Now placing Backend Engineers

Hire Top 1% Latin American Engineersin 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. Vetted senior developers and engineers on your desk in five business days, replacement guaranteed.

Compare LatAm vs US salaries

Trustpilot

★

4.7 · Excellent

Senior Backend Engineer

Bogotá, Colombia · GMT‑5

Vetted

Node.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLAWSKubernetes

Experience

8 yrs

English

C1 fluent

Available

2 weeks

US hours shared9 of 9

Live technical + take-home + references See profiles

Illustrative profiles. Every shortlist is built for your role.

Avg. time to first
candidates

98%

Placement
success rate

50%

Cost savings
vs. US hiring

200+

Teams built
across LatAm

Trusted by founders from 200+ fast-growing US companies

Founders on Awana

Don't take our word for it.

★★★★★

"Awana has been a crucial partner in helping us hire for key roles at our company. Their thorough vetting process consistently delivers highly qualified candidates who are a strong fit for our needs."

FX Replay

Client · United States · via Trustpilot

How we vet

Roughly 1 in 40 make it through.

Every shortlist goes through the same four gates before it reaches your desk.

40 sourced. 1 shortlisted.

01
Live technical interview
A real conversation about real work, in your stack.
02
Role-specific take-home
About four hours. Built for the role, not a generic test.
03
English fluency screen
Verified live, so stand-ups and reviews run without friction.
04
Reference checks
We talk to people they have actually shipped with.

How it works

Five days.
Here's exactly how.

One operator runs your search end to end.

Get Started

Step 01

Discovery

Understand your needs. Real conversation.

30-minute call with an operator

Step 02

Source

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

Live technical interview + take-home

Step 03

Present

Vetted shortlist on your desk. Ready to interview.

First candidates by day 5

Step 04

Hire

Onboarding + support. Replacement guarantee.

3-month replacement guarantee

Dev-first

Built like a tool. Run by operators.

A search, as a command

Live now

What a vetted senior looks like

Pass rate

1 in 40

Every shortlist clears four gates: live technical interview, role take-home, English screen and references.

Case study

The first time we told a client: we can't help you.

Their team dynamic would have churned any hire within six months, so we said fix that first. 34 days to hire. Still there.

How we work

Side by side

Awana vs. traditional
US hiring.

The average US hiring cycle runs 6 to 12 weeks. Ours runs five business days.

	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

Run your numbers

What your team costs here, and there.

What we do

Three ways to build
your team. Pick what fits.

Recruiting

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

Freelance Teams

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

Staff Augmentation

We handle recruiting, compliance, payroll. Zero headaches.

Free resources

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

Fresh from the blog.

All articles

Country Guide, Brazil

How to Hire Developers in Brazil: The 2026 Guide for US Startups

759,000 developers, the deepest senior pool in LatAm. The CLT vs PJ decision tree done honestly, the Nubank alumni pipeline, and full US East Coast overlap year-round.

2026-09-14, 13 min read Read

Country Guide, Colombia

How to Hire Developers in Colombia: The 2026 Guide for US Startups

110,000+ senior engineers, GMT‑5 timezone that matches US Eastern year-round, salaries 50 to 65 percent below US rates. What Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali actually offer.

2026-09-04, 12 min read Read

Country Guide, Argentina

How to Hire Developers in Argentina: The 2026 Guide for US Startups

Ley 27.802 rewrote contractor legality in March 2026. Peso volatility means USD payment is not negotiable. The MercadoLibre and Globant pipeline explained.

2026-08-31, 13 min read Read

FAQ

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

Hire Top 1% Latin American Engineersin Under 5 Days

Don't take our word for it.

Roughly 1 in 40 make it through.

Live technical interview

Role-specific take-home

English fluency screen

Reference checks

Five days.Here's exactly how.