Hire Backend Developers From Latin America
Experienced Node.js, Python, Java and Go engineers who ship in your time zone and code-review in fluent English, for about 60% less than a US hire. Fill the seat in 21 days or less.
Or browse the back-end roles we hire for
APIs & cloud
Works US hours
- 4+ yrsaverage back-end experience
- 10 daysto your first vetted profiles
- 21 daysor less from kickoff to hire
- 1,100+engineers sourced for every search
Fast-growing AI and SaaS teams that hired through LatamCent
Find the Backend Developer Your Stack Needs
Search by language, framework or cloud, or pick the problem you're solving. Add roles to the cost estimator to see the yearly price of the team in Latin America next to the US.
Nothing matches that search yet. We regularly recruit for back-end stacks that aren't on this page.
Describe the role you needCore back-end languages 8 roles
Node.js Developer
Most requestedBuilds fast APIs and real-time services in JavaScript and TypeScript.
Python Developer
Most requestedShips APIs, background workers and data-heavy services in Python.
Java Developer
Most requestedBuilds dependable, high-throughput services on the JVM.
Writes lean, concurrent services and tooling where speed matters.
Builds back-end services and APIs in the Microsoft stack.
Moves .NET Framework apps to modern, cross-platform .NET.
Builds and maintains PHP products, from Laravel apps to large legacy codebases.
Ships product features quickly in Ruby on Rails.
Specialist & legacy stacks 6 roles
Writes concise, null-safe JVM services with Kotlin.
Builds functional, type-safe back ends and data processing jobs.
Builds fault-tolerant, real-time systems on the BEAM.
Writes memory-safe, high-performance services and infrastructure code.
Runs and extends Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP applications.
Maintains COBOL systems and connects them to modern APIs.
Cloud & serverless 5 roles
AWS Developer
Most requestedBuilds and runs back-end services on Amazon Web Services.
Builds cloud services on Microsoft Azure.
Builds back-end systems on Google Cloud Platform.
Plans and runs cloud infrastructure across one or more providers.
Builds event-driven back ends that scale to zero.
DevOps, containers & reliability 9 roles
DevOps Engineer
Most requestedAutomates builds, tests and deploys so your team ships every day.
Containerizes apps and sets up repeatable dev and prod environments.
Runs and scales container workloads on Kubernetes.
Operates Red Hat OpenShift clusters for enterprise workloads.
Builds the internal platform your product teams deploy on.
Keeps production fast and available, and leads incident response.
Sets up the logs, metrics and traces that show what production is doing.
Designs and maintains networks, servers and cloud foundations.
Manages the Linux systems and tooling your services run on.
APIs & system architecture 4 roles
API Developer
Most requestedDesigns, documents and secures the REST and GraphQL APIs customers and partners use.
Builds GraphQL schemas and gateways that front-end teams love working with.
Splits monoliths into well-bounded services that deploy on their own.
Builds systems that stay correct across many machines and regions.
Data & security 4 roles
Builds the databases and pipelines that move and store your product data.
Builds real-time event pipelines for analytics and product features.
Hardens your infrastructure and gets you ready for SOC 2 and customer audits.
Writes secure code and builds auth, encryption and threat detection into the back end.
Technical leadership 2 roles
Sets technical direction, builds the engineering team and owns delivery.
Coordinates complex back-end projects across teams and deadlines.
Hiring for a stack that isn't listed?
This list covers the back-end roles we recruit most often, not everything we recruit. Send us the language, frameworks and level you need, and a Talent Partner will plan the search with you.
Need someone who owns the front end too? See our full-stack engineers.
What Backend Developers Own in AI and SaaS Products
Everything your customers never see but notice right away when it breaks. Most back-end hires spend their week across these four areas.
APIs & business logic
Designs the endpoints your web app, mobile app and partners call, plus auth, billing rules, webhooks and background jobs.
Data models & storage
Plans schemas and migrations in Postgres, MySQL or MongoDB, adds caching with Redis, and fixes the slow queries before customers feel them.
Cloud & delivery
Runs services on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud with Docker and Terraform, and keeps the CI/CD pipeline shipping several times a day.
Uptime & security
Adds logging, alerts and tracing, takes a turn on call, and closes security gaps that show up in SOC 2 audits and pen tests.
