A contract ‘manager’ role is a little unusual, but this posting for an Application Integration Manager has its good points:

We are looking for an outstanding professional contractor to work for our client on a six month contract. You will be working for a major player in the telecommunications arena. In this role you will be managing the relationship with extremely important clients through your adept skills and the breadth of your knowledge in relationship building, software development projects and integration.

What you will do:
-Perform client facing tasks ensuring client satisfaction through effective delivery
-Engage client as warranted to develop deliverables and manage expectations
-Lead the integration of client’s application with hosted middleware platform
-Implement the ecommerce application according to guidelines, budget, reqs etc
-Contribute to project estimation and planning phases

The Good
Notably, the pay.  $78/hr max should mean that you get paid $78k for the six-month contract.  That’s not mad money, but it’s not bad for six months work.

The Bad
Very little detail in some areas.  “Major player in the telecommunications arena” could mean a lot of different things.  What’s the work, what’s the process?  Who will you be working for and with?

YMMV
Contract’s not for everyone.  You may be making more than $78k already, and have benefits.  To take this job, you have to quit, with only $78k promised, and even that might not pan out.

On the other hand, you can take your 78k, live frugally for the rest of the year, and relax, or start a startup, or find another job.  The world is your oyster.  Whatever that really means.

In Summary
If you have the freedom to take a contract right now, and you’re making less then $78/hr, this could be interesting.

While we’re on the PHP vein, this posting for a PHP Developer doing Games for FaceBook and MySpace sounded like a certain kind of fun over in Liberty Village.  If you’ve been doing PHP for Social Networks, this might be up your alley.  There’s not nearly enough information to bother reviewing, but there aren’t a lot of calls for social network game developers, so if that sounds like fun, give ‘em a call.

FreshBooks is looking for a Software Developer.  Normally, I’d segueway right into a description of the job here, but there’s a pleasing backstory here that’ll set up the rest of this post.  A few months ago, I wrote about the job of Agile Web Development Manager for FreshBooks, and Corey Reid saw that posting, responded, and got the job, which he seems to be enjoying.

Now that he/they are looking to grow the team by adding a Software Developer, he’s come full circle by letting me know there’s another job at FreshBooks open, if I’m interested in posting about it.  And, indeed, I am.  Partly because of the backstory: A toronto technology jobs reader gets one of the posted jobs, then comes back to suggest new postings for the new company.  But also, because I’m impressed by FreshBooks.

Here’s what they’re looking for:

We need fresh-thinking, disciplined developers who don’t sneer at scripting languages but also know their enterprise-level design. In return, we supply a stable, creative environment (want a Mac? got Ubuntu? No problem!) with a competitive compensation package, and the sort of collaboration that comes out of just wanting to get things done, not from the latest IEEE-mandated “best practice”.

[D]esigning and developing our popular online application and the tools we use to run our business behind the scenes — you should be able to figure out what that entails. You’ll learn hands-on about our industry and our customers, and you’ll be figuring out how to make them happy, and then going ahead and doing it.

• 3 years’ experience building online applications
• 2-3 years experience with object-oriented development
• Serious SQL chops
• Communication skills like whoa (you better be able to talk to customers on the phone (yes, we talk to our customers on the phone))

FreshBooks describes themselves this way:

Love the fast-paced and creative environment of a start-up, but could do without the stress and chaos?  FreshBooks has been around for more than five years now and has a fanatical fan base of over 400,000 people who use our groundbreaking Web 2.0 application.

Personally, I’ve used FreshBooks’ product, found it easy to use and more than capable for the simple tasks I threw at it.  I think they’ve done an excellent job getting potential customers in the door through the freemiuim model, and then potentially getting revenue as their little fish grow in the way they use the product.  I’m inclined to believe that if FreshBooks keeps at it, they’re almost certainly going places (although perhaps they’re already “getting places”, I can’t say.

The Good
First and foremost, I think FreshBooks is an interesting company that stands a reasonable chance at success.  And, although I’ve only had a few conversations with him, Corey Reid seems like a nice enough guy, with a sense of humor, but also an earnestness about making a difference.

