Write to SNOWFLAKE VARIANT column

[md000]

First of all - I am unsure how to turn this into a reproducible example as my issue is the connection to snowflake 

What I am attempting to do: Write a (JSON) string generated within python to a Snowflake VARIANT column (using the output tool).  Note: On my local machine, I use python to write the data to snowflake (using the snowflake.connector library) however this is not available to me on the server due to authentication requirements.

Method:

(1) The python code contains the following: 

df_out = df_in[cols1]
df_out['FEATURES'] = df_in[cols2].apply(lambda x: x.to_json(), axis=1)

(2) Python Output #1: Pandas dataframe (df_out) with example value within the Features column as follows

{"X1":0.1304007565,"X2":0.0,"X3":0.0,"X5":0.233,"Z":0}

(3) Output Data tool:

The Snowflake table SANDPIT.CUST_BH_SEG.MODEL_TAGS_20210914 has a column FEATURES which is type VARIANT.

The following image shows how it is configured.

This is the error message I receive: Error: Output Data (73): Error SQLPrepare: SQL compilation error:
Expression type does not match column data type, expecting VARIANT but got VARCHAR(2) for column FEATURES

Any advice on how to configure this Alteryx flow so that I can write the data to Snowflake would be much appreciated !

EDIT: Note as a work-around, I have done the following:

• Created an intermediate/"staging" table MY_INT_TABLE with the same definition as the final table, "SANDPIT.CUST_BH_SEG.MODEL_TAGS_20210914" but replaced the datatype of FEATURES as varchar (instead of VARIANT)
• Within the Output Data tool
  • Change the 3. Output Options to Delete Data and Append
  • In the 6. Post Create SQL Statement field I have the following 

INSERT INTO SANDPIT.CUST_BH_SEG.MODEL_TAGS_20210914 (..., FEATURES)
SELECT ...,TO_VARIANT(FEATURES)
FROM MY_INT_TABLE;