Backend Developer vs DevOps vs SRE vs Platform Engineer
Four titles that often show up in the same job post. Here's where each one earns its salary.
| Compare | Backend developer | DevOps engineer | Site reliability engineer | Platform engineer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main job | Writes the product's server code: APIs, data models and business rules | Automates how code gets built, tested and released | Keeps production fast and available, and leads incident response | Builds the internal tooling other engineers deploy on |
| Measured by | Features shipped, API quality, bug rate | Deploy frequency, lead time, failed releases | Uptime, latency, time to recover | How fast product teams can ship on their own |
| Core tools | Node.js, Python, Java or Go; Postgres; Redis | GitHub Actions, Terraform, Docker, AWS | Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, PagerDuty | Kubernetes, Backstage, Helm, Terraform modules |
| Hire first when | The roadmap is blocked on server-side work | Releases are manual, slow or scary | Customers are noticing outages and slowdowns | You have several teams fighting the same infrastructure |
Why US Companies Hire Backend Developers in Latin America
Back-end work runs on quick handoffs: a pull request waiting on review, a failing deploy, a 3am alert. Each handoff costs a day when your engineers are eight time zones away.
- Pull requests reviewed in hoursYour back-end hire reviews and merges during your workday, so features don't wait overnight to move forward.
- Incidents handled liveWhen production breaks at 11am Eastern, the engineer who wrote the service is online and can jump on the call.
- Deep benches in the stacks AI and SaaS teams run onStrong talent pools in Node.js, Python, Java, .NET and Go, the languages most AI and SaaS products already run on.
Comparing countries? Read our guides to hiring in each Latin American market.
- Mexico City8 of 9 hrs
- Bogotá9 of 9 hrs
- Santiago7 of 9 hrs
- Buenos Aires7 of 9 hrs
- São Paulo7 of 9 hrs
Each city is shown working a standard local 9am to 6pm day. From March to November, US daylight saving time moves the overlap by about an hour.
Backend Developer Salaries: Latin America vs the US
Expect to pay about $54K a year for a back-end developer in Latin America, against roughly $135K for a comparable engineer in the US.
Scaled to a small back-end squad
Two back-end developers and a DevOps engineer come to about $405K a year in US salaries, against roughly $162K in Latin America. Try your own mix in the cost estimator.
Figures use the top 50% of salaries across generalist, cloud-focused and DevOps back-end roles in the region. Senior architects and distributed systems leads earn more. Thinking about sponsoring a visa instead? Run the numbers in our H-1B vs nearshore ROI calculator.
How to Hire a Backend Developer: What to Check
The skills to test, the warning signs, and the questions that show who has run real systems. Useful whether you hire through LatamCent or run the search yourself.
Skills to test for
Language syntax is the easy part. Look for these.
- API design. Clear resources, versioning, pagination, idempotent writes and useful error messages.
- Data modeling. Picks the right indexes, writes safe migrations and can read a query plan.
- Testing. Unit and integration tests that run in CI and catch real regressions.
- Production ownership. Has deployed, monitored and fixed their own services, not handed them off.
- Security basics. Auth, secrets handling, input validation and least-privilege access.
- Written English. Pull request descriptions and design docs a teammate can follow.
Warning signs in interviews
Patterns we filter out before you meet anyone.
- Has never been paged or looked at production logs.
- Can't say why they picked SQL or NoSQL for a past project.
- Pushes for a microservices rewrite before understanding the current system.
- No tests in their code samples, or tests that only mock everything.
- Blames other teams for every outage they describe.
Six questions that show real back-end experience
With the points a strong answer hits.
- Design an API for a feature you know well. How would you version it?Listen for: resource naming, backward compatibility, pagination, auth and how clients get told about changes.
- One endpoint went from 80ms to 2 seconds overnight. Walk me through it.Listen for: checking metrics and recent deploys, query plans, missing indexes, N+1 queries and lock contention.
- How do you add a column to a large production table without downtime?Listen for: expand-and-contract, backfills in batches, feature flags and a rollback plan.
- When would you split a monolith into services, and when not?Listen for: team size, deploy pain and clear domain boundaries; honesty about the operational cost.
- Tell me about an incident you handled. What changed afterwards?Listen for: a calm timeline, root cause, a blameless review and the alert or test they added.
