How to get ready to hire in LATAM so the process actually works
Most failed LATAM hires fail because the company started the process before it was ready. This is the prep work that separates a great hire from a painful one.
Why it matters
Hiring in LATAM is one of the best moves a company can make. You get exceptional people, real time zone overlap, and costs that free up budget for growth, but none of that shows up if you skip the prep. The companies that win are the ones that know exactly what they want before they talk to a single candidate.
This post walks through the three things you need to get right before you start: a compensation offer that makes sense, a job description that filters for you, and an interview process that de-risks the hire.
Who this is for: Brand and agency founders and operators hiring team members in LATAM, who want to get it right instead of learning the hard way.
I chatted with Leandro Cabrini, founder of Proppel, to break this one down. Proppel builds remote LATAM teams for US brands and agencies, so he's seen exactly what separates a great hire from a painful one.
Over the hundreds of LATAM teams Leandro’s built, he’s seen a consistent pattern: The hires that work start with a founder who did the boring work upfront. They knew the salary, they knew what success looked like, and they had a process ready before the first call.
The hires that go wrong almost always trace back to the opposite: a vague role, a lowball offer, and an interview process invented on the fly.
No matter what market you’re in, remember: hiring is a two-way street. The best candidates in LATAM have options, and they're evaluating you just as hard as you're evaluating them. Your prep is the first signal they get about what it's like to work with you.
So before you post a role, get these three things right.
1. Build an offer that actually makes sense
Comp is where most people either overthink it or underthink it, and both will cost you.
Know the real ranges
You don't need to guess. Here's roughly what things cost for a full-time permanent hire working only for you, 40 hours a week:
Execution work: $1,000 to $3,000 a month. The person is handed clear direction and delivers against it. They own the doing, not the deciding. Success is the quality and speed of the output, and the work usually follows a process or playbook that already exists. These folks will run the campaigns as briefed, edit the videos, produce the designs, and build what's been specced.
Strategic or senior work: $3,000 to $6,000 a month, sometimes more. The person decides what to do, not just how to do it. They own outcomes, set the direction, handle ambiguity, and often lead other people. Success is measured in business results. People in these roles own the plan, make the calls, and own accountability for whether it works.
The same job can move between these two buckets depending on how much you hand over. The more a person decides for themselves, the higher up the range they sit.
As a rule of thumb, any execution role that can be done fully remotely can and should be hired in LATAM. Strategic roles work too, but because they’re harder to find and command higher salaries, you need to be ready to pay more.
Understand what pushes a salary up
Not every role needs the top of the range. In Leandro’s experience, a few things move the number:
Previous US company experience. Everyone asks for it by default, but you don't need it for certain junior roles or when you have someone internally who can train the hire. Candidates without US experience are usually highly motivated and deeply committed, and they cost less.
Specific software requirements. If the role needs tools that aren't widely used in LATAM, salaries go up. Shopify and Klaviyo are good examples. They're everywhere in the US but less common in LATAM, so the candidates who already know them usually have US experience, which pushes their salary expectations higher.
Client-facing responsibilities. Roles with direct client communication need strong English, confidence, and cultural alignment. Those requirements tend to overlap with US experience, and they come with a higher range.
How much you can train and support. Your internal structure matters more than most companies realize. If you have the time, documentation, and team capacity to onboard someone properly, you can hire slightly less experience and grow them into the role. If you need someone to hit the ground running with minimal onboarding, expect to pay a premium for that readiness.
The level of autonomy you need. A true owner who runs a function on their own costs more than a doer who executes against clear instructions.
Be honest about which of these you actually need. Paying for US experience or niche tools you don't require is money better spent elsewhere.
PTO and benefits are not optional if you want to keep people
Here's where a lot of companies get it wrong. If you're hiring in LATAM as contractors, you're not legally required to offer PTO, paid holidays, or benefits. They're not employees in a legal sense.
But “not required” and “not necessary” are very different things.
If you want top talent, your offer has to match their level. PTO and holidays matter a lot. All else being equal, most people choose the role that offers time off over the one that offers none.
There's a retention angle too. Someone might accept a role with no PTO because they need the job, but that isn't sustainable. Burnout usually shows up within 3 to 6 months, and replacing someone costs far more than giving them a reasonable amount of time off from the start.
So treat your overseas hires as close to your local employees as possible. Leandro’s baseline recommendation is at least 10 days of PTO, plus the US holidays your local team gets. That alone creates alignment, loyalty, and a real sense of belonging.
You can also add simple benefits without setting up international healthcare. As an example, a wellness allowance is the easiest win. An extra $200 a month toward the gym, therapy, health, or whatever the person values does a lot for how they feel about working with you. It's cheap for you and signals that you actually care.
Small point that saves headaches: many LATAM professionals actually prefer to work as contractors, because it gives them higher take-home pay. So don't assume “employee” is always the more attractive offer.
No fluff, no recycled ChatGPT advice, no theory from people who've never run the process themselves.
