Building a nearshore development team saves 40-60% versus US hiring while enabling real-time collaboration in overlapping time zones.
LATAM developers cost $65,000-$95,000 annually versus $175,000+ in the US. Teams in Mexico City, Bogota, and Buenos Aires work 6-8 overlapping hours with US offices daily. Top partners present pre-vetted candidates within 48 hours and close hires in 7-14 days.
This guide covers the 90-day implementation roadmap, country selection, cost calculations, and the operational practices that separate successful nearshore teams from failed vendor relationships.
What Is a Nearshore Development Team?
A nearshore development team operates from a neighboring region within 1-3 time zones of your office. This enables real-time collaboration at 40-60% lower cost than domestic hiring. For US companies, nearshore means Latin America: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Costa Rica.
Your engineers in Austin join standups with developers in Mexico City at 9 AM local time for both teams. Code review questions get answered in minutes, not overnight. Bug fixes ship the same day instead of waiting 24-48 hours for hand-offs.
How Does Nearshore Differ from Offshore and Onshore?
Nearshore splits the difference between onshore cost and offshore savings. The key differentiator is timezone alignment and its impact on delivery velocity.
Traditional offshore models in India, Philippines, and Vietnam create 10-13 hour time differences. A code review question asked at 5 PM EST gets answered the next morning. This hand-off friction compounds. Offshore coordination costs increase 2.5x compared to co-located teams. Project timelines extend 50% on average.
| Model | Time Difference | Collaboration | Cost Savings | Coordination Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nearshore (LATAM) | 0-3 hours | Real-time | 40-60% | 1.1-1.3x baseline |
| Offshore (Asia) | 10-13 hours | Asynchronous | 65-80% | 2.5x baseline |
| Onshore (US) | Same | Real-time | 0% | Baseline |
A developer in Bogota works 8 AM to 5 PM EST. Your Chicago architect reviews pull requests in real-time. Bug-fix turnaround drops from 48 hours with offshore teams to 12 hours with nearshore teams.
What Are the Main Benefits of Building a Nearshore Team?
Nearshore teams deliver cost reduction, faster hiring, and access to talent pools unavailable in the US market.
A senior full-stack developer in San Francisco costs $180,000-$220,000 base salary. The same experience level in Buenos Aires or Medellin runs $75,000-$110,000 fully loaded. Over three years, a US-based H-1B engineer costs $473,000-$654,000. A nearshore senior engineer costs $202,000-$341,000. That is a 50-65% reduction.
US unemployment for software developers sits below 2%. Competition for senior engineers in major metros is brutal. LATAM offers access to 2 million+ developers with 220,000 annual STEM graduates from institutions like Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM), and Universidad de los Andes.
Hiring velocity tells the story. A typical US hire takes 6-8 weeks from posting to offer acceptance, then 2-4 weeks notice. Nearshore staffing firms present qualified candidates in 5-7 days with start dates 2-3 weeks out. Time-to-productivity drops from 10-12 weeks to 3-4 weeks.
Who Should Build a Nearshore Development Team?
Growth-stage companies with $5 million to $100 million in annual revenue benefit most from nearshore teams. At this scale, every engineering hire materially impacts burn rate while scaling demands remain aggressive.
Adding three US senior engineers at $200,000 each costs $600,000 annually: 12% of $5M revenue. Adding three nearshore engineers at $90,000 each costs $270,000: 5.4% of revenue. That 6.6% margin difference funds an additional product manager, scales AWS infrastructure, or extends runway by two quarters.
Which Industries Use Nearshore Development Teams Most?
SaaS, FinTech, HealthTech, and EdTech companies use nearshore teams most frequently. These industries require complex technical implementations, regulatory compliance, and rapid iteration where synchronized working hours create competitive advantage.
FinTech companies leverage shared timezones for secure online banking platforms. When your US security architect reviews PCI-DSS compliance code, having nearshore developers available during business hours enables synchronous threat modeling.
