Modernizing and scaling analytics at USAA
Explore dbt resources curated for USAA data teams to support analytics modernization and scalable use of dbt across the organization.
Building strong dbt foundations at USAA
Explore guides, tools, and best practices designed to help USAA teams get the most out of dbt. These resources support secure, governed, and collaborative workflows, enabling teams to deliver faster, more reliable insights.
Introduction to dbt
Not familiar with dbt? Start here. dbt helps teams transform, test, and document data in the warehouse, making it easier to collaborate, maintain data quality, and deliver reliable insights—faster
Learn dbt with hands-on training
Explore dbt’s technical learning resources to build your skills, from beginner tutorials to advanced analytics engineering best practices. Access guided courses, hands-on exercises, and practical examples to help you transform, test, and document data confidently and efficiently.
dbt Documentation
Dive into the docs to learn how to transform, test, and document data with dbt. Find step-by-step guides, reference materials, and best practices to help you build reliable, high-quality data workflows and get the most out of dbt.
How USAA teams are modernizing with dbt
In this session, the Property & Casualty data engineering team shares their rapid modernization journey—from retiring a legacy GUI-based ETL tool and on-prem servers to adopting dbt Cloud and a cloud database.
They walk through how they now deliver near real-time data and how they tackled a key challenge introduced by dbt Python models: secure dependency management at scale. Kit and Ted explain the guardrails, CI/CD processes, and best practices they implemented to move quickly while staying compliant.
Whether you're evaluating dbt or already using it, this session offers practical insights and patterns you can apply within your own team.
Driving towards a more perfect pipeline
In this session, USAA's Marketing Data Warehouse team—supporting 50+ data feeds, thousands of tables, and critical marketing analytics—shares how they built CI/CD workflows that automatically run dbt tests and validations on every merge request.
You’ll learn how they improved data quality, sped up development, and kept a massive marketing data environment reliable. Walk away with practical tips, lessons learned, and a clear path for implementing CI/CD with dbt in your own team.
Collaborate at any scale with dbt Mesh
Bring structure to how analytics work gets scoped and shared, making the rest of the lifecycle simpler, smoother, and better governed—from data development through to analysis.
Quickstart: Introduction to dbt Mesh
This guide will teach you how to set up a multi-project design using foundational concepts of Mesh and how to implement a data mesh in dbt.
Explore what’s possible with dbt Fusion at USAA
dbt Fusion is the next-generation dbt engine, built in Rust and designed for deeper SQL understanding. This section introduces how Fusion powers dbt Studio IDE, Canvas, and the VS Code extension as USAA teams evaluate potential future use cases.
Experience the dbt Fusion engine
Sonja Strempel, Analytics Engineer at DPG Media, shares how dbt Fusion is transforming her work, helping her build faster and deliver reliable data to stakeholders.
State-aware orchestration now in Preview for Fusion projects
Fusion lets you validate analytics code locally as you write it—no unnecessary queries—and runs models only when upstream data changes, saving 30%+ on dbt warehouse compute.
Get started with Fusion
Instal the dbt extension — available for VS Code, Cursor, and Windsurf — which uses the dbt Fusion Engine to make dbt development smoother and more efficient.
Enhancing USAA's analytics developer workflow with dbt tools
As organizations mature their dbt practices, new tools can help standardize development and accelerate delivery across teams. dbt Canvas, VS Code, and dbt Copilot introduce additional ways to build, review, and maintain analytics—without requiring a single prescribed workflow. Explore the resources below to see how these tools can support current or future use cases.
Unlock analyst-driven data transformation with dbt Canvas
Explore how Canvas helps analysts quickly access and transform data through a visual, drag-and-drop experience and with a built-in AI for custom code generation.
Explore dbt development in VS Code
The dbt VS Code Extension provides an optional development experience for teams interested in working with dbt inside VS Code. See how the extension supports common dbt workflows and where it can add value alongside existing processes.
Accelerate dbt development with dbt Copilot
dbt Copilot provides AI-assisted support for common dbt development tasks, helping teams move faster while maintaining clarity and consistency.
Moving to dbt helped us future-proof our data operations...We achieved faster time to market, and we did it safely.
Ted Douglas Data Engineer at USAA
Meet the dbt account team for USAA
Candace Hunter
Sales Director, Major accounts - dbt Labs
Candace is the the dedicated Account Executive for USAA at dbt Labs, bringing years of experience working with data and analytics teams. She focuses on building strong, collaborative relationships and helping customers get lasting value from dbt.
Mike Fuller
Principal Solutions Architect - dbt Labs
Mike is a Principal Solutions Architect at dbt Labs, where he partners with some of dbt’s largest customers to help them successfully adopt and scale dbt across their analytics organizations. He has worked closely with data and analytics teams across USAA to design practical, scalable solutions aligned to complex enterprise needs.
Zac Silcox
User Success - dbt Labs
Zac is a User Success Manager at dbt Labs with a focus on supporting customer success and engagement. He partners with teams to understand priorities, provide guidance, and help customers get ongoing value from dbt.
Let's talk about the dbt Platform
Get a live, custom-tailored demo on how the dbt platform works. Our team will answer all of your questions, explain why the dbt platform is an industry standard, and show you what it can do for your team.