Hiring LATAM Engineers: What 45 Million Code Profiles Reveal

Jose De Cabo shares insights on hiring elite LATAM engineering talent from his 15+ years building software teams across Latin America.

LATAM Software Developers — The Talent Pool Most Companies Overlook

When Jose De Cabo started hiring engineers in Latin America in 2010, US venture capitalists told him he was making a mistake. "You need the team here in New York," they said. Fifteen years later, his company Remotely manages 500+ senior LATAM developers with a team of just 30 people — and demand is at an all-time high.

The reason is straightforward: Latin America has a massive, mature tech ecosystem that most US companies still underestimate. Mercado Libre is a $60B+ public company. Nubank, Rappi, and dozens of scale-ups have produced thousands of engineers who've shipped production software to millions of users. And they share your time zone.

"Talent is evenly distributed," says De Cabo. "Latam has the same time zone, which is super valuable when you're building fast. And you have a great ecosystem of tech companies — engineers who've seen it, done it, and are technically really good."

Transparent Staffing: Why 100% Markups Are Dying

De Cabo didn't come from the staffing world — he entered it four years ago with fresh eyes and an engineer's instinct to fix broken systems. What he found shocked him.

"Imagine someone doing 100% of the work, and for every $100 the company pays, only $30 goes to the person. That doesn't make any sense." — Jose De Cabo

So he flipped the model. At Remotely, developers set their own rate. The company adds a fixed, transparent fee on top — not a percentage. Give your developer a raise? Remotely doesn't get a cut. The second-order effect was immediate: the most senior talent in Latin America gravitated to the platform because it respected their value.

"We attracted much more senior talent than any agency or staffing firm because the best talent was like, yes, this is a model I like — getting the best of both worlds."

Open-Source Code Audits: Hiring Based on Actual Work

Most hiring still runs on self-reported LinkedIn profiles and recruiter gut feel. De Cabo built something different. Remotely analyzed every line of code committed to open-source repositories since the beginning of Git — 45 million developer profiles, fully mapped.

"We went really deep into all Git repositories. In open source since the beginning of Git, analyzed every line of code. From there, we analyzed who is who in open source, then triangulated who is in Latin America." — Jose De Cabo

The result: when Remotely vets a candidate, they're not relying on what the developer claims they can do. They're looking at what they've actually built. Out of thousands vetted monthly, only 2-3% make the cut — engineers with 7+ years of experience and architect-level capability.

AI Workforce Orchestration: The Engineer of Tomorrow

Despite predictions that AI would reduce demand for developers, De Cabo is seeing the opposite. Senior engineer demand is at its highest peak. The reason? AI made good engineers dramatically more productive — so companies want more of them, not fewer.

But the nature of the work is changing fast. Remotely already runs a hybrid human-agent workforce internally, including an AI chief of staff that helps with strategic decisions.

"The concept of coding is going to fully disappear. Engineers are going to be orchestrators — they know how the underlying technology works, so they're able to really see what's going on. Skills are converging. Engineers will be great product managers and great designers because they're using AI to compensate where they're not so strong." — Jose De Cabo

The bottleneck has shifted from "can we build this?" to "who validates the output and decides what to build next?" That's a fundamentally different skill — and it's one that senior LATAM engineers, with their deep technical foundations, are uniquely positioned to fill.

The Bottom Line

The companies winning the LATAM software developer talent race aren't using staffing agencies with 100% markups and recruiter cold calls. They're working with technology-driven partners who vet based on actual code, price transparently, and adapt as AI reshapes what engineering teams look like. The talent pool is world-class. The time zone alignment is unbeatable. The only question is whether you're still hiring like it's 2015.

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About Jose De Cabo

Jose De Cabo is the founder of Remotely, a Columbia Business School grad and serial entrepreneur who has been building engineering teams across Latin America since 2010. His company employs 500+ senior developers with a team of 30.

Listen to the full episode: Human Cloud Podcast on Spotify

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This article was adapted from the Human Cloud Podcast. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.