HealthTech providers benefit from real-time collaboration on HIPAA-compliant systems. Nearshore teams handle video infrastructure, appointment scheduling, and EHR integrations. Your compliance officer joins calls with nearshore engineers when PHI handling questions arise.
How Do You Select the Right Nearshore Location?
Location selection impacts team performance and cost savings. Mexico and Colombia provide 8-hour daily overlap with US business hours. Argentina and Brazil offer 6-hour overlap with deeper technical specialization. The wrong choice creates communication barriers that undermine the value proposition.
What Are the Cost Differences by Country?
Senior developer costs range from $65,000 to $105,000 annually across LATAM, saving 52-67% versus US rates of $175,000+.
| Country | Senior Developer Cost | Savings vs US | Key Hubs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | $75,000-$95,000 | 52-62% | Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey |
| Colombia | $68,000-$88,000 | 56-66% | Bogota, Medellin, Cali |
| Argentina | $65,000-$92,000 | 54-67% | Buenos Aires, Cordoba |
| Brazil | $70,000-$95,000 | 52-65% | Sao Paulo, Florianopolis |
| Costa Rica | $75,000-$95,000 | 52-62% | San Jose, Cartago |
Mexico offers the largest talent pool (700,000+ developers) with closest proximity to US time zones. Colombia delivers competitive rates with growing ecosystems in Bogota and Medellin’s Ruta N innovation district. For detailed salary data and compliance requirements, see our complete guide to hiring developers in Colombia. Argentina provides cost advantages with technical depth in AI and data science. Brazil offers the largest market but requires Portuguese consideration. Costa Rica sits at the premium end with strong English proficiency.
How Do Time Zones Affect Nearshore Team Productivity?
Time zones determine daily overlap hours for real-time collaboration. Mexico City and San Jose align perfectly with US Central. Bogota matches US Eastern. Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires require more asynchronous communication.
| Location | EST Offset | Daily Overlap | Peak Collaboration Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico City | -1 hour | 8 hours | 9 AM-5 PM CST |
| Bogota | 0 hours | 8 hours | 9 AM-5 PM EST |
| San Jose | -1 hour | 8 hours | 9 AM-5 PM CST |
| Sao Paulo | +2 hours | 6 hours | 9 AM-3 PM EST |
| Buenos Aires | +2 hours | 6 hours | 9 AM-3 PM EST |
Your Austin team has full-day alignment with Mexico City developers. Your New York team works identical hours with Bogota developers. When your US team identifies a production bug at 10 AM EST, your nearshore team triages it immediately.
What Technical Specializations Does Each Country Offer?
Each LATAM country has developed distinct technical strengths based on local industry demand and educational focus.
| Country | Primary Specializations | English Proficiency | Developer Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | Full-stack, Python, Web | Moderate | 700,000+ |
| Colombia | DevOps, SaaS, Mobile | Moderate | 165,000 |
| Argentina | AI, Data Science | High | 150,000 |
| Brazil | Java, Mobile, FinTech | Low-Moderate | 630,000+ |
| Costa Rica | Cybersecurity | Very High | 70,000 |
Brazil’s developers concentrate in Java, mobile, and FinTech applications. Mexican developers from UNAM and Instituto Politecnico Nacional excel at rapid prototyping and frontend frameworks. Argentine developers bring strong mathematical foundations from ITBA and Universidad Austral for AI and data science. Colombian developers from Universidad EAFIT specialize in DevOps and infrastructure automation.
What Are Common Mistakes When Building a Nearshore Team?
Most nearshore partnerships fail in the first three months. Companies fall into the “vendor trap” or approach nearshore as a cost hack without understanding regional dynamics. These failures are preventable with proper planning.
Why Do Companies Treat Nearshore Teams as Vendors Instead of Partners?
Companies assign nearshore teams tickets from the backlog without explaining product strategy or customer pain points. The nearshore team builds features to spec but misses edge cases your US team would catch instinctively.
