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 Indirect Procurement-Sr. Manager for our First Quality Products Company located in McElhattan, PA. This position may be based out of our Central PA site (McElhattan, PA & Lewistown, PA) or Macon, GA. This position will be responsible for leading the indirect procurement department covering all FQ Absorbent Hygiene companies (AbHy). The individual in this role will manage strategic sourcing initiatives, approve spend in certain categories, work closely with other functional department team members to standardize and streamline spend, lead negotiations with vendors, and collaborate across AbHy plants to ensure consistency of processes and purchases to leverage spend and deliver the best overall value for FQ. Must have the ability to travel roughly 30% of time to AbHy locations.
Primary responsibilities include:
- Direct/coordinate the procurement of indirect materials, supplies, spare parts, and services (MRO) needed to support operations for all AbHy plants by promoting collaboration across AbHy indirect buyers and functional departments to find synergies and negotiate aggregated volumes to achieve commercial benefits
- Represent FQ by developing strategic relationships with key suppliers. This includes sourcing and negotiating strategies along with leading the internal process and obtaining alignment with cross functional stakeholders
- Design and implement policies and procedures for the indirect procurement department that are consistent with the overall FQ purchasing policies.
- Identify and track cost savings initiatives including dollar savings and process improvements within the indirect procurement department and with functional departments to support FQ’s Funding the Growth (FTG) efforts
- Lead and manage a team of indirect buyers across multiple locations, providing training, supervision, direction, and guidance.
- Establish and maintain measurable performance metrics covering procurement activities including but not limited to buyer activity levels, categorized spend, requisition activity, and internal order placement performance.
- Approve requisitions across multiple plants in specific categories of spend to ensure the requisitioned item or service is accurate in need and scope, interface heavily with the requisitioning department to resolve questions and thoroughly vet the spend, and provide analytics to support the spend with documented notes and summaries to leadership, and.
- Participate in the development of cost-effective parts, equipment, and substitute equipment while maintaining quality and safety.
- Build and maintain strong relationships within the procurement department and other functional departments, finance, and plant leadership to ensure alignment of goals and objectives and cost savings initiatives.
- Research and identify vendors of spare parts, supplies, services, and other goods to assess for potential inclusion in competitive bidding to continually strengthen the FQ vendor selection options.
- Create or assist in creating procurement documentation such as requisition summaries to support spend, executive summaries, RFI’s, RFP’s and RFQ’s, and other spend and sourcing analytical reports.
- Build and develop our digital roadmap to drive automation, efficiency, insights, and cost effectiveness
- Additional duties as assigned.
The ideal candidate should possess the following:
- Bachelor’s degree in business management / supply chain or a minimum of 5 years’ experience in manufacturing operations, with negotiating, cost analysis, and supply chain or procurement experience preferred.
- Strong and effective communicator, both oral and written, who can articulate and clearly convey information with good interpersonal and leadership skills while interfacing with all levels of FQ’s organization structure.
- Experience in supervising and leading a team of employees is ideal.
- Demonstrated experience with business relationship development and excellent customer service.
- Proven analytical, problem-solving and process optimization abilities while working in a fast-paced environment.
- Must be a solid team player with ability to lead a team successfully with minimal supervision.
- Knowledge of procurement functions and ERP systems, SAP and Hexagon EAM, strongly preferred.
- Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite with heavy emphasis on advanced Excel skills.
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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in business management or supply chain OR minimum 5 years manufacturing operations experience with negotiating, cost analysis, and supply chain/procurement experience.
- Ability to travel approximately 30% of the time to AbHy locations.
- Experience leading and supervising a team of buyers or procurement staff.
- Demonstrated business relationship development and strong customer service skills.
- Proven analytical, problem-solving, and process optimization abilities in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong oral and written communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills across all organizational levels.
- Knowledge of procurement functions and ERP systems; experience with SAP and Hexagon EAM.
- Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite with advanced Excel skills.
- Experience with strategic sourcing, negotiations, supplier relationship management, and indirect/MRO procurement.
- Ability to develop and advance a digital roadmap to drive procurement automation, efficiency, and insights.
First Quality Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about First Quality and has not been reviewed or approved by First Quality.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Compensation is described as competitive across many hourly, technical, and engineering roles, with pay often characterized as good or fair for the job. Market-aligned base rates are reflected in recent postings and salary entries across multiple functions.
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Strong & Reliable Incentives — Quarterly bonuses, shift differentials, and overtime opportunities are commonly cited and meaningfully boost total earnings. Bonus eligibility appears to be a consistent feature in many roles.
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Parental & Family Support — The package includes paid parental leave, a year of free diapers for new parents, and employer-matched dependent care assistance. These family-focused additions complement core offerings and signal an emphasis on supporting caregivers.
First Quality Insights
What We Do
First Quality was founded over 30 years ago and has grown to become a diversified family of companies with over 4,000 employees. Manufacturing Adult Incontinence Products, Feminine Hygiene Products, Baby Wipes, Adult Washcloths, and Consumer Paper Products, we serve institutional and retail markets throughout the world. Our trusted, household brands include Prevail®, Cuties®, Plenty®, Panda®, and Incognito® Our facilities operate independently to maintain focus on the markets they serve, but benefit from being a part of the First Quality family of companies. We may be spread out across 9 locations and 2 countries, but we are one team! With our focus on innovation, technology, and sustainability, we strive to create the best products that stand out and make a real difference in people’s lives without ever sacrificing quality for affordability. If advanced technology, innovative thinking, and a passion for challenging the status quo excite you, come join our team at First Quality! When you look at one of our job listings what you’ll find is an opportunity: to meet teams who challenge each other to improve, encounter leaders who empower you to experiment, and discover work that inspires you. As a new employee in our FQ family your training begins day one and continues throughout your career as you learn and grow with our organization. Be part of making things better – apply today to join our team at www.firstquality.com/join-us!
