TD Bank: AVP, Software Engineering

TD Bank Financial Group is looking for an AVP,  Software Engineering:

Reporting to the VP, Engineering the successful candidate will oversee an annual plan of approximately $50mm and a team of 143 FTEs spread across five campuses: Scarborough, Mississauga, London, Toronto and Lewiston, Maine.

The role is accountable for leading the teams in Security, Directory, Software Engineering and Database and ensures this North American team is aligned with ITS strategic initiatives.

The Good
TD Bank is a big, well-known financial institution.  Assistant Vice-President for a bank is a pretty senior role, and the size of the budget and team is significant.

The Bad
The usual dearth of information.  What’s the compensation like for an AVP at TD Bank?  Is the location the TD HQ downtown, or something else?  What are the travel expectations, given the distributed team?

YMMV
Your mileage may vary when it comes to working in a financial institution, even in Canada, in the wake of sub-prime.  It’s also likely to be a very corporate environment.

There isn’t going to be very much actual technology.  At this level, you’re mostly about managing people and contracts and budgets, and not so much about the technology.  Sure, it’s important to have some understanding about the technology that you can get a sense of strategic direction and do an effective job of managing the people who’re going to have to work more closely with the technology, but you’re not that likely to fire up an IDE, even to review someone else’s code.

But then, if you were looking for that sort of thing, you probably stopped reading after “TD Bank: AVP,” because what else would you expect?

In Conclusion
To be honest, anyone who thinks they have have a shot at the job and is at all interested should probably look into it in more detail.  Positions this senior at this big a company don’t come around every hour, so it’s worth a quick look to see if there’s a fit.

Unspecified: Manager, Application Development

This posting reminds me of one I’ve seen before and linked to CPNI, although CPNI’s current job listings don’t seem to support that theory.  That said, sometimes these things happen when you get into exclusivity clauses with recruiters, so it may still be valid.

Ultimately, I think there’s too much detail missing to give a full review, but if you’re interested in a senior role in a company that does payment processing with what sounds like a Microsoft/Java technology mix, it may be worth trying to learn a little more.  And when I say a little more, I really mean the basics, like “Who are you?  Where are you located?  What does this job pay?”

Autodesk: Software Development Manager, Industrial Design

Autodesk is looking for a Development Manager: Industrial Design to lead “a top-notch, global engineering team engaged in the development of next generation software solutions for Industrial Design” by:

• Project Task Estimating and Scheduling.
• Manage cross functional relationships.
• Software Implementation.
• Team Management and Team Building.
• Communication.
• Organizational Savvy.
• Staff and Career Development.
• Global Engineering Team.

The Good
Generally, Autodesk does a decent job with their postings.  The role is laid out, there’s a decent, if not detailed, sense of the work.  Autodesk itself is well-known, and so are a number of their products.  Their financials have been pretty stable, with a little movement around revenue prediction adjustments, but nothing that leads to the sense of instability.

The Bad
There’s basically no description of the compensation (other than ‘exceptional’) and process.

YMMV
The way ‘organizational savvy’ is described makes me consider if the role is in a politicized, charged environment.  If so, then that’s something that some candidates would see as an interesting challenge, while others might avoid.

The location seems to be in the King and Sherbourne area, which is quiet, and moderately central, but neither exciting nor close to the subway lines.  Certainly better suited to someone who is vehicle-commuting or in the central or east end.  The nearby George Brown campus would allow for all sorts of extra-curricular learning, I guess.

The underlying technology, which is less important for this role, I imagine, is C++.  Since Toronto’s mostly a business-programming town in Java and .NET, this may be a problem for some of you.

The global engineering team aspect is hard to read.  Autodesk is a big company, and a bit of distributed teams is probably to be expected, but it’s possible this masks a development model that might not work well, so you’d want to inquire.  The desire to have someone with experience working with software engineers in China may play into that.  That said, Toronto has a sizeable portion of Chinese developers, so if you’ve got a Chinese background, this might be a strength you can leverage.

In Summary
Basically, Autodesk is a big company making recognizable products, so if the rest of the position fits, it may be worth learning a little more about the work and the compensation.

Rewind: Logitech: Senior Manager, Software Program Management

Apparently Logitech hasn’t found the Senior Manager, Software Program Management they were looking for.  The position has re-appeared on dice.com, and in addition to the previous information, has compensation listed at $120k, which seems reasonable for the role.  Unfortunately, my best guess still puts this in Mississauga and doing .NET.

“International Investment Firm”: Development Manager / Architect

Pencom is helping a ‘Major International Investment Firm’ look for someone that they can call a ‘senior software development manager / architect‘:

• Build, maintain, retain and grow a strong development team
• Set technical architecture direction and vision for the development team
• Partner with IT Mgmt and Business to deliver eCommerce projects on-scope, on-time and on-budget and contributes to evolve an effective strategy
• Lead development of technology solutions to automate and support critical business processes and strategic plans

The title’s quite a mouthful, but the posting is reasonable, although I’ve seen this one before in other forms. In addition to the technical skills, they’re clearly looking for someone with a background in fixed-income securities (aka bonds) and messaging:

• Experience with electronic trading aspects of the Global Fixed Income business, such as current and emerging new markets, connectivity, auto-quoting, distribution, etc.
• Experience with full trade lifecycle events, and it’s technical and operational support

The Good
The salary is listed as ‘open’, which might be good. Investment banking is supposed to be an industry where there’s money to be made, although I’m not sure if that’s true for the development manager / architect types.

