Engineering talent
Senior engineers who deliver - Typically 40-60% lower, fully loaded.
Full-stack, backend, mobile, DevOps, data, and ML engineers based in South Africa. English-native, overlapping US hours, and hired under a compliant EOR - no entity required.
Roles we place
Every engineering seat, from IC to staff.
Full-stack engineers
React/Next.js + Node, Python, or Go. Ship product end-to-end without waiting on hand-offs.
Backend engineers
Node, Python, Go, Java, .NET. API design, distributed systems, and production reliability.
Mobile engineers
React Native, Swift, and Kotlin engineers who ship to real users, not just prototypes.
DevOps & platform
AWS, GCP, Azure. Terraform, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and observability that actually works.
Data engineers
Airflow, dbt, Snowflake, BigQuery. Pipelines that finance and product can trust.
ML & AI engineers
LLM apps, RAG, fine-tuning, and classical ML - with production shipping experience.
Live bench
Profiles already in our pipeline.
Real candidates, lightly anonymised. Full CVs, references, and salary expectations shared after an NDA.
Senior Backend Engineer
8 yrs · ex-fintech · available in 3 weeks
Built core ledger APIs processing $2B+ annually at a South African fintech.
Staff Full-Stack Engineer
10 yrs · ex-e-commerce · available in 2 weeks
Led a team of 6 shipping a checkout platform used by 4M+ monthly active users.
Senior Data Engineer
7 yrs · ex-insurtech · available in 4 weeks
Replaced a brittle ETL estate with modern pipelines, cutting reporting latency from days to minutes.
Stacks we hire against
Deep bench across modern web, cloud, mobile, and data. Tell us your stack - we've placed for it.
- TypeScript / React / Next.js
- Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, Java, .NET
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis
- AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare
- Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform
- React Native, Swift, Kotlin
- Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks
- OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, vector DBs
Why South African engineers
- English-native communication across code reviews, PRs, and Slack
- Overlaps with US Eastern hours through early afternoon Pacific
- Strong CS education pipeline (UCT, Wits, Stellenbosch)
- Deep pool of remote-first engineers already working with US and UK companies
- Common law and IP frameworks familiar to US legal teams
- Typically 40-60% lower, fully loaded
Salary benchmarks
Fully-loaded cost, US vs South Africa.
| Role | US total cost | SA via EMPLOI |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-level engineer (3–5 yrs) | $130k–$170k | $45k–$62k |
| Senior engineer (5–8 yrs) | $170k–$220k | $62k–$85k |
| Staff engineer (8+ yrs) | $220k–$300k | $85k–$115k |
| DevOps / SRE (senior) | $180k–$240k | $65k–$95k |
| Data engineer (senior) | $170k–$220k | $60k–$88k |
USD, fully-loaded (salary + taxes + benefits + EMPLOI platform fee). Indicative ranges - actual bands depend on stack, seniority, and location.
“We needed a senior backend engineer who could own our payments work from day one. EMPLOI shortlist had three qualified candidates within a week. We made an offer eight days later.”
Daniel R.
CTO, US payroll SaaS · 14-person engineering team
Ready to hire?
Shortlist in your inbox this week.
Book a 30-minute intake. We'll scope the role, align on the band, and start sourcing within 48 hours.