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.

Little Bites: Domainer, GAP Adventures, Scotia Algorithmic Trading, Microsoft Security, Informiam/Genesys

Domainer’s looking for a “web developer“. Without a listed compensation range, my first instinct is that “web developer” often means “cheap developer” in the Toronto job market, particularly for startups. G.A.P Adventures looks more interesting but suffers from the same problem.

Personally, I think algorithmic trading systems sound like an interesting domain, but I haven’t explored the space in enough detail to argue the point. The technology mix of C++ and Java both is an interesting and unusual one.

Microsoft Canada wants someone to change the country’s perception about their security? Sounds like a dangerous mission for only the bravest of soldiers.

Informiam, bought by Genesys, is still looking for some creative developers up at Yonge and Finch. If you’re already up north, this seems like it could be an interesting place to work.