Managed Services / Augmentation

Snowflake and dbt Data Engineering Augmentation for Major Health Insurer

The Situation

A major not-for-profit private health insurer serving nearly one million members had a data engineering team running critical analytics workflows through manual Snowflake notebook processes. When a key data engineer was reassigned internally, the team was left with a growing backlog and no capacity to address it. Key challenges included:

  • Recurring analytics workflows requiring manual daily execution, including early-morning logins to restart failed runs
  • No data quality checks, no automation, and no visibility into data lineage or process health
  • Analytics and data science use cases living as ad hoc processes in Snowflake notebooks with no monitoring or auditability
  • A strategic goal to standardize on dbt across data engineering, analytics, and data science — but no established use case for analytics and data science workloads within dbt yet

What We Did

Embedded a data engineer directly into the client's squad, operating as a fully integrated team member rather than an external consultant running a discrete project

  • Audited and catalogued existing manual Snowflake notebook-based workflows to identify automation opportunities
  • Converted Snowflake notebooks to dbt models, eliminating the need for manual execution and recurring human intervention
  • Implemented dbt data quality testing across all migrated models
  • Established the first analytics and data science use cases within dbt at the organization, directly supporting their broader platform standardization goal
  • Built reusable dbt models and patterns stored in the InterWorks APAC internal repository for future engagements

Results

  • Recurring analytics workflows fully automated — daily manual notebook execution eliminated
  • Failed model reruns now handled automatically within dbt's scheduled execution framework
  • First analytics and data science dbt use cases established at the organization, laying the foundation for broader dbt adoption
  • Data lineage tracking, quality testing, and monitoring introduced across workloads that previously had none

What This Unlocks

For data engineering teams carrying manual Snowflake notebook workflows with no automation or quality controls, this engagement demonstrates how a focused dbt migration can eliminate recurring manual effort and lay the foundation for a governed, scalable analytics platform. The embedded augmentation model is directly reusable for any organization that needs capable data engineering capacity quickly without the overhead of a long procurement or onboarding cycle.

Team

A single embedded data engineer serving as both delivery lead and primary practitioner, with structured knowledge transfer from a prior engagement lead ensuring a fast start and continuity of institutional knowledge.

Back to Snowflake Use Cases
Snowflakedbtdata engineeringworkflow automationteam augmentationinsurancefinancial servicesAPACnotebook migrationdata quality

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Interworks GmbH
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40213 Düsseldorf
Germany
Geschäftsführer: Mel Stephenson

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