The Mexican tech is forecasted to reach over $4 billion in revenue by the end of 2024. What is more, a variety of other factors, such as abundant tech talent pool, lower developer salaries, the country’s proximity to the USA, and others attract more and more US and European businesses to set up their branches here. Google, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Dell, and many other big tech companies have already done it. But what is the best way to hire developers in Mexico?
Mexican Tech Market Overview
Mexico’s IT industry is the second-largest tech market in Latin America. Its market value jumped to $28 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 10% over the next five years, contributing greatly to the country’s economic development and GDP. Meanwhile, Mexico’s tech ecosystem is notable for its strong government initiatives, tech parks, and startup investments. With around 40 IT clusters and 450 startups, the tech scene is flourishing in Mexico City, Guadalajara, also known as Mexico’s Silicon Valley, and Monterrey.
And here are other advantages of the local tech industry driving the hiring of developers in Mexico:
- Rich tech talent pool. The number of tech specialists in Mexico already amounts to 700,000 people.
- Local developer wages are 3-4 times lower than in the US. In Mexico, middle developers get $35,000 on average; in the USA, their counterparts get $108,193.
- Geographical proximity. Time zones in Mexico — UTC-6, UTC-7, UTC-8 — help local developers better align with US employers in terms of communication and convenient meeting scheduling.
Despite these benefits, not everyone understands how to find developers in Mexico. Let’s take a detailed look at the most common ways of hiring developers in Mexico.
IT Outsourcing
IT outsourcing presupposes full delegation of your software development to an external vendor that has a programming team in place. This option suits best for non-tech companies willing to improve or create a software product from scratch. On the one hand, you will neither need to worry about the hiring, employing, and onboarding of your software team nor supervise the development process. On the other hand:
- you are never sure that you’ll get a high-quality product that meets your expectations at the end of your cooperation with such a vendor;
- you might not know the exact price composition for their services, which often leads to hidden fees;
- you will not be the owner of intellectual property rights over your product and will have to involve a professional lawyer to ensure the safe IP rights transfer.
IT Outstaffing
Another option that allows you to work with Mexican devs is IT outstaffing which means that you will temporarily lease a software developer or a software team from an IT outstaffing vendor to work on your product. For this option, it’s better to have internal development expertise because you will be the one managing these coders. The pros in this case include:
- elimination of the need to hire these developers yourself;
- an opportunity to manage them in-house; hence, better end product quality compared to IT outsourcing.
However, if you want to keep these developers in-house, you will have to pay a hefty but-out fee to your provider which may be several thousands of dollars for one person. Plus, since these coders may work on other projects as well, you can never be sure that your confidential information is 100% secure.
Freelance Programmers
Some websites allow you to search for and hire such developers from Mexico. Freelance is an alternative if you are skilled enough and can interview professionals to determine their competence. However, it’s hard to assemble an effective software team that 100% consists of freelancers. Why? No corporate culture, misaligned processes, and questionable dedication because they work strictly until their contract ends — all this will hinder team building before it even starts.
Where to find freelance developers in Mexico:
- Toptal.
- Upwork.
- PeoplePerhour.
- TechFetch.
- Gun.io.
Your Own R&D Center
Now if you want to hire developers in Mexico in the most effective way, consider your own software R&D center. This is your dedicated remote office staffed with Senior, Lead, and C-level software engineers. This center acts as an extension of your in-house team, with a reliable service provider helping you set it all up, recruit software developers, handle thei employment, payroll, taxes, and other operational functions.
Unlike afore-mentioned models, here:
- you will have direct control over the team and development;
- you won’t have to pay any buy-out fees because your team belongs to you from the start;
- you will be able to promote your corporate culture and align all working processes.
Alcor Solution
Alcor provides comprehensive services to establish software R&D centers for US tech companies in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Our offerings include:
- Recruitment of Senior, Lead, and C-level game developers, who are in high demand globally.
- Employer of Record service, eliminating the need to set up your legal entity abroad while handling employment, payroll, accounting, taxes, and employee benefits.
- Complete operational support, including equipment procurement, office search and lease, stock options assistance, and visa support.
Our success rate is high, with 98.6% of hires passing the probation period and staying with clients for an average of 2.5 years. We also provide a 3-month warranty for candidate replacements if needed. Our clients, including BigCommerce, Sift, Ledger, People.ai, and Dotmatics, have successfully opened R&D centers with our help.
In Conclusion
Mexican tech is growing by leaps and bounds and won’t stop doing this in the near future. Thus, tapping into the local talent pool is a strategically smart decision for each business executive. Hiring Mexican software developers should be advantageous for your business because such a team needs to have A-players who will bring real value to your product. Thus, if you feel that IT outsourcing, IT outstaffing or cooperating with freelancers will not do the deed, own software R&D center is exactly what you’re looking for.
