Tucows: Sr. Ruby Engineer

Tucows is looking for a Sr. Ruby Engineer:

Work as part of a small Agile team (2-3 developers) to deliver and improve RoR/AJAX/DHTML/Javascript based systems and interfaces that help us meet our business objectives and support an excellent customer experience.

The Good
Tucows is a pretty well-known company, and you can get a glimpse into their finances (they seem to be doing well enough).  They imply they’re small enough that you can make an impact:

We’re a small team with a big mission. Come prepared to hit above your weight.
We believe in taking the time to do it properly while working in a real-time environment. Launch, learn and iterate is favored over taking too long to find the perfect answer.

There are also not a ton of Ruby jobs in this town, so if you’re really into Ruby, there’s no point in leaving stones unturned.

You can also get a little view into Tucows from reading Joey DeVilla’s blog (or go talk to him at one of the many events he attends in town).

What’s Missing?
A fair amount.  What exactly would you be working on?  What are tucows online retail services applications?  What are the other team members like, and what’s their experience with Ruby on Rails?  What’s the compensation like?  Is this at the 96 Mowat location?   What’s the office and work environment like?  What are the challenging problems you’d solve in Tucows retail services applications?  Is it likely that you’ll be proud describing retail services applications, as they suggest?  How do they empower the developers to be creative?

There’s a lot of information in the posting, but most of it just raises more questions for me.

YMMV
My mileage would definitely vary with this location; that won’t be true for everyone.  It’s not bad if you can get on the gardiner or the lakeshore without too much effort, but there’ll still be days when traffic is evil, and there isn’t really free parking in the area.

The Location
Probably in the King/Dufferin area:

View Larger Map

Parkdale has its moments, there’s some good food around, but if you’re not somewhere in the area already, it’s pretty far west for a TTC commute.

In Summary
If you’re interested in doing Ruby on Rails, it’s probably worth talking to Tucows about this position.   Otherwise, I’m not sure there’s enough of the right kind of information to really draw me in.

CTVglobemedia / The Globe and Mail: Systems Integrator

CTVglobemedia is looking for a Systems Integrator for The Globe and Mail (TGAM):

• Analyze business and technical requirements with Partners who want to build or enhance web and data integration solutions;
• Engage Developers, Data Analysts, and QA to build, modify, install, deploy and manage components of data and web solutions using a variety of technologies including HTML, XML, JSP, and possibly Java and Oracle as appropriate;
• Maintain integrity of interface definitions (API’s) between the Globe and Mail and Partners.
• Monitor implementations where Partner sites have integrated Globe content for reliability, integrity, and performance;
• Represent Partners within Globe QA and change control notification processes;
• Provide first or second level support of Partner solutions in conjunction with Customer Support Representatives.
• Identify opportunities whereby the Globe and Mail can leverage common development to the benefit of Integrated Solution Partners and Globe public sites such as reportonbusiness.com.

The Good
The Globe and Mail is a well-respected newspaper, and some of their staff (e.g. Mathew Ingram) are clearly in tune with the kinds of technologies cultures they’re going to need to survive the turmoil of the newspaper industry.  Integration is increasingly a part of many enterprise applications, and that’s true in the media world as well, so this could be a good opportunity to make a real impact at The Globe if they’re serious about integration.

The Bad
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard the newspaper industry isn’t in great shape, and television looks like it’s going through some challenges as well.  This may not be the best of times at CTVglobemedia.  And, despite some of their more recent digital features, I’m not sure the Globe is well-known for it’s APIs.  The technologies they describe are pretty basic; that could be good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

What’s Missing?
What kinds of integration is The Globe doing right now?  It sounds like at least some of it will be financial/securities, although it’s not clear if that’ll be most or all of it. How does it expect to continue to expand the integrations it offers and consumes?  Does your role offer a chance to have an impact on that?  Would you be the first of your kind, or part of a larger team?  What approaches and technologies are they using for integration right now?  How is this role likely to expand within The Globe?  What does The Globe pay for a Systems Integrator?

YMMV
Your mileage may certainly vary when it comes to working in media, and particularly the newspaper industry.