Within weeks, the nearshore team delivers output but not outcomes. They cannot make intelligent tradeoff decisions when requirements are ambiguous. Every decision escalates to your US team. What you intended as capacity augmentation becomes a coordination burden.
The solution is treating nearshore as a partner extension. Include nearshore developers in product roadmap presentations, customer feedback sessions, and strategic planning. They attend the same standups as US engineers. They participate in sprint planning and retrospectives. Equal participation prevents separate sub-teams from developing different working styles.
What Planning Errors Lead to Nearshore Failure?
Treating nearshore as a cost hack ignores operational complexity. Companies focus exclusively on hourly rate arbitrage without understanding tax treaties, labor laws, and cultural communication styles.
When issues arise, you lack the framework to diagnose them quickly. A contractor gets reclassified as an employee triggering tax penalties. Attrition spikes because compensation is not market-competitive. Deadlines slip because work styles were not aligned.
Success requires understanding employment laws, data protection regulations, and cultural work styles. These vary significantly across LATAM countries.
How Do You Prepare Before Day 1?
Pre-Day 1 preparation determines whether your nearshore team integrates seamlessly or creates ongoing friction. Define technical standards, calculate total cost of ownership, establish legal frameworks, and align stakeholders before contracts are signed.
What Technical Standards Should You Define?
Define “Definition of Ready” and “Definition of Done” standards before developers write code. DoR specifies when a ticket is ready: requirements documented, acceptance criteria defined, dependencies identified, designs approved. DoD specifies when work is complete: tests written with 70-80% coverage, code reviewed, documentation updated, deployed to staging.
Establish specific branch strategies. Does your team use GitFlow, trunk-based development, or feature branches? What naming conventions apply? Who approves merges to main? Your nearshore developers need identical workflows to avoid integration conflicts.
Set code review SLAs. Commit to initial review within 4 hours during overlapping hours. Approval or requested changes within 8 hours. These SLAs keep work moving and preserve the velocity advantage of timezone alignment.
How Do You Calculate Your Nearshore Team Budget?
Calculate budget using total cost of ownership that includes base salary, regional taxes and benefits (25-35%), infrastructure costs, and employer of record fees (15-25%).
The TCO formula: Base Salary + (Base x Tax Rate) + Infrastructure + Management Fee
A Mexico-based senior developer demonstrates real costs:
| Cost Component | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary ($30/hour) | $4,800 | $57,600 |
| Taxes and benefits (28%) | $1,344 | $16,128 |
| Infrastructure (12%) | $576 | $6,912 |
| EOR management fee (20%) | $960 | $11,520 |
| Travel contingency (5%) | $240 | $2,880 |
| Total TCO | $7,920 | $95,040 |
This $95,040 annual cost still delivers 47-52% savings versus comparable US talent at $180,000-$200,000 fully loaded. For role-specific salary benchmarks and labor law details, see our Mexico hiring guide.
Which Engagement Model Should You Choose?
You have three primary options. Direct subsidiary requires 12-20 weeks setup and $50,000-$100,000 initial cost. Staff augmentation starts in 1-2 weeks but carries misclassification risk. Employer of Record takes 2-3 weeks with 15-25% fees but eliminates compliance risk.
| Model | Setup Time | Initial Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct Subsidiary | 12-20 weeks | $50,000-$100,000 | $100M+ revenue, 20+ employees |
| Staff Augmentation | 1-2 weeks | $3,000-$5,000 per hire | Short-term projects |
| Employer of Record | 2-3 weeks | 15-25% salary fee | $5M-$100M revenue, 3-15 employees |
The EOR model is favored by firms in the $5M-$100M range. The EOR becomes the legal employer handling payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance while you direct day-to-day work.
What Legal and Compliance Requirements Apply?
