Database Engineering Manager

Manager, Database Engineering

Reporting To:  Director of Engineering

Location: Boston, MA (Hybrid, 3x/wk onsite)

About Grand Circle Corporation

Grand Circle Corporation (GCC) is the leader in international travel, adventure, and discovery for Americans aged 50 . Headquartered in Boston, MA, we are a $600M global enterprise with 30 regional offices and more than 2,000 associates worldwide. Since our founding, over two million travelers have explored nearly 100 countries with our award-winning brands: Grand Circle Travel, Overseas Adventure Travel, and Grand Circle Cruise Line.

At GCC, we bring together human insight and digital expertise to anticipate the needs of our travelers. Our teams are innovative, technologically sophisticated, and motivated to achieve—while never losing sight of the human connection that makes travel meaningful.

The Role

We are expanding our Platform Engineering organization to support our growing website, backend integrations, and modernization initiatives. The Manager, Database Engineering will play a critical role in modernizing our data platforms, with a primary focus on migrating our legacy System-i DB2 environment and business logic to a modern, distributed database architecture.

This is a highly visible leadership role for a hands-on technical manager who enjoys solving complex problems, mentoring engineers, and driving large-scale modernization efforts in a fast-paced environment.

What You’ll Do

As Manager, Database Engineering, you will:

• Provide hands-on technical leadership and accountability for end-to-end delivery of modern database solutions, from design through development, testing, deployment, and ongoing operations.

• Lead database modernization initiatives, including the migration of DB2 systems to modern relational database platforms aligned with enterprise architecture goals.

• Architect and implement scalable, distributed database solutions that support microservices and cloud-native applications, optimizing for performance, availability, and security.

• Manage, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of database engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Partner closely with application engineering, DevOps, and infrastructure teams to ensure seamless integration across the broader technology stack.

• Establish and enforce best practices for database design, data modeling, indexing, query optimization, and backup/recovery strategies.

• Drive automation by implementing CI/CD pipelines, schema management, monitoring, and alerting for database systems.

• Ensure strong data security, encryption, and compliance with regulatory requirements throughout the modernization process.

• Monitor and optimize database performance using advanced tuning and observability tools.

What We’re Looking For

Required Qualifications

• 5 years of experience in database engineering, including at least 2 years in a people leadership or technical management role.

• Deep expertise in relational databases, including DB2 and modern RDBMS platforms such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or MySQL.

• Proven experience leading database migration and modernization efforts.

• Strong knowledge of data modeling, schema design, indexing, and query performance optimization.

• Experience working with distributed systems, microservices, and service-oriented architectures.

• Hands-on experience deploying and managing databases in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

• Familiarity with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines for database deployments.

• Strong understanding of database security, encryption, and compliance requirements (e.g., PCI, GDPR).

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders and collaborate across teams.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with legacy-to-modern database migration tools and strategies.

• Familiarity with event-driven architectures.

• Knowledge of containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Contributions to open-source projects or thought leadership related to database engineering or modernization.

Total Rewards

The base salary range for this role is $175,000– $185,000 annually for employees based in Boston, MA. Final compensation may vary and will be determined based on factors such as relevant experience, skills, internal equity, and geographic location. In addition to base pay, this role is eligible for an annual incentive bonus and first-class benefits, which include:

• Health & wellness: Comprehensive and heavily subsidized medical, dental, and vision plans, plus on-site gym access, holistic wellness sessions, and group fitness classes
• Time for you: Substantial Paid Time Off (PTO), and 11 paid holidays – including Juneteenth, Memorial Day, and Labor Day – and Summer Fridays. Plus extensive parental leave, with up to 12–16 weeks paid leave at 100% base salary.
• Travel more, spend less: 50% off our trips for you and a companion, 25% for additional immediate family members, and exclusive quarterly associate travel deals
• Your future, secured: 401(k) with company match, life insurance, and disability coverage
• Continuous growth: Tuition assistance for both professional and personal development, opportunities for professional development through overseas travel, and direct access to Pinnacle Leadership & Team Development
• Extra perks: Commuter benefits, FSA options, pet insurance, home & auto discounts, and paid volunteer time off to give back to the community

To learn more, please visit our websites at www.gct.com, www.oattravel.com and www.grandcirclefoundation.com.