The Location
Unclear.  Could be Queen & John, which is a great building, a fun area, and pretty easy to get to; could be front and spadina, not a bad area, easy to reach by vehicle and not totally off-the-grid for transit riders.  Could be something else entirely.

In Summary
If you’ve got a background in integration, this might be an interesting opportunity to focus on it in a challenging industry.

GigPark: Ruby on Rails Developer

GigPark is looking for a Ruby on Rails developer:

GigPark is a Toronto-based web startup that’s growing fast

Built with Ruby on Rails and hosted on EC2

We’re not religious about technology. We believe in using the right tool for the job

You believe that database design is part of application development and you know your responsibility doesn’t end when your code is deployed

You have opinions on better tools & technologies and love to try new things. You are also pragmatic and choose the best tool for the job

You have a solid understanding of software fundamentals including: programming languages, scalability, security and source code management

If you’ve also got some design chops, you might want to check out their Ruby on Rails Designer/Developer position instead.  I haven’t met that many people that do a particularly solid job of both, but if GigPark can find one at a price they can afford, they should certainly hire him or her (you?)

The Good
It’s a live, working application you can use.  If you’re not already familiar with GigPark, register, and see if it’s something you’d be interested in working on.  This is always a really big plus to my eye, because there are lots of jobs where you won’t know what you’ll be really doing until long after it’s too late to decide if it’s interesting.  It’s also using fun technologies, both Ruby on Rails and EC2 are interesting to many of the developers I know, as well as myself.  They also closed a deal with Metro recently which is probably good for business.

The Bad
There’s nothing overtly bad in what’s there.  The posting’s a little low on specifics, but I think it probably gets the general gist across clearly enough that most people can decide whether or not it’s something that’s interesting to them.

What’s Missing?
What exactly does competitive salary really mean in this case?  I’m assuming startup employment without benefits at this stage of GigPark’s growth?  Are they profitable at this stage, and if not, how are they funded, and how long will that last?  It’s somewhat true that most of the Ruby jobs in town don’t pay quite as well as the enterprisey Java and .NET work, in part because they tend to be for startups.  If pay is a big deal for you, this is something you might want to probe in detail.  What’s the size and composition of the team?  How regularly do they release?  What’s their process like, from design through development, testing and operations?  What do they use for testing, and how do they ensure their code is well-tested?  (If, for instance, they’re using code coverage, what kind of coverage do they aim for and achieve?)

YMMV
Some people like sharply defined roles and responsibilities.  They want to work on the server-side code, not the database or the client code, and certainly not the operational side.  Most startups don’t really work that way, and it sounds like GigPark is definitely hoping to find a generalist or a specializing generalist.   Then again, that’s often part and parcel of working for a startup, so this might not come as a shock.  It looks like a young crowd — most people would be fine with that, but it might be worth knowing.

The Location
Looks like GigPark is located at Lansdowne and Dupont.  That’s a fair way west for most of you, but still central enough that it’s not a brilliant place for highway commuters.  Basically, it’s well-suited to people who are already taking the subway a fair ways, and particularly those in the west end of town.  I don’t know the area especially well; there are certainly some nice things down by High Park, but that’s just far enough to be inconvenient.  You’ve also got the Junction around  you, which might supply some interesting shops and restaurants.  Ultimately, it’s out of the way, but not horrific.

In Summary
There are only so many Ruby on Rails jobs in town, mostly for startups like GigPark.  If that appeals to you, then you’re probably already interested.  If it doesn’t, then you’re probably not the right fit anyway.

Rypple: Software Engineer / Developer

I haven’t talked about Rypple since they were a stealth startup looking for a ‘star software developer‘ and, later, a ‘star developer and front end ninja‘.  They’re no longer stealth, and they’re looking to hire a Software Engineer / Developer:

If you have a proven track record of building successful software (e.g. people love what you create), then we want to talk to you. If you don’t think its crazy to build both scalable, high-quality applications and release early and often – then you’ll like it here.

At Rypple, you’ll:

• Join our dev team to design and build our online apps and the infrastructure we run our business on.
• Regularly deal with users, customers, and our industry partners. You’ll be expected to come up with new ideas to create value and then implement and improve on those ideas
• Be a generalist with technology but a specialist with building world class applications.
• Be highly adaptable to technical challenges and thrive in an adaptive environment.
• Be disciplined and get stuff done.

