Staff augmentation with senior LatAm engineers.
Engineers join your team on US hours and work in your tools. Awana is the contractor of record: we recruit them, pay them and keep every contract compliant.
We took a frontier AI lab to 50 engineers in three months.
You
- Set the scope, the priorities and the quality bar
- Direct the daily work in your repos, tools and sprints
- Pay one invoice a month
Awana
- Recruits and vets every engineer
- Pays each engineer in their country
- Carries contracts and compliance as contractor of record
- Names one lead who answers for the team
From the first call to a working team.
- Day 1
Scoping call
Thirty minutes on the roles, the seniority, your stack and your bar.
- By day 5
Vetted shortlist
Engineers who passed a live technical interview, a take-home, an English screen and reference checks. Roughly 1 in 40 make it.
- About week 3
You choose
You interview and pick. We set up the contracts.
- Every month after
We run it
Payroll, benefits, compliance and retention, in each engineer's country.
What you sign and what you pay.
The terms a procurement or finance team asks for first.
- Contract with
- Hire Llama Inc., the Florida company that operates Awana. United States-led.
- Engineer cost
- $4,500 to 8,500 a month for a senior engineer in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina or Colombia. About 50% below an equivalent US hire.
- Fee
- A monthly fee set by team size. You get the exact figure after the scoping call, before you sign anything.
- It covers
- Recruiting, contracts, payroll, benefits, compliance and retention support.
- Invoice
- One a month, in US dollars, from a US company.
- Local entity
- None needed. Awana is the contractor of record in each country.
- Team size
- Add or remove engineers without a new contract.
- Access
- Engineers work in your repos, tools and sprints, under your access rules.
- NDA
- Each engineer signs your NDA before getting access.
- Guarantee
- Every hire carries the three-month replacement guarantee.
- Direct hire
- After three months you can move an engineer to direct hire.
Awana is a contractor of record, not an employer of record. What the difference means. For a security or procurement review: Security and contracting.
A frontier AI lab: 50 engineers in three months.
We do not publish the lab's name.
Coperniq, a Y Combinator-backed company, built its LatAm engineering team with us. We ran recruiting, compliance, payroll and ongoing management. Read the case study.
"We partnered with Awana for multiple years to source engineering roles and UI design projects with consistently excellent results. The team is professional, responsive, and a pleasure to work with, highly recommend."
- 500+ engineers placed with US companies since 2020
- 98% of hires stay past the three-month guarantee
- 200+ US companies served
- Roughly 1 in 40 engineers make it through our vetting
- About 50% below US compensation for the same seniority
- 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot
Figures cover every Awana placement, direct hire and staff augmentation together.
Staff augmentation or direct hire.
Same engineers, same vetting. The difference is who holds the contract.
| Term | Staff augmentation | Direct hire |
|---|---|---|
| The engineer contracts with | Awana, as contractor of record | You |
| You pay | A monthly fee set by team size | One fee, 15 to 25% of first-year compensation |
| Payroll and compliance | Awana | You, with our country templates |
| Guarantee | Three-month replacement | Three-month replacement |
| Fits when | You want the team without the employment admin | You have people to run contracts and payroll |
More on direct hire. Contract-to-hire starts with no upfront fee and a buyout price agreed before day one.
The same service staffs AI-training teams.
Pods for AI labs and data vendors run on this contractor-of-record service, with calibration and quality checks on top.
Human data for AI labs
Calibrated engineers for preference data, rubric grading and agent evaluation, inside your tools and access rules.
Human dataCoding benchmark pods
Engineers who write, solve and grade repo-level benchmark tasks. A one-week paid trial.
Benchmark podsPrivate-equity portfolios
One master agreement covers every portfolio company, with a quarterly report to the fund.
Portfolio programWho you talk to.
Calvin Sedao
CEO and Co-Founder, Seattle
Founded Awana in 2020 after building a point-of-sale company with a Venezuelan engineering team.
Javier Dutan
Co-Founder and COO, New York
Former White House US Digital Service.
One lead answers for your team from the first call. Awana is United States-led, and its leadership holds an active US security clearance. Calls book on Calvin's calendar.
Questions engineering and procurement teams ask.
What is a contractor of record?
Awana contracts with each engineer in their own country, pays them and carries the local compliance. The engineer works on your team full time. An employer of record employs someone you have already found. We also find and vet the engineer. Contractor of record and employer of record compared.
How is the fee set?
By team size. It is a monthly fee that covers recruiting, contracts, payroll, benefits and compliance. You get the exact figure after the scoping call, before you sign anything.
How fast can a team start?
A vetted shortlist arrives in five business days, and most engineers are signed in about three weeks. At team scale, we took a frontier AI lab to 50 engineers in three months.
Do we need a legal entity in Latin America?
No. Awana is the contractor of record in each country.
Who is our contract with?
Hire Llama Inc., the Florida company that operates Awana. You get one invoice a month, in US dollars.
Can we move an engineer onto our own contract?
Yes. After three months you can switch an engineer to direct hire.
What if an engineer is not working out?
Every hire carries a three-month replacement guarantee. 98% of our hires stay past it.
Which roles do you staff?
Frontend, backend and full-stack engineers, DevOps, data, QA and UX/UI, plus AI and machine-learning engineers and AI evaluators.
How do engineers get access to our systems?
Through your SSO, in your repos and tools, under your access rules. Each engineer signs your NDA first.
Where are the engineers?
Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia first, then Chile, Costa Rica, Peru and Uruguay. They work in US time zones.
Do you staff AI-training and evaluation teams?
Yes. Coding-benchmark pods run on this same service, and we staff calibrated evaluators for AI labs. See Human Data for AI Labs and Coding Benchmark Pods.
Tell us the team you need.
Thirty minutes on the roles and the timeline. The exact fee follows in writing.
Other ways to work with Awana: Direct hire · Contract-to-hire · Technical screening · All services