Apptastics: Ruby on Rails Developer

Apptastics is looking for a Ruby on Rails developer in Philadelphia, PA, San Francisco, CA, or remote:

We’re currently operating in stealth mode. We are looking for 1-3 full-time developers who are well versed in ROR who want to immerse themselves completely into our apps and help lead the development.

Ideally you should have strong experience developing with Rails, have successfully deployed a publicly accessible rails based website, have expertise in relational database design and optimization, experience with deploying and scaling production Rails applications, a detailed approach in design, coding and testing, familiarity with a broad range of web technologies including ajax, javascript, CSS, XML, open APIs.

Experience with social networking app implementations is a bonus.

Their idea of remote might be still be in the United States of America. Canada might be more remote than they have in mind. That said, if this sounds like your opportunity, there’s no harm in asking, right?

Zazengo: Senior Ruby Developer

Zazengo is looking for a Senior Ruby Developer

Zazengo is seeking the right person to take our technical team and
platform from pre-beta through launch and scaling to sustainable
profitability. The right candidate will combine the following:

• An excellent working knowledge (and love) of programming in Ruby and
Ruby on Rails. Up-to-date on latest Edge Rails technology and tools

• A strong understanding of emerging web technologies and practices
including widgets, advertising engines, RSS/Atom feeds, CMS tools,
social network connectivity, APIs, and standards including OpenId and
OpenSocial, especially in regards to their implementation using Ruby
and Rails.

The Good
There’s a lot of interesting bits in the posting.  It looks like Zazengo is into empowering not-for-profits, so, again, a good cause.

They’re working with interesting technology: Edge (Ruby on) Rails, Git, OpenSocial, OpenId, RSS.  They’re looking for someone with good writing/speaking skills, so community involvement may be a factor.  They seem to be test-driven, with mentions of Test::Unit and RSpec.

Mostly, it sounds like fun.

The Bad
There’s not much information about compensation.  Since Ruby jobs tend to vary significantly in compensation, I inquired, but received no response.  I’m not sure if you should read into that, so I’ll let you decide.  They’re looking for someone senior, current with edge rails, and up to speed on a lot of technology, so I’d hope they’d compensate accordingly, but not all startups can afford to, particularly those working with not-for-profits.

There’s not a ton of detail about the process or the company, so you may want to probe on those.

YMMV
They’re a distributed/virtual team, and that might mean working from home.  Some people will love the idea, others will dislike it.

In Summary
If you’re looking for edge rails work and willing to work in a distributed team for a good cause, it’s worth having a deeper conversation with Zazengo about their compensation, process and the company.

The Hive: Ruby on Rails

The Hive is looking for a Ruby on Rails developer and they’re putting word on the street through several recruiters.  They’re looking for someone with a pretty in-depth background in Ruby and Rails, but if that’s your thing, and you don’t mind working from home, they may be worth a call:

Strong experience developing in the Ruby on Rails framework with operational examples of prior work.
Strong understanding of MySQL 4.1 and beyond
Background in developing for GNU/Linux or Unix-like platforms for mission-critical production deployments
Operational code published and still in production
Strong analytical and logical thinking capability
Must have excellent layout and design abilities
Strong experience developing for Mac OS X

Always A Plus
Object oriented programming experience in PHP with operational examples of prior work
Experience with MySQL 5.x, MySQL replication, MySQL Cluster
High-availability and scalable network service deployment
Expertise with MVC, HTML, CSS2, Javascript, AJAX, Templating, caching, sessions, and authentication
GNU/Linux optimization, security and network administration
Secure coding practices
Experience with running Apache or other Unix-based web servers in a production environment

The Hive’s website goes into some details about the company, but this posting doesn’t:

Our Client is a virtual organization. They log in from their homes, nearby offices, one of theirglobal office locations, or wherever they have an internet connection.

The Good
Well, they’re a little cagey about salary, but the rest of the package sounds pretty generous (full benefits, dual 30″ displays, etc.), so this side may pan out in the end.  After all, they don’t have the overhead cost of office space, which adds up fast.

The Bad
Their biggest and baddest application seems to be a dating service.  That’s not everyone’s cup of tea.  Much like Toronto’s ALM, you may have to decide if this is work you want to do.

The posting is pretty low on information in all categories.  You’re basically going to have to follow up if you’re interested to get enough information just to find out what the role is, what the compensation is, what the work will be, etc.

YMMV
I’m not sure how everyone feels about working from home.  Some people see it as a plus, many people seem to feel it’s a negative.

In Summary
If you think you’ve got the background and the chops to impress them with your operational ruby expertise, and you’re willing to work from home, it seems worth further investigation, but it’s hard to offer anything more concrete than that.  It is, at least, intriguing.