- Explain eventual consistency to our product manager.Listen for: a plain example, what the user would see, and when it matters to the business.
Your Back-End Hire, Day by Day
Talent Partners who recruit back-end engineers every week run your search, so they can tell a strong Go or Java profile from a keyword-stuffed resume.
Scope & sourcing
Once the agreement and retainer are in place, we confirm your stack, seniority and overlap hours, then source 1,100 to 1,700 back-end engineers who fit.
Vetting
Each candidate passes a technical screen, a live coding session in your language, an English assessment and reference checks. The first 3 to 5 profiles usually reach you by day 10.
Interviews & start
You meet the shortlist and choose your developer. We take care of the contract, payroll setup and IP assignment so they can open their first pull request quickly.
Two Ways to Add Back-End Engineers
Choose who employs your developer. Sourcing, vetting and the 21-day timeline don't change.
| Option | Talent as a Service | Direct Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Employer | LatamCent, as contractor of record | Your company |
| Contracts, payroll and local compliance | We run them in the developer's country | You run them |
| If it doesn't work out | Unlimited replacements | Replacement guarantee |
| Best for | Scaling a back-end team without opening entities abroad | Companies with an existing Latin American entity |
LatamCent makes nearshoring feel like an
extension of your AI team
I was blown away because LatamCent was able to find more than one qualified candidate who met all of it. It turned out it wasn’t a unicorn, at least not for you.
As our engineering team in Brazil grew, finding developers with the right experience became difficult.
We had reached a point where contractors were slowing us down instead of helping us scale.
LatamCent made hiring engineers simple.
We needed to scale our engineering and delivery teams fast without sacrificing quality.
Hiring Backend Developers From Latin America
Don't see your question? Ask our team and a Talent Partner will get back to you.
Share the role, your stack and the seniority you need. Our Talent Partners source engineers across the region and put each one through a technical screen, a live coding session, an English assessment and reference checks. You meet a shortlist of vetted developers, and most companies have their hire signed within 21 days.
A back-end developer in Latin America averages about $54K a year in salary, compared with roughly $135K for a similar US engineer, so you save around $81K per hire each year. Architects, distributed systems leads and niche stacks cost more; generalist roles sit near the average.
Nearshore backend development means hiring back-end engineers in nearby countries that share most of your working hours. For US companies that usually means Latin America, where developers can join standups, review code and respond to incidents during your workday.
Most of our placements work in Node.js, Python, Java, Go, C# and .NET, PHP and Ruby, with specialists in Kotlin, Scala, Elixir and Rust. They deploy on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud using Docker, Kubernetes and Terraform.
We fill most back-end roles within 21 days. Vetted profiles typically start arriving around day 10, and your interviews and final pick take one to two weeks after that.
Yes. They live in countries whose working hours overlap most or all of the US workday, so they attend your meetings, review pull requests and handle production issues in real time.
Any level from junior to principal. Juniors (1 to 2 years) take well-scoped tickets, mid-level engineers (3 to 5 years) run a service on their own, seniors (6 to 8 years) lead design and mentor, and leads or principals (9+ years) set the technical direction.
A backend developer writes the server code: APIs, data models and business rules. A DevOps engineer automates how that code is built, tested and released. A site reliability engineer keeps production fast and available and leads incident response. Small teams often hire one engineer who covers the first two.
Freelancers are fine for a contained, one-off job. For work on your core product, a full-time developer builds up knowledge of your codebase and data, ships more over time and owns what they build. Every LatamCent placement is a full-time member of your team.
Yes. We often staff small squads, such as two back-end developers with a DevOps engineer, or a senior lead with API and data specialists. Add the roles to the cost estimator above, then send the squad to us with the form.
The role finder shows the back-end roles we recruit most often, not every one we can fill. Send us the language, frameworks and level you need, and we'll plan the search around it.
We find you a replacement. Talent as a Service includes unlimited replacements, and Direct Hire placements are covered by a replacement guarantee.
Hiring Beyond the Back End?
Tell Us About Your Back-End Hire
Send us the roles and stack. A Talent Partner checks the details with you and starts sourcing, and your first vetted profiles typically arrive within 10 days.
You haven't added roles yet. Pick them in the role finder above, or describe the hire in the form.
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