Secondly, because their application is public and easy to access, you can try the thing out before you apply for the job.  That’s rare, in Toronto.  Using it and building it are different, but it’s nice to get some sense of what you might be working on.

The Bad
Well, it’s a startup, so even with reasonable funding, there’s a question as to the compensation.  Although “competitive compensation package” implies it might not be awful, that also doesn’t mean it’s good.  They’re not looking for tons of experience, so that might be another cue with respect to the salary.  You’ll have to talk to them to sort this out.

And, despite some gentle prodding from me, there are still things I don’t know about the job, some of which might matter to you.  For instance, there’s limited references to specific technology.  Last I heard, this was a PHP shop, but there have been occasional Ruby references, so it’s hard to feel like I’ve got a concrete story to tell you in that regard.  The role, company and work seem to get reasonable descriptions.

YMMV
The location’s probably good for some, bad for others.  At roughly Glencairn and Dufferin, I’m inclined to say that it’s not ideal for a TTC commute.  If you’re not already midtown, uptown, or in the burbs, that location’s probably both inconvenient and lacking in the little touches that a great neighbourhood can offer.  That said, if you’re vehicle-commuting, or not too far away from that location already, it might be a good fit.  Besides, in your lunch hours, you can do some shopping for design stuff on Castlefield and deals up on Cartwright and Orfus.

Working in a startup’s not for everyone.  If you’re hoping for the kind of environment where you can spend a week surfing Slashdot before someone notices you’re done the last thing they asked you to do, you want to work for a bank, not FreshBooks.  I’m not going to go on and on about the differences between a startup job and an enterprise job, but they exist, and there are both good and bad sides to the coin.

In Summary
If this sounds good to you, and the location works, then I’d be happy to recommend you drop them a line.  I’ll let Cory Reid know when this post comes up, so if you have questions you want to fire off here, feel free to post a comment, and I’ll see if I can get him to respond.

This position looks to me like The Hive is still at it, although I still have no evidence that The Hive is a real company, that they’re actually really hiring people, and so forth, so I’d exercise caution.

This posting has made the rounds in a few different forms, which makes me a little wary, but it’s interesting nonetheless.  A number of people seem to be trying to help some kind of telecommunications firm get a team-lead on board.

The Good
This is supposedly a large telecom company, which could be good — it could be well-paid, for instance.  To be honest, without knowing which large telecom company, it’s hard to read into this.  The technology’s interesting: Ruby, PostGIS, Java, JBoss Rules, Hibernate, Multi-threading, JUnit … sounds like it could be an interesting mix, if you’ve got the right background.

The Bad
Aside from some major gaps in information, what worries me most is that this position has ‘been around’ (monster/brainhunter ).  I just don’t see that very often, and when I do, I’m suspicious.  It might be nothing, but it makes me a little nervous.

YMMV
Your mileage may vary when it comes to working a contract position.  Or it might vary when it comes to full-time employment.  This position seemingly offers both, which is probably the worst of both worlds for some.

In Summary
To be honest, trying to find someone willing to take on a contract but also interested in switching to a full-time employment scenario is probably a tough call, so if that doesn’t bother you, this might be a job worth further investigation.

Ethoca seems to be looking for a Senior J2EE Software Developer:

Lead and put your signature on end-to-end, build-from-scratch projects for a company that is growing in every direction.

Looking to build new features? Want to tweak the architecture for a global company? Interested in assembling an analytics toolset that will touch millions of data points? These are all part of one very exciting and challenging job.

And of course you’ll work with a small team of talented individuals, enjoying a startup environment where your voice is heard and your experience is valued.

Opportunities that let you build a market-defining product don’t come along very often. This is one of them.

This posting doesn’t appear on Ethoca’s careers page (at the time of this writing, anyway), but the description on Red Canary seems to point pretty directly here, so it may be that candidates would have to go through Red Canary to apply.

The Good
If the company really is “growing in every direction” and they really want you to “put your signature on “a market-defining product”, it could be a good opportunity to make a significant impact on a company that’s growing, where you can grow with the company and be rewarded well for your efforts.

The Bad
The posting implies a certain amount of leadership in some areas (”Lead and put your signature on”) but the title is “Senior J2EE Software Developer”.  Makes me wonder if their pay might not match the expectations, so I’d definitely suggest you probe on both of those.

