WeWork + Astro: Lean Team, Faster Upgrades, Stronger Pipelines

The Customer

WeWork is a global leader in flexible workspace solutions, supporting companies of all sizes with innovative office environments. The data team, led by Director of Data Engineering You Zhou, operates with three core functions: data platform engineering, analytics and data modeling, and business reporting. As You explains, “Our mission is to keep WeWork’s data reliable, accessible, and actionable. With a lean team we aim to empower decision-making across the business.”

Within the data team, the data platform pillar is led by Steven Rowland. “My focus is on choosing solutions that are maintainable so the data platform runs smoothly and efficiently, allowing the rest of the team to build and deliver with confidence,” says Steven.

The Challenge

WeWork’s data team faced the need to deliver more with less after minor staff reductions. Their orchestration approach evolved with the size and needs of the business. When the team was larger, a group of 6 engineers built and maintained a self‑hosted Airflow deployment branded internally as “Maestro.” As the team became smaller, they shifted to a SaaS model with Google Cloud Composer (GCC). But even on GCC, orchestration still required about three engineers to manage and troubleshoot effectively. GCC also introduced challenges with maintainability, drawn‑out upgrades, and limited support. As Steven recounts, “Upgrading from Airflow 1.0 to 2.0 took us more than two years – we needed a way to move faster with a smaller team.” With headcount reduced, they had to carefully pick a reliable, low‑maintenance solution.

The Solution

Before selecting Astronomer, the team evaluated different options after phasing out Maestro and struggling with Google Cloud Composer. They turned to Astronomer’s Astro platform, recognizing its Airflow expertise and strong community backing. As Steven put it, “Astronomer is the main backer of Airflow, and that gives us real peace of mind.”

Astronomer provided the team with dedicated Airflow expertise, simplified upgrades, observability features like data products and SLA tracking, and a streamlined UI. This allowed the team to efficiently maintain critical data workflows while supporting analytics and business intelligence across the organization.

“Astronomer sits quietly behind everything we do — if no one notices it, that means it’s working perfectly. It’s a massively important part of our stack, since everything we build — models, APIs, workflows — are running on top of it.” Steven Rowland Senior Data Engineer

The Results

WeWork’s lean data team has realized measurable business impact since adopting Astronomer. The shift has allowed them to keep critical workflows running reliably with fewer resources. As You Zhou put it, “Astronomer makes doing more with less possible.”

Key outcomes include:

Lean operations: What once required a larger team now runs with a single engineer dedicated to Airflow and Astronomer.

Faster upgrades: Moving from multi-year upgrade cycles to completing Airflow upgrades in just weeks. As You explains, “Being on the latest version of Airflow in weeks instead of years has been a huge accomplishment for us.”

Improved observability: Gained SLA monitoring and alerting through Astronomer’s data product features, giving the team clearer insight into pipeline performance and reliability. “Defining data products with SLAs and actually being able to track them is a big improvement over what we had before,” says You.

What’s Next

Over the next 6–12 months, the team is prioritizing stability and maintainability while enabling more self‑service analytics. Key initiatives include:

• Expanding self‑serve analytics to empower business teams.
• Strengthening data quality and freshness via improved observability and SLA tracking.
• Continue streamlining ingestion to reduce operational overhead.
• Avoiding disruptive migrations and keeping Airflow current with incremental upgrades.

Together, these efforts highlight how WeWork’s data team underpins the company’s global operations – and how Astronomer provides the reliability and scale that allow them to focus on delivering value with a lean team.

“We want smooth sailing, and we’re looking to Astronomer to help us continue providing that stability and maintainability.” Steven Rowland Senior Data Engineer