ensure the security of all IT systems in alignment with the company’s security strategy.
• Meet financial objectives by forecasting requirements, preparing budgets, scheduling expenditures, analyzing variances, and initiating corrective actions.
• Actively seek opportunities to improve business IT processes and interactions.
• Enhance cloud, network, DevSecOps, and operational capabilities.
• Work closely with lead architects and engineers to create and maintain architectural templates, operational documents, and automation playbooks.
• Collaborate with engineers and product owners to deliver IT or business capabilities.

Secondary Responsibilities

• Research and evaluate information sources for reliability and usability.
• Assist development and engineering teams in resolving application-to-platform integration issues for PaaS and IaaS services.
• Maintain domain knowledge through educational opportunities, professional publications, and involvement in industry organizations.
• Coach and mentor engineering teams to raise technical expertise.
• Test final products to ensure functionality and requirement alignment.
• Proactively research and apply best practices in coding.

Supervisory Responsibilities
Direct Reports
This position does not have supervisory responsibilities for direct reports.
Indirect Reports
May delegate work to others and provide guidance, direction, and mentoring to indirect reports.

Minimum Qualifications

Education Level: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field. Master’s degree preferred.

Experience Requirements: 

• 5+ years of experience managing large-scale IT projects.
• 5+ years of exposure to cloud-managed services, serverless technology, microservices (e.g., Function-as-a-Service, Containers, managed databases).
• 5+ years of exposure to logging and application performance monitoring.
• 5+ years of experience overseeing customized development processes for multiple projects.
• 5+ years of exposure to database architecture and infrastructure.
• 3+ years of exposure to network design.
• Deep knowledge of web applications, API development, cybersecurity, and open-source technologies.
• Proven leadership experience in complex organizations, working in a matrix environment.
• Ability to create high-level product specifications and design documents.
• Experience in enhancing cloud capabilities through cloud application patterns.
• Financial forecasting and budget management skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills with a proactive approach.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Certifications in cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
• Certifications in ServiceNow.
• Experience with DevOps tools and practices (e.g., Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform).
• Familiarity with ITIL processes and practices.
• Experience with automation and orchestration tools.
• Knowledge of data analytics and machine learning.
• Experience in a leadership role within a large enterprise.
• Strong understanding of IT operations regulatory and compliance requirements.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong collaboration and communication skills.
• Deep technical expertise across cloud, database, networking, and cybersecurity domains.
• Expertise in DevOps, automation, and orchestration tools.
• Continuous learning mindset to stay updated on industry trends and best practices.

Additional Information Regarding Job Duties and Job Descriptions

Job duties include additional responsibilities as assigned by one’s supervisor or other manager related to the position/department. This job description is meant to describe the general nature and level of work being performed; it is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required for the position. The Company reserves the right at any time with or without notice to alter or change job responsibilities, reassign or transfer job positions, or assign additional job responsibilities, subject to applicable law.  The Company shall provide reasonable accommodations of known disabilities to enable a qualified applicant or employee to apply for employment, perform the essential functions of the job, or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment as required by the law.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of associates so classified.

The Company is committed to providing equal opportunity in all employment practices without regard to age, race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, physical or mental disability, or any other category protected by law. As part of this commitment, the Company shall provide reasonable accommodations of known disabilities to enable an applicant or employee to apply for employment, perform the essential functions of the job, or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment as required by the law.