Delos:Scaling Engineering Output for a Fast-Growing Insurtech
About the Customer
Delos Insurance is a San Francisco-based Managing General Agent (MGA) that’s transforming wildfire insurance. While most insurers avoid high-risk wildfire zones, Delos goes in, using proprietary analytics and satellite imagery to underwrite policies in underserved regions increasingly impacted by climate change.
Their mission is to make fair, accessible insurance available where it’s needed most, addressing the challenges faced by communities in vulnerable areas and helping them recover from wildfire risks with innovative solutions.
The Challenge
By early 2023, Delos was growing faster than its engineering organization could keep up. They faced six major roadblocks:
Technical bottlenecks
A rapidly built platform lacked documentation, testing, and scalable patterns, causing friction during launches
Manual workflows
Core business processes like commission payouts and SL2 form submissions relied on spreadsheets, Slack, and scripts
Testing & QA gaps
Without a QA team, developers owned their own testing, leading to inconsistent quality and delayed releases
Hiring limits
Engineering hiring was slow and distracting; the CTO needed a reliable partner, not more recruiting overhead
Siloed knowledge
Key workflows were undocumented, increasing dependency on specific individuals
Low observability
Debugging and deployment monitoring were reactive and manual, lacking visibility and proactive alerts
The Solution
NaNLABS joined as a strategic partner, embedding directly into Delos’ teams to improve stability, unlock automation, and scale engineering output sustainably.
Full-Stack & Backend Development
Automated commission payouts using Stripe integrations
Built workflows to generate and submit SL2 forms programmatically
Modularized backend APIs to support rapid onboarding of carriers with custom business rules (e.g., solar panel exclusions)
Data Engineering Enablement
Aligned on a roadmap to bring in a dedicated Data Engineer
Defined projects for analytics workflows, premium modeling, and carrier reporting
DevOps & CI/CD Improvements
Refactored GitHub Actions pipelines to speed up builds and reduce flakiness
Documented deployment processes to reduce dependency on one external contractor
QA & Release Confidence
Implemented Cypress tests for critical user flows
Standardized testing processes and stabilized CI/CD for faster, safer releases
Cross-Functional Integration
Engineers supported not just development, but operations, billing, and legal workflows
Participated in business-level meetings to improve automation and internal tooling
Strategic Partnership
Became a trusted extension of Delos’ internal team, proactively solving problems across technical and operational domains
The Results
Faster time-to-market
for new insurance programs thanks to streamlined delivery
Operational efficiency
through automation of core workflows like commissions and SL2 submissions
Increased release confidence
via Cypress tests and CI/CD improvements
3x faster developer onboarding
by reducing knowledge silos and improving documentation
Less dependency on manual QA
with automated test coverage and more predictable deployments
Deep team integration
with NaNLABS engineers contributing beyond code
"NaNLABS is the best company I've ever worked with for South American tech talent. Their team is curious, they ask why, they dig deep, they deliver quality ... and they fit right in. I trust them and I'm already introducing NaNLABS to other companies."
Amrit Williams
CTO at Delos Insurance Solutions
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