Unspecified: Software Architect, Java

An unspecified startup is looking for a Software Architect (Java):

We are a software start-up based in downtown Toronto looking to build our core team as part of a new venture we are getting ready to launch in the fall of 2009. The company is targeting one of the most exciting online market opportunities available today. We’ve got our plan developed and now it’s time to start building out a world-class technology team. 

If you have a strong background in Web 2.0 in a Java environment, passion for using cutting edge technology and solving interesting customer problems AND improving people’s lives, our little company is the right place for you. We provide a positive and supportive work environment, interesting and challenging work and a ringside seat to witness and contribute to the explosive growth of online media in the 21st century. Our team is passionate about their work and our vision to secure an enviable position of what is today a $100Billion industry. If this sounds like you, then please read on. 

We are looking for an Application Architect with a passion for technology coupled with great communication skills. We are seeking a hard-working, adaptable problem solver, who loves to solve technical challenges and feels comfortable working directly with marketing, product, creative and other teams. This is a fast-paced, open environment where innovation and participation is encouraged through blogging, custom tool development, hack-day events and other out-of-the-box techniques. 

As the “Application Architect” must be highly analytical and have exceptional hands-on technical skills in Java. You must possess the skills needed for successful technical leadership and motivation of high performance team of developers, including: open source committers, framework architects and expert software engineers. 

The Good
It’s an early stage to get involved with a startup, and if they do in fact have a good idea in a lucrative market (big if, of course), then it could be an excellent time to get involved.  The way the posting is written implies people who have at least a reasonable understanding of technology and development and approach, which are all good signs.  They also seem flexible about the work arrangement (contract, full-time, telecommute).  The technology stack seems like a reasonable one.

The Bad
It’s an early stage startup.  That could mean long hours and limited pay, not uncommon for a startup environment where they’re banking on the startup success being valuable to all of the participants.  Then again, they seem open to the idea of contract work, which might imply at least reasonable pay.

What’s Missing?
What’s the startup?  What do they do?  What’s their big idea, and  how are they going to get a toe-hold in a $100B industry?  How did they get as far as a plan without having an architect-type-guy in mind?  What are their expectations in terms of compensation — salary, equity, etc for contract or otherwise?  Who’s already on board the startup?  How are they funding this effort, and how long will that funding last?

YMMV
Not everyone is sold on working for a startup.  It’s a very different vibe from a large or even small-to-medium established company.  There’s usually a lot to do and not very many people to do it, which means wearing a lot of hats, rolling up your sleeves and typically working hard.   

The Location
Well Yonge and College isn’t terribly specific, but it’s not a bad little area.  There’s a food court and grocery store in college park, some decent restaurants on Yonge and over on Church, as well as nestled in the side streets.   It’s pretty accessible by subway.  On the other hand, if you’re driving in or you’re taking the GO train, this might not be your first choice, as it’s a bit of a walk from Union and somewhat painful to reach by city streets.

In Summary
If you’ve got a strong background in Java, architectural experience, and some willingness to either join a startup or do some contract work for one, this could be an interesting opportunity.  You’d need to know more to get really interested, but what’s there seems solid.

Stochastic Systems: Sr. Developer / Architect

A company supposedly named stochastic systems has a posting up on workopolis looking for a Senior Developer / Architect:

Stochastic Systems is a young and highly capitalized startup company that is focused on building and delivering competitive, leading edge, order execution software services to brokerage firms in Canada and overseas. Stochastic has several Java/.NET development openings in both Toronto and Vancouver.

The job description is spartan, but what’s there is relatively sane.  What I don’t understand is why I haven’t been able to find a web presence for Stochastic Systems, which makes me wonder if there’s a real company on the other side of this posting (although most fake postings don’t bother to invent a fake company name, so I’m open to the vague possibility that Stochastic Systems just hasn’t bothered to put up a web page, or that it’s difficult to find).

Unspecified: Lead Solution Architect

Procom is helping an unspecified company look for a Lead Solution Architect:

Our client is looking for a Lead Solution Architect who will take responsibility for understanding the technology environment of a leading data warehouse. The ideal candidate will have the ability to 1) assess the present technology environment, 2) design a new environment, and 3) develop the plan to get from the “as-is” state, to the “to-be” state.

There’s really not enough here for a full analysis, as it’s a short and detail-free teaser posting by a recruiter.  On the other hand, the posted rate is $100/hr, so if you’ve got experience with datawarehouse technologies, SAS,  and financial institutions, this might be worth further investigation.

Foresters: IT Architect, Applications

Foresters is looking for an IT Architect, Applications:

 

Foresters is at an important juncture in its history.  Product and membership growth requires substantial changes in the scope, flexibility, robustness and leadership capabilities of its IT services.  In a progressively outsourced environment, a new service delivery model has been designed, and is in the process of being executed.  This requires the addition of talent in new roles, three of which are IT Architects.”