The Good
The founders are entrepreneurs with a good track record at Workbrain, and I found them to be impressive in person.  They believe in agile processes.  Their product is in an interesting space and a space they know well.  Initial feedback on their product seems to be positive.  Because it’s a public application, you can take a look at it and see if it’s something you’re interested in being a part of, which is always a big plus.  The technology stack is a good one — GWT, REST, Hibernate.  They claim to be agile.

The Bad
Workbrain had a bit of a reputation as a sweatshop.  I haven’t heard the same vibe from Rypple, but ultimately that’s something you’d want to assess for yourself.

What’s Missing?
What’s the size and composition of the team, and where would you fit into it?  What’s the compensation like, from ‘generous pay’ to vacation and benefits?

YMMV
When last I spoke to the Rypple founders, they were believers in Peter Thiel’s hypothesis that low pay is a predictor of startup success — that members of a startup need to be hungry and committed to the success of the company, and that high pay prevents that from happening.  It’s an interesting hypothesis, but your mileage may vary when it comes to the specifics of how much Rypple is willing to pay you to join the team.  You won’t know if you don’t talk to them.

Your mileage may also vary when it comes to working for a startup.  It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

And finally, I’m increasingly irritated by job descriptions that mention things like ‘nunchaku skills.’  I know it’s intended to be humor, but my mileage does vary.

The Location
Yonge and Eglinton.  It’s not great if you’re coming from far out of town, in particular by GO, but it’s pretty accessible by Subway from most parts of the city.  There are lots of restaurants and shopping, particularly if you include Bayview Village and Mount Pleasant.  It’s neither the perfect location nor a bad one, to my eye.

In Summary
A development position for one of Toronto’s more visible startups.  If doing Java development for a startup sounds interesting, then you should probably talk to Rypple.

socialDeck: Rockstar Engineer

socialDeck is looking for a Rockstar Engineer:

We’re building a platform for cross platform gaming — technology that enables games to be played between mobile and the web. Think playing games from your iPhone to Facebook to BlackBerry to MySpace.

We are looking for the brightest and most talented software engineer who will work with the platform team on building out our gaming platform in the cloud.

He/she will design and implement highly-scalable server systems to connect to the world’s most popular networks.

He/she will also be involved in building our client frameworks for iPhone, BlackBerry, Facebook, and Android.

The Good
They’ve got a pleasant web presence and decent press. They’re in an interesting/growing space: mobile / web social gaming. They seem to be taking a bit of a product angle with their talk of ‘a platform’.

Sounds like they’re funded, with nice space. The technology stack sounds reasonable, and the technology would probably be varied and interesting. And, frankly, it’s games. Working on games can be fun.

The Bad
They’re a startup, so odds are good that they’re not paying terribly well, although you’d have to inquire to find out.

Also, someone stop these people before they make another video. Teach them how to use screencasting software instead of a handheld cam pointed at a laptop on an angle.

Heck, I’ll even volunteer to help get ‘em kickstarted. A couple hours with Screenflow and their demo would take on new life.

What’s Missing?
Where are they? What’s this position pay? How many other people work there? How long is their funding good for? What’s involved in the platform, and what’s the expected mix of game/platform development?

YMMV
Your mileage may vary on working for an early-stage startup, especially if the compensation is low.

The Location
Besides ‘King West’, it’s hard to say. Probably a little off the beaten path if you’re not already west of the core, or driving. You’d need to inquire to know more.

In Summary
Game platform and game development on King West for a startup.

I Love Rewards: Java Ninja

I Love Rewards is looking for a “Java Ninja”:

We want great Java Ninja’s [sic] to join our rapidly-expanding development team. You want to work on hard problems and be recognized and rewarded when you go above and beyond (which is often!). You want to work for a small company big on attitude and character, and you’re motivated by making an impact. Most importantly, you want to be in a place that’s full of people like you- A players who are fiercely intelligent, share a passion for their work, and know how to have fun!

