How to Hire Reliable Software Developers in Latin America

How to hire nearshore developers in LatAm

Finding a reliable software developer in Latin America is – it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack, isn’t it? But don’t worry, at Next Idea Tech – we’ve been through this rodeo a few times. We have spent several years finding reliable developers for various projects and we’ve picked up some tricks along the way.

The best developers aren’t always in your backyard. They might not even be in the same country! The best place to find good developers is where the exchange rate and cost of living is lower than your country, but there is still a good level of education.

US businesses tend to choose Latin America. We call this nearshoring.

Nearshoring was used during 2020 in the US to combat a sudden loss in high quality local IT contractors (caused by lockdown). The feedback (from a large company we have worked with, and where we still have social interaction with managers) is that nearshoring IT in this way is a highly effective strategy that is currently seeing rapid adoption by IT decision makers.

To help you in your search, we’ve distilled our experiences hiring nearshore software developers in Latin America into actionable guidelines that will help you cast your net wider and choose software developers that are a perfect fit for your company.

What to Look for When Hiring a Nearshore Developer?

Look for flexibility and familiarity with diverse software environments.
Look for clean coders.
Look for the creative type.
Look for strong communication and collaboration skills.

Where to Find Nearshore Software Developers in Latin America?

It depends on what exactly you want to do. Do you want to develop software from scratch or fix bugs and do minor enhancements to existing software?

If you want to just fix some bugs and make some small enhancements, hiring a nearshore software developer in Latin America should be a good choice.

You can hire software developers in Latin America from various sources, depending on your specific needs, budget, and preferences.

Here are some of the best places and strategies for hiring LATAM developers:

#1: Freelance Platforms

If you have up to $10K to spare, or need short-term projects completed, freelance platforms are a great option. You can accomplish a lot by hiring a freelance developer who works 10 hours a week on your project. Some popular sites for finding such developers include:

Upwork – Upwork is one of the largest communities of online freelancers from different disciplines. On it you can find:
- Front-end developers
- Back-end developers
- Full-stack developers
- Mobile app developers
- DevOps engineers
- Database administrators
- Cybersecurity specialists
- Data scientists
- And more

But remember, Upwork doesn’t assist in the recruitment, vetting, and retention of developers. These are all performed on the client’s side.

Toptal – Toptal is an exclusive network of experienced freelance software developers, UI/UX designers, and product managers. While more expensive, Toptal vets and pre-screens their developers, allowing only those who can deliver high-quality outputs.
Fiverr – Best for smaller tasks or budget-friendly options. Developers here often work on quick-turnaround jobs.

We found Upwork easily the best here. For simpler tasks, Upwork was really good and cheaper, even max $2K for a MVP. For example, a cloud-based web scraping app.

When hiring on freelance platforms, do not take the approach of “hey, I have a million dollar startup idea, and I need someone to code it for me”. Never goes well.

2. Job Boards

For long-term hires, job boards can provide access to a larger talent pool. While some mainstream job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, ZipRecruiter and CareerBuilder host a wide variety of opportunities across different industries and types of employment, there are niche job boards that only include postings for jobs within the IT industry. These provide by far the easiest way to reach millions of software developers.

Some good ones to consider:

Dice – Dice is one of the best job boards exclusively focused on tech. It is ideal for employers and recruiters looking to hire engineers, developers, analysts or technicians. With a user-friendly interface and extensive talent pool for all IT related roles, Dice can swiftly connect you with skilled nearshore developers in Latin America who align seamlessly with your needs and company culture.
Hired – Thousands of global companies, from start-up to enterprise level, leverage Hired’s tech talent marketplace to connect with active, pre-vetted candidates looking for their next role. With customizable technical assessments, exclusive competitive insights, and a dedicated Customer Success Team, you can easily hire perfect-fit candidates. You are also provided with an account manager who is there for you with any questions or to help you find the right candidate.
AngelList – Specifically designed for startups, AngelList allows you to find developers who are already excited about working in entrepreneurial environments. With over 100,00+ potential candidates, you can find software developers, data scientists, product managers, product designers that you can hire to be part of your dedicated in-house team or remote freelancers. As long as you’re accurate with your job descriptions, you’ll bring the right developers candidates closer to you. Go through AngelList in detail and try to filter out developers in Latin American cities. It helps to set up a page that fully describes your app first, put some kind of logo up or video and so on, anything that makes developers get intrigued about the problem.

After the discovery, interviewing your shortlisted candidates is probably harder, but I’ve always felt that just by talking about previous projects in detail (which decisions were made, why, how it ended up, what could be done in the next iteration to improve it etc.) can tell you so much more than arbitrary whiteboard quizzes – which everybody seems to mechanically memorize these days.

If you don’t know how to interview software developers, check out our guide on How to Interview Next.js Developers for more insights.