There’s a couple phrases here that you’ll need to decode:

• [D]rive and commitment that it takes to thrive in a startup environment
• Experience working for a start-up company -– understands what it takes to be part of a small team with big responsibilities

These could be very telling.  It could be a red flag in a number of areas — expectations for how much you’re going to work, the kind of chaos you should expect to deal with, the amount of pay you can expect.  Or it could simply be that they’re looking for a “get things done” person who doesn’t come from a background with heavily defined and rigid roles.  Hard to say.  But, again, implies that you’ll want to get a good sense of what you’re getting into, what their expectations are and what you can expect in return.

Sadly, for a startup, they’ve gotten in deep by dealing with EJB, Rational and Websphere already.  I imagine the banking influence is part of that, but it’s a shame from a technical perspective.

YMMV
Although Ethoca seems to have blue-chip clients these days, they do seem to have a past in doing fraud detection for online gaming.  I know some potential candidates would have a problem with that, so it may be worth probing further to see where that leads.  I’m guessing given the Tom Ridge / DHS connection, those days are basically behind them.

The location seems to be Yonge/401, which is a little far north if you’re downtown.  If you’re midtown, north, west or east and/or vehicle-commuting, this could be a pretty decent location.  It’s not exciting, but it may be convenient.

In Summary
If the location works for you, could be interesting.  Poke a little about the expectations/compensation mix, and get some sense of the current connection to online gaming, if that’s a concern, but otherwise, looks like a possible opportunity.

Cistel is helping an unspecified client look for a Binary Tools Developer:

- Significant hands-on software development experience (C, C++,
assembler) across multiple platforms (Windows, Mac/OSX, Linux, Symbian
and embedded systems).

- Significant low level operating system and kernel experience.

- Security knowledge (encryption, software cracking, obfuscation).

- Demonstrated knowledge and experience with the inner workings of
compilers, linkers and loaders.

- Knowledge of binary object file formats as well as experience with
binary code patching and rewriting.

The Good
If this is the kind of code you like writing, there’s only so many places in Toronto where you can make that happen.

The Bad
Other than the technology, there’s basically no information.  Who’s the company, what do they do, what would you be doing for them, is it fun, how well does it pay, what’s the process, where are they located?  For all I know this is a job in Texas for $10/hr, so anyone interested would obviously need to get massive infusions of information about the job before going any farther.

YMMV
Given how much less common these postings are, I’m also assuming that your mileage may vary when it comes to doing C, C++ and Assembler.  Mine certainly would.

In Summary
There’s not a lot of detail, but if this technology mix matches your skillset, might be worth digging further.

Some unspecified company is apparently looking for a Ruby on Rails developer in Toronto:

We are a Toronto-based software development company looking for someone who is passionate about writing software. You will be working with a small team of Ruby/Rails developers where your input will have a direct impact on the outcome of a project.

Inquiring to get a little more information got me nowhere; not sure if this is a sign that there’s no-one on the other end, it’s email harvesting, or there’s a live job, and they just don’t want to give me any more information.

The Good
Rails, git, Merb, JQuery.  Ruby’s your thing, sounds like a reasonable stack.

The Bad
Who are they?  What are they doing, and what are they using to make it happen?  Where would you fit in?  What do you get in return?  It’s all open to question.  Plus, the complete lack of response to inquiry is mildly suspicious.

YMMV
For some, Ruby on Rails is already off the beaten track, and Merb is over the cliff.  That said, if you weren’t interested in being on the edge, why would you be looking at a Ruby job at all?  No matter how much it’s grown, it’s still not the ’safe’ choice.

In Summary
I’m a little wary the lack of response to my email, but if you’re looking for a Rails and Merb job in Toronto, you might have to take what you can find, and perhaps you’ll have more luck than I did.  If you do, report back and let us know what you find, willya?

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.

If you’re even remotely tempted to move to Atlanta to help Endur by developing in AVS (”proprietary C like language”) and helping them migrate to Java at some point in the future, I invite you to consider that working for Endur might not be that different from coming down with the MUMPS.