Call Genie: VP Product/Software Development

Call Genie is looking for a VP of Product/Software Development:

Call Genie (www.​callgenie.​com) is looking for a client-facing/​business-focused/​hands-on Product Development Executive to inspire and lead a global development team through the object-oriented design and development phases of creating, enhancing and delivering Call Genie’s CG Suite of current and future generation of solutions that utilizes enterprise level Java, web, speech recognition, SMS, mobile, advertising and database technologies.

• Take sole ownership to ensure successful development of all Call Genie’s products/​solutions with our customers as per the expected profit margins.
• Sit on the Steering Committee on all solution delivery engagements.
• Act as a single point of contact for Call Genie’s Development Teams, and other stakeholders such as CILs, the sales organization and clients by establishing a close relationship with both technical and business primes with all parties.
• Champion and actively promote the use of development best practices, methodologies and standards throughout the global development organization.
• Ensure and lead as required, collaboration between the development leaders, Product Managers, Infrastructure Architects, Data Architects, QA Architects and Customer Implementation Leaders to gain understanding of customer requirements and features.
• When appropriate (or if required) be prepared to lead the global development team(s) through product development challenges for vital accounts.​  This would include hands on work, coaching, mentoring and/​or actions to:
  • Assist with the analysis and architectural design of Call Genie’s commercial applications and translate them into proven Java based solutions.
  • Provide strong technical, hands-on leadership and oversight to developers working on development and implementation projects.
  • Lead the planning of development activities and work with the team to create and maintain estimates of efforts required to meet development and implementation objectives.
• Develop and maintain a broad theoretical understanding of current hardware and software technologies.
• Develop a high performance culture with pillars of professionalism, respect, performance, team work, quality and client satisfaction.

The Good
It’s a very senior role, as vice president in charge of product development / software development.  They’re purportedly an agile shop.  The technology stack seems reasonable from what I can tell, and the voice-recognition side lends some interesting technical challenges.

The Bad
CallGenie looks like they’re facing some hard times, financially.  They’re down to a $0.07 stock price from $2.50 around mid 2007, or $0.67 a year ago.  That’s a pretty steep decline, even in the current market.

What’s Missing
What’s happening with CallGenie’s finances and stock price?  How are they reacting to the current market situation?  What does the software and product development team look like (size, composition, breakdown), and how will you fit into it?  What are the immediate and the long-term challenges facing someone in this position?

YMMV
Your mileage may vary when it comes to joining a company that’s having such a tough time when the economy seems like it might still have some bumps in it.  Then again, challenges are opportunities, and this might be an opportunity to make a real difference in Call Genie’s trajectory, and in so doing, your own career trajectory.

Your mileage might also vary when it comes to filling both the product development and software development side of the role.  These can have some pretty orthogonal concerns.  I’d want to know that there is at least one senior person who can take the lead in each of these areas on your team, since I’m not sure that one person can do a great job of championing both at once.

Finally, you may or may not be excited by their product line.

The Location
CallGenie is located northeast of Scarborough town centre. It’s basically out of the question for someone not already in the east end and, most likely, driving.  If you were in Scarborough, Markham, or points east, this location might not be terrible, but many candidates will discard this opportunity on that basis alone.

In Summary
If you’re looking for a role this senior, you’ve got a background in product and development, and you’re willing to work out by Scarborough Town Centre, this might be your opportunity.

Comverse: Director – Development

Comverse is looking for a Director – Development:

Responsible for the development of products and applications including design and implementation guidance for web based products.​ Provides prototypes of key functional implementations and oversees and provides leadership for all technical approaches.​ Provides technical leadership and mentoring to the Front End development team on technical implementations including web server and portal based multi-tier applications.

• Work closely with the Product Architecture and the FE Design team to define technical architecture.
• Responsible for design, development, and testing of applications and products
• Provide decision making for software engineering and development, sensitive to the constraints and needs of the business.
• Monitor technology trends such as emerging standards for new technology opportunities
• Work within software engineering plans/​schedules, providing technical designs and guidance.
• Ensure adherence to technical architecture standards and practices to ensure reproducible development and high quality.
• Engage in hands-on, in-depth analysis, review, design and implementation of applications
• Provide employee coaching and mentoring.

The Good
Sounds like a pretty senior position at a telecom company with a 1B market capitalization.

The Bad
Ultimately, the fact that Comverse is down very significantly in stock price year over year is a bit of a concern.  The markets haven’t been kind to anyone, but Comverse looks harder hit than many.  The financial results restatement may have had something to do with that, based on a quick scan.  You might want to do a more detailed probe into their financial health and ask some probing questions of your potential employer.

They’re looking for someone with good Java and C++ experience; this is a fairly rare combination these days, although certainly there are some of you out there with both.  That said, given that it’s a director-level position, they’re probably looking for someone with enough experience to lead well, rather than someone they expect will be writing C++ and Java code.  And, far as I’ve seen, Java ‘portal’ technology is a bit of a dead end, so I’m surprised it still comes up.

What’s Missing?
Is this position located at University and Dundas, which is the only location I’ve found for Comverse in Toronto?  What’s the technology mix like?  What are the sizes and composition of the teams that you’d be directing, and what products and solutions does Comverse build in Toronto?

YMMV
Although I’d say that most senior tech positions require decent negotiation skills, the fact that this opportunity calls it out so directly implies that you might have a struggle ahead in terms of conflicting priorities.  I’ve worked in environments where the biggest challenges were getting a set of product priorities in place, and it can really distract from the effort of building the product.  Your mileage may vary as to whether or not this is something you want to take on.

The Location
Comverse seems to be located at University and Dundas, which isn’t a bad little neighbourhood.  There are a pile of Chinese restaurants to the west, a fair number of restaurants on both University and Dundas, and it’s not far to Queen.  There’s not a ton of shopping right there, but the Eaton Centre’s not far, and likewise Queen street.  The subway’s right there, although it’s a bit of a walk from Union if you’re taking the Go, and it’s not a great area for parking.

In Summary
If you’re interested in being a director of development and you’ve got a background in telecom, this might be the opportunity for you.