3. Tech-Specific Communities

Developers often gather on tech-specific forums and communities, making these great places to recruit talent. Some good ones to consider include:

We Work Remotely – We Work Remotely is the world’s largest platform for finding and listing remote jobs. It has very high engagement and it provides opportunities for an incredibly large and diverse talent pool who share a common interest in working remotely to get plugged in, share resources and tips, and exchange job opportunities. The base price for a job listing on We Work Remotely is $299 per month and it has a lifespan of 30 days, at the end of which the job automatically renews to help make your hiring process more convenient. When hiring Nearshore developers in LATAM on We Work Remotely, you should add location and time zone restrictions to your job posting. After posting your job on We Work Remotely, it’ll also be distributed to:
- Google Jobs Network
- SitePoint
- Designer News (Remote Design Jobs)
- + Over 20 independent niche job sites that use their RSS Feed.
CrunchBoard – CrunchBoard is the official job board of TechCrunch—a news website dedicated to providing breaking technology news, opinions, and analysis on tech companies from around the world. You can use their job board to help you get your job vacancies filled by an already engaged and specialized audience. Jobs posted on CrunchBoard are visible on the TechCrunch network including the website, daily newsletters and social channels. While highly specialized it’s rather costly with a single job post setting you back $349.00.
Medium – If you are in the habit of reading software blogs and newsletters then Medium is a good place to find exceptional developers. I’m subscribed to Medium, so I was reading away and the code in one of the articles was exactly the way I like it to be, and very professional. I was blown away, the guy had combined all the qualities I was looking for, so I found out who he was, then contacted him on social media, got to talking and we came to an agreement to work together.

4. Nearshore Staffing Agencies

Another option is contacting nearshore staffing agencies. If you want to build software from scratch, hiring just one developer is not going to cut it. Building software requires more professionals than just one developer. For example, you may also need a business analyst, project manager, software architect, security expert, DevOps engineer, QA specialist, cloud architect, etc. It’s best to first consult with a development firm to at least find out if you need just one developer, two developers, or maybe also a DevOps engineer.

These agencies have all the professionals you need. You just have to find a good agency who cares and understands that their long-term success depends on your software being successful. The following agencies provide vetted teams that can work on your project full-time:

Next Idea Tech – A company that connects US companies with top-tier developers, particularly from Latin America. Next Idea Tech sources, hires and pays software developers in Latin America who speak fluent English and work around your time zone. We have resources on location in many countries which enables us to tap into small and big markets, understand the local labor laws and find the best talent while offering you an easy and cost effective hiring process.

From sourcing relevant talent using our AI enriched database, technical interviews to managing payroll and NDA compliance, Next Idea is a one-stop solution for expanding your team with ready-to-hire talent. Our average client relationships last over

3 years, with a retention rate of 97%.

BairesDev – A global leader in helping businesses scale their software development teams. Whether you are looking to staff multiple developers or build out a specific product, BairesDev ensures that you are working with the best development talent from around the world. With BairesDev you can hire software developers in LatAm through three flexible engagement models:

Staff Augmentation – Their software developers in your team.
Dedicated Teams – Their software teams in your organization.
Software Nearshoring – Their PM and software teams building products for you.

Gun.io – A tech marketplace dedicated to helping entrepreneurs find full-time or freelance basis developers, even developers just to augment periodic needs. The good thing about this platform is that they vet developer applicants even before allowing them on the platform. All developers on the platform must pass an algorithmic screening, a work history and background review, and a live technical interview with a senior engineer. About 1,000 new developers join the platform each month, and of these, about 100 are approved to work with Gun.io clients.

From the customized job posting and interviewing of potential employees to the hiring of your resource, everything on the platform is painless. On average, clients make a hire within 14 days of requesting a candidate on the platform.

Finding good developers for your startup can be a daunting process if you do all the heavy lifting. This is why we suggest that you choose a platform that already has a screening process in place to vett only top-notch developers to work with you.

Normally, a custom software development company like Next Idea Tech would guide you through this. However, as a startup, we understand that you want to limit your expenses as much as possible and may manage your tech talents yourself or ask someone to help from your current team members.

Here at Next Idea Tech, we perform a vigorous vetting process and offer a consistent and seamless nearshoring experience for you. Our vetting process doesn’t end once we’ve approved a particular Latin American software developer. We constantly evaluate each project the developer works on to determine if their quality of work is still up to par to stay in our network. You already have a lot on your plate as an entrepreneur, we want to take some weight off your shoulders so you have one less concern to worry about.

When hiring nearshore developers, it’s always best to have someone from your team with the best tech knowledge with you and to also have some basic tech knowledge yourself. You don’t have to learn Java, Python or any other programming languages yourself. Just come with enough knowledge to help us understand what you’re looking for to make your software development project a success.

Risks Associated with Hiring Nearshore Developers in Latin America

Although the individual nearshore software developers may be excellent, their local management can sometimes be poor at working out the nuances in a complex specification. This is often not because they don’t understand, but because they tend to give you exactly what you asked for, even if it is clearly wrong.

It is not a language problem; it’s usually a responsibility and contractual issue.

Some of the larger nearshore companies can also be very good at architecting a design but poor at implementation. They can easily spend a large chunk of the budget up front in consulting before the client becomes aware that the actual implementation is either poor or over-complicated. This has happened often in large nearshoring IT projects especially in the financial industry (banks, etc).

On the flip side, going in-house also has its drawbacks in large organizations. Senior management has to be top-down tech savvy, so you can’t just call in a local tech management and call it sorted; otherwise you create knowledge moats. Things like ‘finished’ can mean totally different things when they cross such moats (especially when you ignore things like security/compliance as ‘formalities’).