diff --git a/backends-velox/src-delta40/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/GlutenOptimisticTransaction.scala b/backends-velox/src-delta40/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/GlutenOptimisticTransaction.scala
index 7c78eea59a1..a93e929f12d 100644
--- a/backends-velox/src-delta40/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/GlutenOptimisticTransaction.scala
+++ b/backends-velox/src-delta40/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/GlutenOptimisticTransaction.scala
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
  */
 package org.apache.spark.sql.delta
 
-import org.apache.gluten.backendsapi.velox.VeloxBatchType
+import org.apache.gluten.backendsapi.velox.{VeloxBatchType, VeloxValidatorApi}
 import org.apache.gluten.extension.columnar.transition.Transitions
 
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, Dataset}
@@ -48,6 +48,19 @@ class GlutenOptimisticTransaction(delegate: OptimisticTransaction)
       writeOptions: Option[DeltaOptions],
       isOptimize: Boolean,
       additionalConstraints: Seq[Constraint]): Seq[FileAction] = {
+    // Velox cannot write every Spark type: the native write path inserts a RowToVeloxColumnarExec
+    // transition whose SparkArrowUtil.toArrowSchema call throws (e.g. `Unsupported data type:
+    // variant`) for any type it has no Arrow mapping for. Reuse the backend's schema validator so
+    // such writes fall back to the vanilla Delta write path instead of failing at runtime.
+    val unsupportedReason = VeloxValidatorApi.validateSchema(inputData.schema)
+    unsupportedReason match {
+      case Some(reason) =>
+        logInfo(
+          s"Schema is not supported by Velox ($reason); falling back to the " +
+            "vanilla Delta write path.")
+        return super.writeFiles(inputData, writeOptions, isOptimize, additionalConstraints)
+      case None =>
+    }
     hasWritten = true
 
     val spark = inputData.sparkSession
diff --git a/backends-velox/src-delta40/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/DeltaVariantWriteSuite.scala b/backends-velox/src-delta40/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/DeltaVariantWriteSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d7dcb3f7f32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backends-velox/src-delta40/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/DeltaVariantWriteSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.spark.sql.delta
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.QueryTest
+import org.apache.spark.sql.Row
+import org.apache.spark.sql.delta.test.DeltaSQLCommandTest
+import org.apache.spark.sql.test.SharedSparkSession
+
+/**
+ * Velox has no Arrow representation for VariantType, so a Delta write that Gluten offloads to the
+ * native columnar writer (DataFrameWriter.save, UPDATE, ...) used to throw
+ * `UnsupportedOperationException: Unsupported data type: variant` at runtime.
+ * GlutenOptimisticTransaction now detects a schema Velox cannot write (such as one containing a
+ * variant) and delegates such writes to the vanilla Delta write path.
+ *
+ * These tests use write commands that Gluten targets for native offload (DataFrameWriter.save and
+ * UPDATE): without the fix they reach the native path and fail; with the fix they fall back to
+ * vanilla Delta and succeed. Plain INSERT INTO is never offloaded, so it would pass regardless of
+ * the fix and is intentionally not used here.
+ */
+class DeltaVariantWriteSuite
+  extends QueryTest
+  with SharedSparkSession
+  with DeltaSQLCommandTest {
+
+  test("write and read a top-level variant column") {
+    withTempDir {
+      dir =>
+        val path = dir.getCanonicalPath
+        spark
+          .range(3)
+          .selectExpr("'foo' AS s", "parse_json(cast(id + 99 AS string)) AS v")
+          .write
+          .format("delta")
+          .mode("overwrite")
+          .save(path)
+        checkAnswer(
+          spark.read.format("delta").load(path).selectExpr("s", "to_json(v)"),
+          Seq(Row("foo", "99"), Row("foo", "100"), Row("foo", "101")))
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("write and read a variant nested in a struct") {
+    withTempDir {
+      dir =>
+        val path = dir.getCanonicalPath
+        spark
+          .range(2)
+          .selectExpr(
+            "'foo' AS s",
+            "named_struct('inner', parse_json(cast(id + 99 AS string))) AS v")
+          .write
+          .format("delta")
+          .mode("overwrite")
+          .save(path)
+        checkAnswer(
+          spark.read.format("delta").load(path).selectExpr("s", "to_json(v.inner)"),
+          Seq(Row("foo", "99"), Row("foo", "100")))
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("update a table with a variant column") {
+    withTempDir {
+      dir =>
+        val path = dir.getCanonicalPath
+        spark
+          .range(3)
+          .selectExpr("cast(id AS int) AS id", "parse_json(cast(id AS string)) AS v")
+          .write
+          .format("delta")
+          .mode("overwrite")
+          .save(path)
+        sql(s"UPDATE delta.`$path` SET v = parse_json('123') WHERE id = 1")
+        checkAnswer(
+          spark.read.format("delta").load(path).selectExpr("id", "to_json(v)"),
+          Seq(Row(0, "0"), Row(1, "123"), Row(2, "2")))
+    }
+  }
+}