 

Generally, the role of the IT Architect is responsible for envisioning and designing the technology environment required to meet the organization’s business objectives and therefore realize its strategic vision.

 

While grounded in the present, the role of the IT Architect is essentially future facing – ensuring that the technology environment has the necessary capability, capacity and flexibility to fulfill the current and future requirements of the business.  In order to achieve this, the IT Architect must be able to function skillfully in both the business world and the technical world and move back and forth between these two domains with ease.  By building a comprehensive enterprise architecture, and by demonstrating the ability to devise technology solutions that meet or exceed the needs of the business, the IT Architect provides the foundation to focus on building and running the business.

 

If this role doesn’t sound like you, you could try the IT Architect, Data or the IT Architect, Infrastructure they mention but that doesn’t yet seem to be posted, at least not on Workopolis.

The Good
Sounds like a pretty senior role in a relatively well-known organization.  If Foresters is indeed at a critical juncture, then this could be a great time to get involved.  And, since work is only part of your life, the fact that they invest time and money into causes might be of some interest to some of you.

The Bad
Although Foresters is technically insurance-focused rather than, say, investment banking, it’s not a fabulous time to be in insurance either, from what I understand.  That said, they have a 1.4B surplus, which presumably means they can afford to weather some bad times.

What’s Missing?
Where’s the location, the corporate headquarters or somewhere else?  What’s the compensation like for an IT Architect at Foresters?  What does “progressively outsourced” mean for Foresters?  How many applications does Foresters build and maintain?  What are the challenges facing the current architecture, and what kind of goals do they have for the forward-looking architecture?  What is the other architectural role not yet posted, and how will the three of you work together?  What’s the working relationship likely to be with the implementation team(s)?  What is the size, composition and number of the implementation teams?  What would the organizational structure look like in IT management, and how do you fit into that?  Why is this time so critical for Foresters? 

Your Mileage May Vary
Your mileage may vary when it comes to working for a ‘progressively outsourced’ organization that uses phrases like, “technical architecture compliance.”  You’d have to talk to them to understand in greater detail what this means for them.

Although they don’t mention a location, the corporate headquarters seems to be on Don Mills, south of Eglinton, right around the Science Centre.  That location’s not terribly well-serviced by transit.  It’s pretty convenient by car, either by city streets if you’re in the east/northeast or by the highway if the DVP is more your speed.  It’s not a fabulous location for other reasons, although there are a fair number of random shops and restaurants around, particularly if you’re likely to have a car with you.  Let’s just say that I doubt you’d be picking this for the location.

And finally, your mileage may vary when it comes to a fraternal benefit society, which has reasonably laudable goals but comes with the trappings of lodges and other such oddities that might not be to everyone’s taste.

In Summary
Basically, this sounds like a “love it or hate it” posting for many — which is great, because it means that you can read it and probably get a good sense of where you fall without having to waste everyones time with a phone screen and interview before getting to that point.  If you’d like to be one of three architects helping to shape the future of progressively outsourced IT at relatively well-known fraternal benefit society focused on insurance, then get to it.

Unspecified: Technical Architect

TAL is helping an unspecified company look for a Technical Architect:

• Key player in translating business requirements into dynamic, proven J2EE based solutions.
• Lead high level architecture design inline with current and future business demand.
• Drive the creation of new product design requirements and technical specifications.
• Participate in the construction and coding of key modules, infrastructure and proofs of concept.
• Act as a technical adviser in support of key sales opportunities and professional services engagements.
• Communicate architectural concepts via mentoring, technical presentations and white papers. 
• Drive tool selection and technologies for development.
• Approve all core product designs.
• Lead application migration to new platforms, databases and technologies.

The Good
Sounds like a pretty senior role in an organization;  keeping an eye on the present and future of the software development arm while managing reports and contractors.  It’s also not stuffed with heavy process terms that might imply it’s an organization where you’re going to spend most of your time marking off checklists and following the eighty-two step process to repeatable software nirvana.  It also sounds like you’d be at least partially hands-on, which in my opinion is imperative for the success of the software team, even though it’s not how all companies view architecture.

The Bad
It’s a recruiter posting with only minimal information, so it’s possible that this is in fact an organization with a heavy-weight process that was just clipped out of the posting as it was sanitized.  The reference to ’subcontrators’ is hard to read much into, but  you’d want to understand what they’re using subcontractors for.