Employment laws vary significantly across LATAM countries. These include statutory benefits that impact your budget.
| Country | Employer Tax Rate | 13th Month Bonus | Severance (Unjustified) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | 28% | 15 days (December) | 90 days + 20/year service |
| Colombia | 25-30% | No | 30-45 days |
| Argentina | 25-30% | Yes (8.3% cost) | 30-45 days |
| Brazil | 30-35% | Yes (8.3% cost) | Varies by tenure |
| Costa Rica | 26-32% | Yes (8.3% cost) | 20+ days |
Budget 3-6 months of salary as severance reserve when planning headcount.
Data protection regulations also vary. Brazil’s LGPD provides EU-like protections with strict penalties. Argentina has achieved EU adequacy status. Mexico’s framework was enhanced by USMCA. All IP agreements must explicitly state that code remains property of your US parent company.
How Do You Recruit and Onboard Nearshore Developers?
With legal frameworks established, move aggressively on talent acquisition. The competitive LATAM market rewards speed and decisive action on strong candidates.
What Recruitment Process Works Best?
Top nearshore partners present pre-vetted candidates within 24-48 hours and close hires within 7-14 days. This is 3-5x faster than US coastal markets.
| Role | LATAM Average | US Average | Time Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frontend Developer | 10-15 days | 45 days | 30-35 days |
| Backend Developer | 14-18 days | 52 days | 34-38 days |
| Full-Stack Developer | 15-21 days | 55 days | 34-40 days |
| DevOps Engineer | 18-25 days | 65 days | 40-47 days |
| AI/ML Specialist | 22-30 days | 75+ days | 45-53 days |
Your technical interview should assess four areas equally: AI fluency, technical prowess, cultural alignment, and real-time problem-solving. Candidates must demonstrate proficiency with tools like GitHub Copilot during live coding sessions.
Cultural alignment with US-style communication should be weighted equally with technical skills. Does the candidate ask clarifying questions? Do they propose alternatives when they see better solutions? Do they communicate blockers immediately? A developer with 85% technical skill but excellent communication often contributes more than a 95% technical developer who struggles with collaboration.
How Should You Structure Onboarding?
Hardware must arrive before Day 1. Laptops, monitors, peripherals, and backup power supplies delivered to the developer. VPN access configured and tested. All accounts created: email, Slack, GitHub, Jira, cloud platforms.
Week 1 covers strategic context. Present your product roadmap. Explain who your customers are and what problems your product solves. Walk through technical architecture: system components, data flows, API contracts, deployment processes.
Week 2 focuses on pair programming. Each nearshore developer pairs with a US engineer on real tickets. Rotate pairings across the first 4-6 weeks so each nearshore developer works with different US engineers.
Target milestones drive accountability:
- First PR submitted: Day 7-14
- First PR merged: Day 14-21
- First production deployment: Day 21-30
- Independent feature work: Day 60
- Full accountability for delivery timelines: Day 90
A FinTech company onboarded 11 full-stack developers in a US-Mexico partnership within 6 weeks using rotating pair programming. They achieved 46% cost reduction while maintaining delivery timelines.
How Do You Operate Your Nearshore Team Daily?
By Days 61-90, nearshore developers should transition from learning to autonomous execution. They deliver production code without constant US oversight.
What Sprint Rituals Work Best for Distributed Teams?
Daily standups happen at times maximizing timezone overlap: 9 AM or 10 AM EST for Bogota teams, 10 AM CST for Mexico City teams. Each developer shares yesterday’s progress, today’s plan, and blockers in 15-minute sessions.
Backlog grooming occurs mid-sprint. The product manager walks through new user stories. The tech lead identifies technical dependencies. Developers estimate complexity. This prevents sprint planning from running long.
Sprint planning happens at sprint start with the entire team. The product manager proposes sprint goals. Engineers estimate story points. The team commits to realistic workload.
Retrospectives at sprint end create space for improvement. What went well? What needs improvement? What changes next sprint? Nearshore and US team members contribute equally.
How Do You Handle Code Reviews with Nearshore Developers?
Enforce code review SLAs. US engineers commit to initial PR review within 4 hours during overlapping hours. Approval or change requests within 8 hours. Nearshore engineers address feedback within 8 hours. If PRs sit for more than 12 hours without response, escalate to the tech lead.