• Write code from scratch that builds major features and squashes convoluted bugs for the _I Love Rewards Express_ web platform
• Optimize and refactor our services using Amazon’s EC2, S3, and EBS cloud based architectures
• Work with passionate and talented individuals in a startup atmosphere, producing customer facing functionality in short iterations in an Agile environment

The Good
I Love Rewards is a relatively well-known and fast-growing company in their space, as far as I can tell. They’ve got lots of listed awards for things like ‘top employer’, ‘fastest-growing’, etc. They’re obviously doing something right.

The technology is both decent (Spring, Hibernate) and interesting (Amazon web services). They claim to be agile. The posting seems to be written by someone who understands technology.

Rumor has it that vacation policy may be four weeks.

The Bad
Word on the street is that their pay scale is decent but not spectacular, and most of the team is pretty junior. If you’re interested, you can verify some of those facts for yourself.

What’s Missing?

What are they expecting to pay? What’s their process really like? What’s the size and composition of the team, and how would you fit into the organizational structure? What is the generous vacation policy?

YMMV
Your mileage may vary when it comes to what you’ll be developing. Having worked on loyalty and incentive systems before, I have to say that it’s a slight detractor for me. That said, if everything else is right, it wouldn’t be decision-dominating.

Your mileage may also vary when it comes to being called a ‘Ninja’. To be honest, I’m happy to be a technologist or software generalist, I don’t need to be a ninja, a rockstar, or any of the other “trying too hard” cool titles that some companies throw around.

I Love Rewards projects the image of ‘having fun’. Sometimes, companies that try hard to project that image give of a faint ‘cult’ vibe, which ILR does for me. That said, it probably is a fun place to work.

Some companies that say things like “Nine to Fivers need not apply” are basically just trying to make it clear that they’re looking for people with passion for the work, who aren’t just there to clock in and out and get paid. Others are trying to make sure you’re up for hard slogs, long hours. Your mileage may vary, although you’ll want to probe to understand what they’re looking for.

The Location
This is one of the bigger stumbling blocks. I love rewards is buried deep in Liberty Village. Basically, if you’re not already in the west, or possibly south-central, or driving in from the west and/or north-west, then this might be a deal-breaker. Getting out to Liberty Village from the east end or after taking a GO train is probably not everyone’s cup of tea — it’s not mine.

In Summary
Interesting technology in the west end, with decent vacation and possibly a fun working environment.

TD Bank: VP Engineering

Toronto Dominion Bank is looking for a Vice President, Engineering:

Vice Presidents (VP) at TD Bank Financial Group are strategic, responsible and accountable members of the Bank’s leadership team. Collectively, these roles contribute significantly to the overall reputation of TD as an excellent investment, a highly customer focused organization, a top employer and an exemplary corporate citizen. Executives set the ethical, organizational and performance standard for the teams they lead and exemplify how an effective performance and development culture functions day to day. A VP is expected to guide his/her team, collaborating as appropriate with TD partners, to deliver superior results in both the short and long term.

Reporting to the SVP of Infrastructure the VP, Engineering is accountable for the design, build test, and implementation of the banks data center based technology infrastructure. The position is responsible for the development and implementation of technical business strategies in cooperation and alignment with our business partners. The position holds overall responsibility to ensure robust infrastructure solutions are in place to ensure optimal service and security for all customers and partners. The department is made up of over 500 IT professionals.

Lead the overall Engineering team across various functional areas which include: Servers, Mainframe, Operating Systems, Storage, Database, Security Technologies, Directories, Middleware, Email/Collaboration Infrastructure, IT Tools Engineering as well as Infrastructure Project Management, Dev/Test Environment Support and Production Acceptance Testing.
Contribute to the creation of a North America organization ensuring talent workforce and succession management is in place to support TD’s NA growth goals and to win in the war for talent within the technology industry.
Effectively manage an operating budget in excess of $ 215mm as well as a pipeline of projects focused on quality, time to market and cost effectiveness.
As a member of the Infrastructure Senior Executive Team, continuously optimize the technology capability of the bank, guide infrastructure priorities, improve our organizational capability and manage the risk profile of the bank’s IT infrastructure.

The Good
It’s a very, very senior role at a very $35B market cap bank.  An operating budget of $215M.  A lot of responsibility.

The Bad
Well, for starters, I’m guessing that many of you couldn’t get this job if they really, really wanted it.  I’m pretty sure I couldn’t.