What’s Missing
A ton, as is usual for a recruiter-based posting.  What’s the company?  What do they do?  What software do the build?  What technologies do they use to do so?  What’s the number, size and composition of the teams you’d be working with, and how’s the development organization structured?  In essence, this is just enough to get you interested, but you’ll need to learn a ton more by talking to the recruiter about the position.

YMMV
Your mileage might vary when it comes to being hands-on at times, but I think the best architects will actually be pleased with this requirement. 

In Summary
If you’re an architect in the Java world with the interest and ability in doing some hands-on work as well as the high-level architectural work, this might be worth further inquiry.

Follow-Up: Mindblossom, Architect

It looks like Mindblossom is still trying to find a Solution Architect, as previously discussed.  I still get the sense that if the work appeals to you, this could be a good opportunity.

Mindblossom: Sr. Solution Architect

Mindblossom is looking for a Senior Solution Architect (monster, craigslist):

We are looking for an experienced architect who can provide leadership and innovation for our technology team. You will work with the clients to design interactive web applications that meet their needs and budgets. You will be responsible for producing estimates, specifications and timelines for handoff to the production team. You will also be involved in the ongoing development of our strategic products. The ideal candidate understands the balance between good technology decisions and good business decisions. You will work closely with a team of extremely talented developers, designers and information architects. You will have the opportunity learn and work with new and emerging technologies. You will also have the opportunity to work with big brands and produce applications that will be used and seen by millions of people.

You will work with a structured management team who is focused on retaining and developing talent. We strive to be as agile as possible in the delivery of our work and are constantly looking for ways to make our development process lighter and more efficient.  This role reports directly to the VP of Technology.

Most of our applications are developed using Groovy/Grails, Flex and Flash (Action Script 3). From time to time we work with PHP, J2EE and SPRING.

We work using Ubuntu, Mac OSX and Windows. We prefer MySQL unless specified by our clients.

The Good
First and foremost, this seems (at least from the outside) like a company with a relatively good grasp of technology.  They’re using a decent technology stack, particularly for the kinds of work that I think they’re doing.  It seems like a reasonably senior role.

We talked about Mindblossom before, when we posted a Junior Developer position; I wasn’t sure if Junior Developers were out there reading Toronto Tech Jobs, but the posting attracted enough attention that I didn’t regret the posting, and this seems like a much more senior position.  the VP of Technology seems, from limited interactions that I’ve had with him, to be a reasonable guy.  It’s hard to read too much into a willingness to discover and make use of a resource like Toronto Tech Jobs, but it seems like that says something about a company. 

The pay seems reasonable without being exceptional; it’s hard to judge the quality of the  benefits, but that’s pretty normal at the “job posting” level.  The fact that they have benefits and bonuses is a good start.

The Bad
There isn’t much here that I dislike, really.  Most of the things you might consider bad will probably fall under the missing or YMMV categories.

What’s Missing
I’d like to understand the role more — it sounds like your primary mission will be something like project planning: setting scope, estimating, making timelines.  But there’s also some commentary in there about “development of our strategic products”, which is mysterious and possibly interesting.  So, what does a ‘Solution Architect’ do at Mindblossom?

It would be nice to understand the team structure in which you’d be working; who else will you be working with, what are the size and composition of those teams, and how does a Solution Architect work with those teams at Mindblossom?  In that vein, understanding the way that Mindblossom gets things done (aka Process) would be helpful.

Although the posting mentions PHP “from time to time”, it’d be nice to understand what the likely mix of work is in something quantifiable, like percentages.  I’m not sure that’s something that can sensibly be folded into the posting, but it’s something you could talk to Mindblossom about.  It would also be interesting to get a summary of the kind of work they do. 

YMMV
Your mileage may vary about the kind of work they’re doing.  If it’s following the agency model, it may be mostly be small, lightweight applications delivered quickly and rarely revisited.   Sometimes that’s a fairly repetitive-feeling role to be in.  And, despite the technology stack that they intend to use, in an agency environment, you don’t always get to control the technology stack, so you should be prepared to work with other technologies when necessary.   Then again, there are some advantages to getting variety, getting to do greenfield work a lot, and learn from your past projects to make different decisions — it can be a good learning environment in that respect.

In Summary
If you’re interested in a ‘Solution Architect’ role in an agency environment on the Grails stack, this could be an interesting opportunity.

Unspecified: Service-Oriented Architect [sic]

Hudson is helping an unspecified company look for a “Service-Oriented Architect“:

Our client is seeking a highly effective Service Oriented Architect to join their team. This role will focus on the design and development of SOA which delivers integrations across organizations and extended enterprises through new web services.