Treat nearshore PRs with identical priority to US submissions. No separate queue or lower priority. Code review bottlenecks eliminate the velocity advantage of timezone alignment.
Track quality metrics to validate velocity does not sacrifice standards. Measure defects per story point each sprint. Monitor code review cycles showing revision rounds. Ensure nearshore code meets your 70-80% test coverage thresholds.
How Do You Measure Nearshore Team Productivity?
Track days from start date to first PR merged and first production deployment. Strong onboarding achieves first merged PR within 14-21 days and first production deployment within 30 days.
Calculate story points delivered per two-week sprint. Expect velocity to increase as nearshore developers gain familiarity:
- Sprints 1-2: 40-60% of target (learning curve)
- Sprints 3-4: 70-85% (gaining confidence)
- Sprints 5-6: 90-100% (established rhythm)
- Sprint 7+: Stable within 10% (predictable planning)
By Day 90, velocity should stabilize at predictable levels. The 90-Day Performance Review provides comprehensive assessment: technical delivery, code quality, communication effectiveness, and sprint commitment accuracy.
How Do You Manage Communication Across Time Zones?
Effective communication determines whether nearshore teams integrate seamlessly or become coordination bottlenecks. Maximize overlapping hours for synchronous work. Design processes for asynchronous handoffs.
How Do You Leverage Timezone Overlap?
Schedule critical synchronous activities during overlapping hours. Place standups at 9-10 AM in the timezone with maximum overlap. Sprint planning and retrospectives happen during maximum overlap when both teams participate fully.
Reserve mornings for deep work and afternoons for collaboration. Nearshore developers tackle complex features during morning hours with minimal interruptions. Overlapping afternoon hours become collaboration time for code reviews and architecture discussions.
Production incidents demonstrate synchronous value. Your US team discovers a bug at 10 AM EST. They immediately pull in nearshore developers via Slack or video call. The combined team triages, identifies root cause, develops a fix, and deploys by 3 PM EST. Total resolution: 5 hours. The same incident with offshore takes 24-48 hours.
How Do You Make Asynchronous Communication Work?
AI-powered IDEs like Cursor and GitHub Copilot enable productivity during non-overlapping hours. When a US engineer is not available to answer architecture questions, these tools suggest implementation approaches consistent with existing patterns. Budget $20-40 per developer monthly for these services.
Document decisions in shared spaces. Use GitHub issues for technical discussions. Use Confluence or Notion for architectural decision records. Use Slack threads for planning conversations. Written documentation creates a searchable knowledge base spanning timezones.
Create clear escalation paths for urgent issues. Define what qualifies as urgent: production outages, security incidents, customer-impacting bugs. Establish on-call rotations including nearshore team members.
How Do You Build Trust Across Cultures?
LATAM collectivist orientation creates natural affinity for pair programming and collaborative problem-solving. Schedule regular pairing sessions: 2-3 per week in 2-hour blocks between US and nearshore engineers.
However, hierarchical tendencies require management adjustment. Junior developers may hesitate to challenge senior engineers or question unclear requirements. Actively solicit input from junior team members. Have junior developers share estimates before seniors. When a junior raises a concern, publicly praise them for speaking up.
Recognize nearshore contributions publicly. When a nearshore developer ships an important feature, call it out in company all-hands meetings. Public recognition validates that nearshore team members drive meaningful outcomes.
Budget for quarterly in-person visits at 5% of TCO. First visits during Days 61-90 accelerate trust-building. Plan joint sprint planning, collaborative hackathons, and team dinners.
How Do You Handle Challenges in the First 90 Days?
Challenges during the first 90 days are normal. How you respond determines whether issues become permanent dysfunction or temporary growing pains.
What Do You Do When Developers Miss Deadlines?
Schedule a video call within 24 hours with the developer and tech lead. Diagnose the root cause through open questions. Were acceptance criteria specific enough? Was technical complexity underestimated? How long did they wait for code review or architectural decisions?
