Senior Database Migration Engineer

Brazil - Curitiba ; Canada - Toronto; Toronto Office, Canada
Product Development and Operations/Full time/Hybrid
As a Senior Database Migration Engineer, you will lead complex customer database migrations from legacy Guidewire systems into Guidewire Cloud Platform, ensuring performance, data integrity, and mínimal downtime. You’ll combine deep database expertise with a practical, customer‑focused mindset to design, automate, and execute repeatable migration patterns. This role is critical to how PDO delivers cloud‑platform adoption at scale, helping insurers modernize and realize measurable value from Guidewire’s solutions.
**What you’ll do**:
- Design and execute end‑to‑end database migration strategies from Oracle and/or SQL Server to PostgreSQL for Guidewire Cloud, including planning, dry runs, cutover, and post‑go‑live stabilization.
- Optimize data transfer and runtime database performance using techniques such as query plan tuning, indexing strategies, partitioning, batching, and connection/throughput optimization to meet demanding SLAs.
- Develop, maintain, and improve migration tooling and automation (e.g., scripts, utilities, pipelines) using bash, Python, workflow and related technologies to make migrations faster, safer, and more repeatable across customers.
- Configure and use data replication tools (such as AWS DMS, SQL Server transactional replication, or Oracle GoldenGate) to support low‑downtime, phased, and high‑volume database migrations.-
- Rigorously validate and reconcile data before and after migrations by defining and executing checks, controls, and reconciliation processes that give customers and internal stakeholders confidence in data completeness, accuracy, and consistency.
- At Guidewire, we foster a culture of curiosity, innovation, and responsible use of AI—empowering our teams to continuously leverage emerging technologies and data‑driven insights to enhance productivity and outcomes.
**- What you’ll bring**:
- Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related STEM field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 8+ years of experience in database engineering, including at least 2 years focused on data/database migration in production environments.
- Deep, hands-on experience with Oracle and/or Microsoft SQL Server, including schema design, indexing, performance tuning, and day‑to‑day operations.
- Proven experience migrating databases from Oracle and/or SQL Server to PostgreSQL, including resolving compatibility, performance, and operational issues.
- Strong PostgreSQL expertise, including query plan analysis, performance optimization, and operational best practices in a cloud or hybrid environment.
- Proficiency with UNIX/Linux administration and scripting (bash, Python) to automate migration, monitoring, and validation tasks.
- Experience with at least one major cloud platform (such as AWS or Azure), plus solid understanding of networking fundamentals, connectivity, and troubleshooting in cloud and hybrid environments.
- Familiarity with data replication technologies (for example AWS DMS, SQL Server transactional replication, or Oracle GoldenGate) and their use in migration or cutover scenarios.
- Clear, concise communication in English (written and spoken), with the ability to collaborate across distributed, cross‑functional teams
- Available to work 30-50% of weekends with advance notice and flexible compensation time off.
- Strong work ethic, proactive ownership mindset, and commitment to follow‑through for customers and colleagues, with the humility and curiosity to learn from others.
- Preferred
- Experience with infrastructure‑as‑code or environment automation tools such as Terraform.
- Programming skills in one or more languages such as Java, Kotlin, C, or Go.
- Experience with Workflow tools such as GitHub Actions, Argo Workflows, KubeVela Workflows, or Temporal.
- Experience using work management tools such as Jira and source control systems such as Git.
- Background working in SaaS, mission‑critical, or high‑availability environments, ideally within financial services or insurance technology.
- Exposure to large‑scale, multi‑tenant cloud platforms and data‑intensive workloads.
**- Your Impact**:
We believe in clarity and setting you up for success. In your first six months, you will lead several customer migration projects end‑to‑end: assessing legacy databases, shaping migration and cutover plans, optimizing PostgreSQL performance, and driving rigorous data validation so customers can confidently run their business on Guidewire Cloud. You’ll measure success through smooth data migrations, reduced downtime, improved performance, and reusable automation that accelerates future migrations. Over time, your data migration optimization and tooling will enable Guidewire to scale and efficiently serve more customers, contributing to our broader mission of transforming how P&C insurers do business.
**What’s in it for you**:
The people we employ give their al