• Lead large-scale business application design efforts
• Independently interacts at the director-level in client organizations
• Demonstrates expertise with a broad set of development tools/technologies
• Has a firm understanding of design methods and architectures
• Assists the Project Manager in establishing team goals, objectives, and budget
• Provides support to the sales effort on new business development pursuits

I’m sure most of the people reading the posting realize that the architecture is service-oriented rather than the architect, but it amuses me nontheless.  Unfortunately, there isn’t really enough meat on the posting to go into details.  Sounds like it could be a senior role somewhere, but there’s just too much missing information to be more than amused.  If you’re into SOA and you’d like an architect position, you could inquire for more details.

Ganz/Webkinz: Technical Architect

Ganz / Webkinz is looking for a Technical Architect:

We have an exciting permanent opportunity for a Technical Architect to join our highly successful and growing Interactive Group. Our high end flash games and animated characters have made Webkinz.com the fastest growing children’s entertainment site on the internet. Be part of our dynamic Ganz Interactive Group and contribute to exciting future projects.

 

• Drive the technical strategy and lead team(s) in meeting the strategic objectives.
• Design complex systems at the component level, make strategic technology choices, and directly supervise the quality of designs and implementation inside and between components.
• Strategically contribute to the investigation of techniques and methodologies to continually improve the quality and productivity of application development.
• Monitor technology department architectural pattern adherence.
• Work within and continually evolve architectural governance.
• Collaborates effectively with peer architects and Tech Leads to solve complex problems spanning their respective areas and resolves technological disagreement with informed, rational debate.

 

The Good
Webkinz are, I gather, a pretty successful product with an online component, so this would be a pretty senior role working with an established and successful product.  It’s also children’s entertainment, an area you don’t see a lot of in Toronto — I think I see more call for ‘Adult’ entertainment than ‘Children’s’.

The Bad
I’ve heard a few stories via a friend of a friend about working on Webkinz, and they’re not terrifically good stories.  In essence, the reputation is that the founder of the webkinz business is a bit of a dictator and tends to get in the way and make working there less enjoyable.  That said, the stories are at a bit of a remove, so while they’re cautionary, I don’t think you should base your opinion entirely on this. 

What’s Missing
There’s not a ton of information here, so there’s a lot you’d want to ask.  What’s the compensation like?  The process?  What’s the size, composition and number of teams you’ll be working with?  What’s the organizational structure around you look like?  What kinds of technologies are they using: are they using all of Java, PHP, C/C++, Flash and Linux, or just some of the above?  Where are they located?  What would your near-term goals be?  The list goes on and on.

YMMV
Your mileage may or may not vary when it comes to working in an environment where words like “adherence” and “governance” show up, even if you’re on the “governing” and “monitoring” side.  Langauge can be indicative of culture, and if it is, this might be somewhat hiearchical.  That said, those are pretty subtle hints, so I’d simply suggest you try and get a better sense of the culture of the place. 

In Summary
If you want to be an architect on a successful, visible project that focuses on Children’s Entertainment there aren’t many options in town.  I suggest probing a little on the atmosphere and the possibility of a founder/dictator.

RBC: Lead Architect

The Royal Bank of Canada is looking for a Lead Architect:

Assist the Lead Architect in developing the strategy, vision and architectural direction for Information Security.
Provides direct support to the Lead Architect and may be called upon to perform the duties of the Lead Architect as events warrant.

This position will contribute to the development and refinement of Enterprise Security Architecture and communicate Enterprise Security Architecture Strategy to business and technical project stakeholders. Project level security architecture consulting will ensure enterprise security architecture strategy is delivered consistently and is in line with current and future enterprise security architecture strategy.

The Good
It’s a pretty senior role in a pretty big company with a 60B market cap.  If you’re even slightly interested in security, this seems like a role where you could really dig in and learn/apply security concepts, which could be an interesting technical challenge.

The location’s very central – as is true for many of the bank jobs in Toronto.  It’s not a bad area to work in, and it’s moderately convenient for just about everyone.

The Bad
The title is Lead Architect, and yet it reads like Assistant to the Lead Architect or Architect would be more fitting, since the job description makes regular reference to assisting the lead architect.  It’s not clear how you’re supposed to read into that. 

What’s Missing
Well, a link to the job posting would be a good start — it’s not hard to follow another RBC posting to the source and then put in the reference number to get the actual posting, but that requires a lot more work than simply clicking on the link that should be in the posting.

What’s the compensation like?  What would be the localized organization structure in which you’d be working: who would you be reporting to, working with; would anyone be reporting to you?  Would there be much need to travel?  What kind of mix would there be between the various things you’d be working on?

YMMV
Your mileage may vary when it comes to working in finance right now, even though the Canadian retail banking sector seems to be weathering the storm for the most part. 

It’s not clear how hands-on this role would be; some might find that problematic.

In Summary
This is probably most interesting to people already in some kind of architectural role with either a background in security of an interest in it.