The global tech hiring landscape is undergoing a massive shift, driven by increased competition for talent, rising salaries in traditional markets, and the growing acceptance of remote work.
As a result, more companies are turning their attention to Latin America (LatAm) — not just for outsourcing, but as a strategic hub of skilled engineers who offer long-term value.
LatAm Developers: Talent Meets Cost-Effectiveness
For companies in the U.S. and Canada, hiring local engineers can be prohibitively expensive. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for software developers in the U.S. exceeded $120,000 annually in 2022, and this figure continues to rise, especially in tech hubs like San Francisco or New York.
These costs can be a serious bottleneck for startups and scale-ups seeking to grow their teams rapidly without sacrificing product quality or financial stability.
Latin America provides a compelling alternative. A recent report by Tecla shows that top-tier engineers in countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil offer comparable skills and English proficiency, often with years of international experience, at significantly lower salary ranges.
In fact, many mid-to-senior developers in LatAm earn between $48,000 and $72,000 annually when working remotely for U.S. companies, which can lead to 30-50% in cost savings without compromising expertise.
The Time Zone Advantage
Beyond salary, LatAm offers something that traditional offshore regions struggle with: real-time collaboration. Unlike teams in Asia or Eastern Europe, LatAm professionals share similar or overlapping time zones with North America.
This facilitates smoother workflows, faster iteration cycles, and improved communication — crucial advantages for agile teams building and shipping at speed.
Why Companies Are Building Remote Teams in LatAm
Today’s engineering teams aren’t just looking for coders — they want problem-solvers who contribute to product direction, UX decisions, and long-term architecture.
LatAm’s education systems, tech bootcamps, and access to global communities like GitHub and Stack Overflow have produced a generation of developers who are well-aligned with these expectations.
Furthermore, regional infrastructure has improved drastically. Many engineers now work with U.S.-based employers from coworking spaces or fully-equipped home offices, with fast internet, bilingual communication, and strong familiarity with tools like Jira, Slack, and Git. The barriers that once made nearshoring difficult have been significantly reduced.
Building a Future-Proof Hiring Strategy
Tech companies willing to explore LatAm are gaining a competitive edge — not just in costs, but in team diversity, scalability, and resilience. Platforms that specialize in remote hiring and vetting, such as Tecla, help bridge the gap between North American companies and pre-vetted, bilingual talent across the region.
For organizations that want to explore this trend further, this article by McKinsey offers insights on how the remote workforce is reshaping global hiring norms.
As distributed work becomes the norm, embracing new hiring geographies like Latin America isn’t just smart — it’s necessary. The companies that understand this shift will not only hire better but will future-proof their teams for the next decade of tech growth.