Certainly, there’s something appealing about the firm logic of financial markets and software development. They seem well-suited for each other, and because investment banks are a rarer bird than retail banking, the work might be more exciting.

The Bad
They don’t seem especially familiar with the adage, “on time, on budget, on quality: pick two.” That may simply be using industry boiler-plate for “looking for someone who won’t screw up our plans”, or they may be have-their-cake-and-eat-it types who refuse to acknowledge that software development is difficult to predict.

Those I’ve met who do work for retail banking are either very bored or very well paid, sometimes both. If investment banking isn’t more exciting, then you could be in for a dull ride.

Ultimately, the biggest problem here is the usual: lack of information. Who’s the investment firm, and are they on the verge of topping over in the sub-prime mess? What exactly is the work? Where is (or will be) the office? What are the details fo the technology? What’s the compensation, other than ‘open’? Are you building a team and a product from scratch, or working with an existing team and product? And so on.

YMMV
Your mileage may vary with respect to the aforementioned ‘open’ salary. Does that mean it’s well-paid, or simply that they’re not sure how much they’re willing to pay you until they meet you?

In Summary
If you’re looking to make a move and a development manager / architect role in investment banking sounds like fun to you, this might be an interesting opportunity, but the only way to find out is to respond.

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.

Logitech: Sr. Manager, Software Program Management

Logitech is looking for a Senior Manager, Software Program Management, and apparently feels strongly about Scrum:

He/She will be responsible for building a high performance, agile project management and engineering services organization. This senior role is a member of the Customer and Platform Services group building leading edge internet-based customer services for the Logitech Harmony Remote product lines.

The Good
It’s a chance to work closely with a large company on a successful product line. It sounds like a serious and transformative role where you may get the opportunity to really drive Scrum at Logitech, or at least at this location. Assuming you do so successfully, this seems like a good resume-builder.

The Bad
As far as I can tell, you’d have to work in an industrial park in Mississauga. I’ve worked in that area before, and it’s a bit of a wasteland. You’d have to be a vehicle-commuter, and you’d probably want to be coming from the west or northwest.

If you’re willing to work out there, you might also want to ask yourself if you’d rather work for Wishabi, or RIM.

Then there’s the usual lack of detailed information. The role, process and technology have some definition, although not tons. The work, compensation and location are almost completely undefined, although I’ve obviously guessed about the location.

YMMV
There’s a .NET reference in there. Some of you might be enthused about .NET, some not.

If you’re coming from the west or northwest, possibly even the north, this might be a convenient, if dull, location. For the rest of us this location is both very inconvenient and dull.

I don’t imagine there’s much hands-on development in this role. For some, that might be a concern.

In Summary
If you believe strongly in agile processes, know a bit about Scrum and .NET and live in the west, north or northwest, this may be just the thing for you.

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.

Sun Life: Manager, Application Development

The Sun Life Financial Assurance Company is looking for a Manager, Application Development Services:

This is an opportunity for a manager with a good development working background to manage a pool of developers on the Enterprise Application Delivery Services team within Enterprise Application Services (EAS).  The team has responsibility to maintain a variety of applications, including those that support Investments, Enterprise Services, Finance and Corporate Services.

This position is accountable for providing career management to a team of approximately 15 developers.  In addition, this position is accountable for establishing/maintaining development processes and best practices, continued improvement of development service delivery, agile resource management, and building effective partnerships with our Business Partner Account Managers.

The role seems to be a mix of managing the resources and service levels as well as best practices and career management, for about fifteen developers who maintain existing applications for Sun Life.

The Good
The location seems to be King/York, pretty central.  The role is senior and well-detailed.

The Bad
The developers you’d be managing seem to be restricted to support and maintenance.  This can make for cranky developers, or make it difficult to attract and retain good, talented people.

There’s lots about the role, but very little about the work.  The compensation doesn’t rate a mention.  The process is enterprisey, and I guess you won’t be touching the technology, since that doesn’t rate a mention.

Little Bites: Wireless n-Tire, DVP & Eg, Tech Head, Stealth-Mode

Value-Added Recruiting is helping someone look for a Sr. J2EE Software Developer who can do wireless work.  It’s understandably wireless, because they’re looking for an “n-tire” server or web application.

CPAS is looking for some team leaders at the DVP and Eglinton.  The posting as a whole doesn’t grab me, but the location might appeal to some.

Bank of Montreal is looking for a Technology Head.  It’s an odd title, and the posting doesn’t really clarify for me, but it sounds like a senior position at a bank, if that’s interesting to you.

Star Software Developer for Stealth-Mode Company is interesting simply by being mysterious.