Solutions Architect

Aspire Bakeries is a North American baking company with a leadership position in specialty frozen baked goods. Formed from leading bakery companies, its innovative food portfolio includes breads, artisan breads, buns, cookies, donuts, muffins and pastries from beloved brands likeLa Brea Bakery,Otis Spunkmeyer, andOakrun Farm Bakery. With 13 bakeries in North America, we are committed to driving innovation, predicting upcoming consumer trends and flavors, and exceeding our customers' expectations. Aspire Bakeries champions the values of Integrity, Ownership, Customer Focus, Creativity and Care to help us deliver on People Safety, Food Safety, Quality and Collaboration.

TheSolutions Architect is a strategic and technically skilled leader responsible for aligning IT strategy with business goals through the development of scalable, secure, and innovative enterprise-wide technology solutions. With deep experience in architecture design and enterprise systems integration, this role will guide critical initiatives from conceptual design through execution while fostering cross-functional collaboration and technology governance.

This individual will serve as a key influencer and decision-support partner to both business and technical stakeholders-helping Aspire Bakeries leverage emerging technologies and architectural best practices to drive long-term digital transformation and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Alignment & Architecture Roadmapping

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  Develop and maintain an enterprise architecture roadmap that aligns IT investments with business strategies.

  
  
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  Create aspirational target-state architecture aligned to mid- and long-term business goals.

  
  

End-to-End Solution Design & Integration

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  Translate complex business needs into scalable, integrated solution architectures.

  
  
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  Lead cross-functional solutioning, from problem framing to PoC/pilot deployment.

  
  

Technical Leadership & Architecture Implementation

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  Create architecture blueprints and design patterns to guide execution.

  
  
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  Drive consistency, quality, and sustainability across technical specifications and implementations.

  
  

Innovation & Emerging Technologies

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  Identify, evaluate, and lead implementation of cutting-edge technologies and tools.

  
  
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  Drive innovation through research, pilot projects, and continuous improvement initiatives.

  
  

Stakeholder Collaboration & Communication

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  Bridge communication between business stakeholders, IT leaders, and engineering teams.

  
  
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  Present solution options, business cases, and roadmaps to drive decision-making.

  
  

Architecture Governance & Standards

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  Establish architecture principles and governance models to ensure adherence to compliance, risk, and performance standards.

  
  
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  Collaborate with fellow architects and technology leaders to ensure architectural consistency and documentation quality.

  
  

Minimum Qualification:

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  10+ years in IT/Technology roles with increasing scope across systems analysis, software design, architecture, and deployment.

  
  
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  3+ years in an architecture leadership capacity, ideally with combined experience as both Application Architect and Solutions Architect.

  
  
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  Demonstrated success in leading large-scale technology implementations involving multiple business functions and cross-disciplinary teams.

  
  
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  Experience with solution modeling (UML, ERD, process maps) and creation of architecture deliverables (SAD, FDD, TDD) under frameworks such as TOGAF, Zachman, or Archimate.

  
  
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  Proven success implementing solutions in manufacturing or consumer goods environments (preferred), with understanding of DSD, warehouse models, and sales integration.

  
  
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  Experience in Domain Driven Design, Event-Driven Architecture, and cloud-native or microservices architectures (CQRS, Layered, Serverless, etc.).

  
  
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  Knowledge of systems thinking frameworks (e.g., ITIL4, COBIT, PESTLE) and design thinking methodologies.

  
  
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  Proficient in driving proof of concepts, innovation sprints, and solution engineering.

  
  

Preferred Qualifications:

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  Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related fields.

  
  
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  Certification in Enterprise Architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF) or equivalent training.

  
  
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  Experience with product management, solution lifecycle management, and agile program delivery.

  
  
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  Strong communication and interpersonal skills, able to lead both collaboratively and decisively in high-stakes technical discussions.

  
  

Salary Range: $150,000.00 - $200,000.00

Aspire Bakeries is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.