Different root causes require different solutions:
- Unclear requirements: Add DoR checkpoint enforcement
- Complexity underestimated: Implement planning poker with mixed seniority
- Waiting for US input: Enforce code review SLAs and designate US escalation points
Use timezone alignment aggressively. When a nearshore developer hits a blocker at 11 AM EST, Slack them for a video call within 15 minutes. Resolve the blocker same hour.
How Do You Address Communication Breakdowns?
Communication breakdowns often stem from cultural conditioning around hierarchy. LATAM cultures show higher respect for authority than US individualism. Junior developers may hesitate to surface blockers early.
Implement structural interventions. During sprint planning, ask junior developers for estimates first before seniors. In retrospectives, have junior team members speak first. Explicitly ask for concerns before moving forward.
Model proactive communication from US leadership. When you do not understand something, ask questions publicly. When you spot risks, raise them immediately. Your behavior sets the standard.
Create safe escalation channels. Anonymous feedback surveys quarterly. Private Slack channels with the engineering manager. Regular 1-on-1s create spaces where developers can surface issues.
How Do You Resolve Technical Skill Gaps?
Before concluding skills are deficient, verify whether perceived gaps are actually context gaps. A developer who seems slow might lack product context to make good decisions. Provide more product training before assuming skill deficiency.
If true skill gaps exist, provide targeted training. For new languages, allocate 4-6 weeks for online courses and pairing with experienced engineers. For domain knowledge, conduct codebase walkthroughs and architecture deep-dives.
Assign each junior nearshore developer a senior US engineer as technical mentor. Schedule weekly pairing sessions focused on skill development. Mentors review code with teaching intent.
How Do You Scale After Day 90?
After Day 90, transition from implementation to long-term operations. Scale successful structures. Make data-driven adjustments based on performance.
How Do You Add More Nearshore Developers?
You have already solved legal/EOR partnerships, hardware procurement, security infrastructure, communication protocols, and performance measurement. Adding 5-10 more developers requires weeks instead of months.
Scale in cohorts of 3-5 developers rather than one at a time. Cohort onboarding creates peer support and amortizes training costs. Stagger cohorts quarterly to avoid overwhelming existing team members.
Promote from within. Your first nearshore hires understand your systems deeply by Month 6. Promote high performers to tech lead roles overseeing new team members. Internal promotion improves retention.
What Retention Rates Should You Expect?
LATAM developers average 24+ month tenure versus 14 months in US markets. That is 70% longer. Annual churn runs 15-20% for nearshore teams versus 35-40% for US engineering departments. For a 10-person team, this means losing 1-2 developers annually versus 3-4 departures.
Argentina’s Knowledge Economy Law (Ley de Economia del Conocimiento) provides 70% reduction in employer payroll contributions. USD-based contracts decouple retention from local peso inflation. Argentine developers receiving USD compensation maintain purchasing power during currency volatility.
When nearshore developers leave, conduct thorough exit interviews. Identify patterns across 3-5 exits. Pattern analysis reveals systemic problems requiring intervention.
How Do You Expand Nearshore Scope Over Time?
Start with well-defined feature development in Months 1-3. Graduate to architectural ownership of specific services in Months 4-6. Eventually delegate entire product areas to autonomous nearshore squads.
By the time nearshore teams own strategic technical initiatives in Year 2+, geography becomes an implementation detail. Stakeholders evaluate contribution quality regardless of team location.
What Is the ROI of Building a Nearshore Team?
A 10-person team comparison illustrates the economics. US team at $200,000 average costs $2 million annually. Nearshore team at $95,000 average costs $950,000 annually. Annual savings: $1,050,000 or 52.5%.
These savings fund strategic alternatives: hire 5 additional nearshore developers ($475,000), add 2 product managers ($300,000), scale AWS infrastructure ($200,000), or extend runway by 2-3 quarters.
