Hire Top 1% Latin American Engineers
in Under 5 Days

Q: How much does it cost?

Two models. Direct hire: one-time placement fee, you pay the engineer directly afterward. Staff augmentation: monthly managed rate covering contracts, compliance, and payroll. Either way, total cost lands ~50% below an equivalent US hire. Custom quote on the discovery call.

Q: How is Awana different from Toptal or an EOR?

Marketplaces hand you a list - we deliver a shortlist. Our team has built engineering orgs from inside (Calvin scaled teams pre-Awana), so we know what a real fit looks like. We're not an EOR by default, but we partner with one if you need formal employment in a specific country.

Half the cost of a US hire. Same timezone as your team. Vetted senior engineers, first shortlist in five business days, three-month replacement guarantee if it doesn't work out. Real operators pick up. No sales pitch.

Compare LatAm vs US salaries

Trustpilot

★

4.9 · Excellent

5d Avg. time to first
candidates

98% Placement
success rate

50% Cost savings
vs. US hiring Compare salaries

200+ Teams built
across LatAm

Trusted by founders from 200+ fast-growing US companies

Don't take our word for it.

"Awana quickly helped us refine our profile, then source, interview, and hire. We spoke with half a dozen candidates, and all of them were high quality."

Andy Trattner

Co-Founder, Shuffle

"Awana will help you find engineers south of the border, they'll be in your timezone, speak English, and become an integral part of your team. Within a few weeks, we found the candidate we wanted to hire."

James Norman

CEO, Pilotly

"Awana got us our first female engineer with 5+ years experience. We'd been looking for years. She launched our most important product of the year!"

Christina Hawatmeh

CEO, Scopio

Five days.
Here's exactly how.

Discovery

Understand your needs. Real conversation.

Source

We search our LatAm network. Only the top 5% make the cut.

Present

Vetted shortlist on your desk. Ready to interview.

Hire

Onboarding + support. Replacement guarantee.

Awana vs. traditional
US hiring.

	Awana	Traditional US Hiring
Time to hire	5 business days	6-12 weeks
Cost vs US equivalent	~50% lower	Full US market rate
Time-zone overlap	Full US overlap (GMT-3 to GMT-8)	Varies
Placement guarantee	✓ Free replacement	None
Vetting process	Technical + culture + background	Resume review only

Skip the reading. Talk to a real operator.

Get in Touch Browse engineers by role

Three ways to build
your team. Pick what fits.

Recruiting

Build your core team full-time. Top LatAm engineers at half the US cost.

Vetted freelance team from Latin America

Freelance Teams

Vetted freelancers for surge projects. Flexible. Fast. Reliable.

Managed talent operations for remote startups

Staff Augmentation

We handle recruiting, compliance, payroll. Zero headaches.

Hiring intel, on us.

Real data and playbooks from 200+ LatAm placements. No email walls. No fluff.

Data Report

LatAm Compensation Report

Benchmark engineering salaries by country, role, and stack. Updated quarterly with real placement data.

Download Free

Playbook

Hire from LatAm Guide

The full-cycle playbook: where to source, how to vet, what to pay, what to avoid.

Read the guide Free

Industry Report

AI Skills Report

Which AI/ML roles are scaling, what they earn, and where the LatAm talent is.

Read the report Free

Browse all free resources

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Things founders ask us
before they hire.

How fast can I actually hire?

First candidates land on your desk in 5 business days. Most clients are interviewing within a week and have signed offers within 21 days, end to end. If your role is very specialized, expect 2-3 weeks for the first shortlist.

How do you vet engineers?

Four steps: a live technical interview, a role-specific take-home (~4 hours), an English fluency screen, and reference checks. Roughly 1 in 40 sourced candidates make it through. Our placement success rate is 98%. For senior Latin American engineers we go deeper on system design. For AI Evaluator roles we add a calibration test, bilingual raters for RLHF and red-teaming.

What if the engineer doesn't work out?

3-month replacement guarantee. If the engineer leaves or it's not a fit within the first 90 days, we replace them at no extra cost. Most replacements are sourced within 2 weeks because we already know your role and team.

How much does it cost?

Two models. Direct hire: one-time placement fee, you pay the Latin American engineer directly at their local salary, no monthly markup. Staff augmentation: monthly managed rate covering contracts, compliance, and payroll. Either way, total cost lands ~50% below an equivalent US hire. See the salary data or get a custom quote on the discovery call.

What time zones do your engineers work in?

All within UTC-3 to UTC-6, with full overlap on US business hours. Your engineer joins your stand-ups, attends afternoon meetings, and ships in your sprint. No async-only friction, no graveyard-shift fatigue.

Where in Latin America do you source from?

Primary markets: Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, and Ecuador. We've placed engineers from Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Venezuela when the role calls for it. We don't lock you to a country, we go where the best fit is.

How is Awana different from Toptal or an EOR?

Marketplaces hand you a list, we deliver a shortlist. Our team has built engineering orgs from inside (Calvin scaled teams pre-Awana), so we know what a real fit looks like. We're not an EOR by default, but we partner with one if you need formal employment in a specific country. Deep dive: Direct Hire vs EOR, BairesDev alternatives, and the 8 best LatAm recruiting agencies compared.

Have a question we didn't answer? Send us your question

Let's get your
team built.

30-minute call. We scope your role, you meet the process. No pressure.

Get in Touch

No commitment · Replacement guarantee · 98% success rate

Hire Top 1% Latin American Engineersin Under 5 Days