What’s Missing?
A ton of things.  But, to be honest, for a leadership position this senior at such a big company, that’s to be expected.  If you’re interested in the position and have the experience to stand a chance, then you’ll want to have detailed conversations with TD about the challenges, the team, the role, and so forth.

YMMV
Although banks haven’t been doing that well in the last year, Canadian banks seem to be relatively healthy still.  It’s probably still a challenging time, but challenge can also mean opportunity.

The Location
A senior position at TD Bank probably means Bay street, financial district, the TD Tower.  I’m just guessing.

In Summary
Probably most of you don’t qualify for the position.  I’m guessing TD Bank is really only going to seriously consider people in VP/Director positions at relatively large companies already, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a connection at TD Bank.

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.

Follow-Up: Direct Leap: Developer

I mentioned Direct Leap last week when David Crow posted their opening for a couple of developers.  Since then, a few more postings have come through (or I was able to correlate them mentally with this position), and there’s enough detail to do a bit more of a writeup:

• BullsEye! on DevBistro
• CraigsList

The Good
The technology’s interesting.  Ruby on Rails working with VoIP, sounds unusual, but interesting.  It also sounds like they’ve got a good cause in mind.  Finally, there aren’t a ton of Ruby jobs in Toronto, and most of them are not especially well-paid.  I’m not sure if I should trust the DevBistro posting in this regard, but the posted salary range of $90-$120k is a pretty solid salary range.  If, in fact, they’re offering a solid compensation package of above-average pay and vacation, plus interesting technology and a good cause, I would think they’re worth a look.  They’re also claiming to be Agile, although there isn’t a lot of supporting material, and lots of companies claim agility.

The Bad
Well, if you’re not into Ruby, the bad might be that it sounds like an interesting opportunity that you don’t have the skillset for?  Despite the dev-bistro posting, I’m still suspicious that this might not be incredibly well-compensated, simply because both the non-profit angle and the ruby on rails angle would typically imply that to me, not to mention the apparent small size of the company.  That said, you’ll need to inquire to learn more about the compensation, and that might not be a primary factor for you. 

What’s Missing?
Is this really a not-for-profit organization with above-average compensation?  That’s not the usual correlation, so I’m a little suspicious that the dev-bistro posting is not quite right.  When they say “part custom distributed network application”, are they still talking Ruby, or is this implemented in something else, and if so, what?

YMMV
Your mileage may vary when it comes to the social enterprise angle.  For some, that’d be a huge attractor, while others probably won’t care.  I don’t imagine anyone would be put off by this, but you never know.  You might also find automated telephony to be a bit of a bane on modern life, and here you’ll be contributing to it.  That said, automated telephony for a good cause is certainly better than the same thing for, say, warning people about bogus car warranty expiration.

The Location
They seem to be located southwest of Queen and Spadina.  A fun neighbourhood, but possibly a little far afield if you’re not coming from that neck of the woods.  It’s a bit of a hike from the subway, although it’s not totally out-of-question. 

In Summary
If you’re into Ruby and you’re looking for a job, it’s probably worth giving them a shout.

Direct Leap: Developer

Direct Leap is looking for two Developers [DavidCrow.ca]:

 

We are a small but established company building telephony applications with Ruby and Asterisk. Our products are specifically designed for national, non-profit customers. Our growing, long-term customer base have used the products we develop to achieve startling progressive election victories.

Our key product is a part-Rails, part custom distributed network application with an AJAX+Comet interface. We are an Agile/Scrum shop, and do test driven development.

We’re looking to add two permanent full time developers to our growing team. We work hard, but give everyone a minimum one month per year paid vacation. Our office is in a converted textile factory at Queen and Spadina.

 

There’s not a ton of information there, so I won’t do a full write-up.  It sounds like an interesting company doing something interesting to improve the world using fun technologies.  That part’s all good.  It’s not clear to me whether or not you’ll be well-compensated financially — for a small company in a “do-good” space, that’s not always true.  Then again, if you can afford to adjust your salary expectations for the right gig, this seems like it might be worth a further look.  The location’s not bad from what they say – a little off the beaten path, but in a fun area with lots of other startups.