Recruiting cost reduction adds value. US engineers require $40,000-$50,000 in recruiter fees plus 45-60 days to hire. Nearshore via EOR includes recruiting in the management fee with 7-14 day cycles. For a 10-person team, recruiting savings total $400,000-$500,000.
Retention advantages create compounding value. Each replacement costs 6-9 months of salary in recruiting and onboarding. A 10-person US team incurs $438,000 annually in turnover costs versus $150,000 for nearshore.
Payback periods typically run 3-6 months. Initial investment includes EOR setup ($5,000-$15,000), hardware ($3,500 per developer), and US team time during onboarding. For a 5-person nearshore team, initial investment totals $30,000-$50,000. Monthly savings run $25,000-$40,000.
What Tools Enable Nearshore Team Success?
Strategic tool selection removes friction from distributed collaboration. Use platforms your US team already uses.
Project management: Jira dominates enterprise nearshore implementations. Linear appeals to smaller teams. Azure DevOps serves Microsoft stack teams. Separate tools create information silos.
Code repositories: GitHub dominates due to ubiquity and Copilot integration. Copilot is essential at $10-20/developer/month. Document your exact git workflow: branch naming, merge requirements, protection rules.
CI/CD pipelines: Configure pipelines to run on every PR. Unit tests within 5-10 minutes. Integration tests within 15-20 minutes. Total pipeline execution under 30 minutes prevents context switching.
Security and compliance: VPN access required ($10-15/user/month). Multi-factor authentication ($2-15/user/month). HealthTech requires endpoint detection ($40-80/device/year). FinTech requires SIEM and data loss prevention.
Hardware: Budget $3,500-$4,500 per developer for laptop, monitors, peripherals, UPS backup, and secondary internet.
Frequently Asked Questions About Building Nearshore Teams
These are the most common questions US tech leaders ask about building their first nearshore development team.
How Long Does It Take to Hire Nearshore Developers?
Top nearshore partners present pre-vetted candidates within 24-48 hours and close hires in 7-14 days. This is 3-5x faster than US coastal markets where senior roles take 45-60 days to fill.
What If a Nearshore Developer Does Not Work Out?
Most EOR arrangements include 90-day replacement guarantees. If a developer underperforms during the first 90 days, the partner sources a replacement at no additional recruiting cost. Severance is handled by the EOR.
Do I Need to Provide Equipment for Nearshore Developers?
Yes. Budget $3,500-$4,500 per developer for laptop, monitors, peripherals, UPS backup power, and secondary internet connection. Hardware should arrive before Day 1 so developers start productive immediately.
How Do I Pay Nearshore Developers?
Through your EOR partner. The EOR becomes the legal employer and handles payroll in local currency, tax withholding, benefits administration, and compliance. You pay a single monthly invoice in USD.
Do I Need a Local Entity to Hire in LATAM?
No. The Employer of Record model allows you to hire without establishing a local subsidiary. EOR setup takes 2-3 weeks versus 12-20 weeks for a subsidiary. EOR fees run 15-25% of salary.
What Is the Difference Between Nearshore and Offshore?
Nearshore (LATAM) operates in 0-3 hour time difference from US offices. Offshore (Asia) operates in 10-13 hour difference. Nearshore enables real-time collaboration. Offshore requires asynchronous handoffs that extend timelines 50% and increase coordination costs 2.5x.
How Do I Protect Intellectual Property with Nearshore Teams?
Use US-governed “Work for Hire” contracts that stipulate all code, documentation, and designs remain property of your US parent company. Under USMCA, Mexico provides stronger recourse for IP theft. Ensure your EOR or staffing partner includes IP assignment clauses in all developer contracts.
Ready to Build Your LATAM Engineering Team?
Nearshore Business Solutions sources and vets developers from Mexico City, Guadalajara, Bogota, Medellin, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo. We screen for technical skills, English fluency, and US work style fit. Our acceptance rate is 16%.
Every placement includes a 90-day replacement guarantee. You receive pre-vetted candidates in 2-4 weeks.
Get a free consultation to discuss your hiring needs and receive a custom quote.