Just the exact prep work, templates, and frameworks that separate a great hire (or a great funnel, or a great creative system) from a painful one.
2. Write a job description that filters for you
A clear job description is the difference between a clean process and a messy one. Clarity upfront drives better candidates, better interviews, and better decisions.
When a JD is vague, generic, or copied from Google or ChatGPT, the process breaks down later. You get the wrong applicants, your interviews wander, and your own team isn't even aligned on what you're hiring for.
Here's how Leandro recommends writing one.
Share context about the company and team. You don't need a long “About us.” Just cover what your company does in simple terms, who the person will work with, and why this role exists now. LATAM candidates care a lot about stability, growth, and purpose. Context helps them buy into the opportunity.
Be clear on the outcome, not just the tasks. Instead of listing a to-do list, describe what success looks like. Ask yourself: What problems will this person solve? What will they own? What should they have achieved after 3 to 6 months? This helps strong candidates self select and quickly understand if the role is right for them.
Define the core responsibilities – and only the core ones. Aim for 5 to 8, written in plain language and ordered by importance. Don't dump every task your team might ever need. If everything is a priority, nothing is.
Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves. The most common mistake is building a wishlist unicorn. Must-haves are the non-negotiable skills to do the job well. Nice-to-haves are things that would help but can be learned on the job. This matters even more in LATAM, where you'll find high-potential candidates who won't tick every single box but will outperform the ones who do.
Be specific about experience and seniority. Remove vague phrases like “strong experience,” “senior mindset,” or “fast-paced environment.” Say how many years you're looking for (as a guideline, not a hard filter), how much autonomy you expect, and whether this is an execution role or a strategic one.
Include tools, software, and working style. Candidates want to know what tools they'll actually work with day to day. Be clear on the tools and platforms, whether the role is async or meeting-heavy, and your time zone expectations. This builds trust and aligns expectations from both sides early.
Be upfront about benefits. Include how you're hiring (contractor vs. employee), PTO, holidays, and anything else you offer. Transparency builds trust and stops you from wasting time on misaligned expectations.
The test for a good JD: could a strong candidate read it and know, in two minutes, whether this role is for them? If yes, it's doing its job.
Building a JD or comp package right now? Let your AI pull straight from the Founders knowledge base with Foxwell MCP.
3. Design an interview process that de-risks the hire
Once the offer and the JD are ready, you need a process that tells you whether someone can actually do the work. There are many ways to do this, but this is the one that works best with Leandro’s clients and what he uses internally.
First interview: get to know each other
This is where you check cultural fit and communication style, understand the candidate's background, motivations, and career goals beyond the CV, and share more about your business, your team, and why this role exists. Make sure you clearly explain the problems this person will solve. Remember, they're interviewing you too.
Keep it human and don’t interrogate.
Test project: see the work, not the words
A test project is one of the best ways to validate whether someone can actually do the job. This is the step some companies skip, and it's the one that saves you from the expensive mistakes.
Keep it realistic, not hypothetical. Use data or files similar to what the person would actually work with. It should be clear, specific, and well scoped. You're trying to answer a few key questions: Can they do the work? Can they follow instructions and communicate clearly? Do they think the way you need them to?
One rule we hold: respect their time. A good test project is focused and small enough to be fair. If you're asking for real, usable work, consider paying for it. It signals respect and it's exactly the kind of thing top candidates notice.
Second interview: pressure-test the thinking
The second interview is usually the final step. Use it to review the test project together, have the candidate walk you through their thinking and the decisions they made, ask any technical or role-specific questions, and clear up remaining doubts.
Pay close attention to how they explain their work, not just the final output. The output tells you what they did. The explanation tells you how they think and whether they'll keep making good calls when you're not in the room.
One thing to add: move quickly
The process above works, but only if you run it with urgency. The best candidates come off the market fast. If you take forever to make a decision, you'll lose them to a company that didn't. A tight, respectful, intentional process that moves is itself a competitive advantage.
Put it together before you go live
Before you open a single application, you should be able to answer these:
What's the salary range, and what am I actually paying for?
What PTO and benefits am I offering, and would I take this deal myself?
What does success look like in this role at 3 and 6 months?
What are my true must-haves versus nice-to-haves?
What's my test project, and what will it tell me?
How fast can I move from first call to offer?
If you can answer all six, you're ready. If you can't, you're not. Starting with any ambiguity is how good hires slip through your fingers.
Final thoughts
There's an incredible amount of talent in LATAM, and the pool keeps getting deeper. Show up prepared enough to attract them, evaluate them properly, and keep them.
Get the offer right, write a JD that does the filtering for you, and run a process that shows you the real work. Slow down before you start so you can move fast once you do, and you’ll be successful at hiring in LATAM.
If you’re not sure where to start, Proppel is a fantastic recruitment service that’s hooked up lots of community members with incredible talent. Check them out and tell them Andrew sent you.
Hiring right is one thing. Managing, retaining, and scaling that team is another. Join Foxwell Founders for both sides of the playbook.
