Oxford Properties Group: Manager, Application Development

Oxford Properties Group is looking for a Manager, Application Development:

The posting is too short to cover in much detail.  There’s a bit about the role here, but the posting doesn’t talk about the company itself, although the website does:

• “global real estate platform that participates in the market as an investor, owner, asset manager, developer and real estate manager”
• “employs more than 1,400 individuals”

So, they’re obviously into real estate, but I don’t really have any sense what applications they might be developing, how many, size of the team being managed, whether or not this role is about lots of new greenfield work or legacy maintenance and support, the technologies employed herein, what the compensation is like, and so on.  So, basically, if you’d like to be an AppDev manager in real estate, you could try and pry more information out of the Oxford Properties Group and see what happens.

Mostly, this is interesting because it’s a senior role in a less-common industry vertical, and probably centrally-located.

Little Bites: ‘Teach’ Lead, Sapient, Rails, Police

Agilon puts a lot of effort into their job postings.  For instance, they’re looking for a Teach Lead in TorontoUS, ON, CA which is apparently another way to say ‘Detroit, MI’.

Sapient is always looking for people in Toronto, it seems.  They’re still looking for a Solutions Architect and a Manager, Technology, both of whom should apparently be open to frequent overnight travel.

Someone is looking for Rails developers with PHP experience in Toronto.  If I had to guess, I’d say this sounds like Avid Life Media still.

Being a senior developer for the Toronto Police sounds like an odd but possibly interesting experience in its own way.  Unfortunately, it’s public-sector, so senior developer means $70-$80k here.

mdlogix: Ruby on Rails Software Engineer

mdlogix is looking for a Ruby on Rails Software Engineer:

You will be embedded in a small Scrum team, working closely with your teammates, the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master to leverage Ruby on Rails and deliver innovative medical research support software. You will use your exceptional skills and experience in web development to create dynamic functionality.

The Good
They’re a relatively small company using Ruby on Rails to work on medical research software, which seems like a good cause.  They’ve got some expertise with Rails in-house, including Virtuous Code’s Avdi Grimm (’Monkey-Patching is Destroying Ruby‘).  And they’ve just brought on a soon-to-be-ex-colleague of mine, who’s a nice chap (yes, he has some British background), so you could work with him.

The Bad
Well, for starters, there’s not a lot of information in their posting.  Where’s the Toronto location?  What kind of compensation do they offer?  What might you be working on?  What’s their process like in detail?  There’s a pile of things a candidate would like to know, and clearly you’re going to have to open discussions before you’ll find out.

Secondly, after some initial conversations, I was able to determine that while mdlogix salaries are pretty good compared to many Rails salaries in Toronto, they still lag behind the high end of the positions for doing Java work, so depending on your background, you might need to verify or alter your expectations.

YMMV
Your mileage may vary about having to start a conversation with mdlogix before you can find out the basics about where they are and what you might be working on.

I believe they’re located near Queen and Spadina, right next to b5media.  As I said for b5:

Their location’s good and bad; Spadina and Queen is a fine place to hang around, get lunch, have some fun.  Depending on where you live, though it’s an awkward place to commute to.  The Spadina car and Queen car are both sluggish during rush hour, and it’s just far enough from the subway line to make walking a healthy, yet time-consuming exercise on a twice-daily basis.  It’s not incredibly far from the highways, but it’s far enough and on a slow-enough thoroughfare that getting from the Gardiner to Queen/Spadina is often irritatingly slow.

In Summary
If you want a Rails job in Toronto, I wouldn’t suggest you leave stones unturned, and I suspect you’ll find that mdlogix isn’t a bad choice, but ultimately, you’re going to have to talk to them to find that out.

b5media: Director of Technology

b5media, a local blogging powerhouse, is looking for a Director of Technology. Their approach is true to form, with a job posting and several blog entries on the subject:

• b5: “Saying a sad farewell to Aaron, hiring a Director of Technology“
• Joey deVilla: “b5media is looking for a new Director of Technology“
• Standout Jobs listing

This is their take on what they’re looking for:

More than anything we are looking for a mid-level to senior person who’s run major forward-facing (specifically consumer) web properties in the past. We need someone who understands development principles and how to push them forward. We want someone who wants to work in a startup, is passionate about blogging, and wants to see our already significant company grow even further. The person must be in or willing to be relocated to Toronto (on our dime, obviously) - and can even be in the US (yay for the reverse brain drain!).

End of the day, we hire smart people who like to have fun and really want to build great stuff that tens of millions of people are going to see. The challenges for this year are significant, but so is the opportunity. In fact, by this time next year, this individual will be leading a team of 15-20 folk building some of the most widely used tools in the blogging world.

The Good
It seems to me like b5media is well-positioned, growing, and in a young market where there is still a fair amount of room for growth.  It looks like the role is relatively senior, and you might be able to participate directly in the growth and definition of an interesting local technology company.  The location’s enjoyable, if getting there isn’t troublesome.

The postings have a lively, friendly feel; seems, at a distance, like it could be a fun place to work.

The Bad
There’s not really enough information in the postings to assess what technology one might be directing.  While they talk about “15-20 folk building some of the most widely-used tools in the blogging world”, their staff list doesn’t seem to show 15-20 “technology” people and if WordPress powers the back-end, it’s not clear what you’ll be building.

There’s not a lot of definition on the role and process, which may just be an indication of their size, and the fact that roles and processes don’t need much clarity, that it’s just a focus on getting the work done (although the role presumably has some responsibilities with regard to taking ownership of some aspects of getting the work done).

Ultimately, that lack of information continues across the board.  What’s the compensation?  What’s the work — what exactly will you be directing?

YMMV
Well, it’s a LAMP stack and WordPress.  Not everyone’s into LAMP.  Some of colleagues past and present dismiss PHP, and I’ve gotta say, it’s not my favorite language, but then again, it does power many of the web’s biggest properties, so there’s obviously something there.

Their location’s good and bad; Spadina and Queen is a fine place to hang around, get lunch, have some fun.  Depending on where you live, though it’s an awkward place to commute to.  The Spadina car and Queen car are both sluggish during rush hour, and it’s just far enough from the subway line to make walking a healthy, yet time-consuming exercise on a twice-daily basis.  It’s not incredibly far from the highways, but it’s far enough and on a slow-enough thoroughfare that getting from the Gardiner to Queen/Spadina is often irritatingly slow.

In Summary
It’s hard to say.  Could be a senior position at a rapidly-growing local technology company doing exciting things in a good location, or it could be you and a couple guys trying to keep a lot of wordpress instances happy, writing a few plugins, and wishing the Spadina car weren’t so packed.  At this point, the postings are more style than substance, and while it’s a good style, you’ll obviously have to spend some time talking to them to find out what it is that they’re really looking for, and whether or not that’s you.