My read on building our engineering team in Mexico, after the first field conversation with someone who built an India-to-Mexico team at our size. Figures from that conversation are marked as his. Nothing is verified beyond that unless stated.
The big nearshore shops and holding-company agencies are shrinking, currencies have moved against USD-billing margins, and AI has thinned out junior and QA demand. Senior, bilingual, US-facing engineers are more available than they have been in years. A remote, multi-client firm our size entering now is entering at the right time.
The constraint is not talent. It is how we structure employment, benefits and leadership so the people we hire stay.
Mexico is thin in the Apollo screen (17 firms, 3 workable) because the shrinking there is inside the large India and US shops, which the size filter excludes. The field conversation fills that gap.
Promoted by the state for offshore investment since around 2010. TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Bosch, Oracle and Cognizant all have large sites. About 5 million people, international flights, and the cheapest of Mexico's three big cities. Most local consultancies have gone hybrid or on-site, so a fully remote employer stands out.
Closest to the US border, strong industrial base. Harsher climate, higher cost. A credible second Mexican city once the first team is stable.
Deepest pool, highest prices, 15 million people. KogniVera chose it for its Americas hub. Worth having people there; not where the first ten hires should be.
Colombia: Medellín is the nearshore cluster (CodeRoad, Sofka, GAP, Globant, Endava, MAS Global); Bogotá has the agency talent (Huge, OMNI.PRO, Kibernum). Our anchor conversations there continue in parallel.
The peso has moved between roughly 16 and 20 to the dollar in short windows. A USD plan needs margin, and a USD offer that looks fair at 20 looks lavish at 16.
Three ways to hire in Mexico. The practical finding, not the compliance one: with fewer controls, USD contractors routinely work for two companies at once. That argues for a payroll partner from the first engineer, an entity inside the first quarter, and a benefits framework designed before the first offer.
Fast, no setup. No benefits, so we lose on the thing candidates value most. Two-job risk is real. Fine for a first month, not for a team.
Local employment and benefits without our own entity. Charges a percentage of payroll. The right bridge until we are large enough to run it ourselves.
Full control of benefits and compliance. Money moves to a Mexican bank account; the entity pays everyone. BONbLOC ran this. Target inside the first quarter.
Built around 40 mid and senior engineers in Guadalajara for one US retail client: Oracle EBS, Java, DevOps, cloud architects, IAM, DBAs. A local director owned the client relationship and reported to the CEO; the recruiter and engineering lead built the team under him. Entity with a Mexican bank account paid salaries and benefits.
It did not fail on hiring. It failed on two choices: one client, whose requisitions stopped when they leaned into AI; and a fixed office at about $5,000 a month that became unaffordable when the peso strengthened. When the client's Indian acquisitions underperformed, BONbLOC kept the billing engineers and removed HR.
We avoid both by design: remote, and a multi-client book.
Mexico City hub for the Americas opened this year. LATAM talent acquisition lead hired early 2024; Director of Technology LATAM added 2025. Same sequence: recruiter first, engineering leader second.
| 12 October | After the field conversation |
|---|---|
| One regional leader hired first, builds everything | Recruiter plus local head of engineering first; regional ownership stays with Ankur and Bassam until the team is standing |
| Contractors, entity later | Payroll partner from engineer one, entity inside the first quarter |
| Benefits designed after 10 to 15 hires | Benefits framework before the first offer, designed locally |
| Engineers report to India until the team is large | Local head of engineering early, so Bassam is not the bottleneck |
| Mexico or Colombia | Guadalajara first; Medellín and Bogotá conversations continue |
| 30 days to the first hire | Realistic for the recruiter seat; the head of engineering follows in the next 30 to 60 days |
Strong fit for the recruiter and people-ops role. The setup knowledge, the network, the availability and the hunger are all real, and his own unprompted first 30 days are the right ones: source a head of engineering and the open requisitions now, stand up a payroll partner in parallel, design benefits locally.
Oracle and Cognizant Guadalajara layoffs (he says around 400 and 200). The current peso rate. The 70,000 to 120,000 peso band against two or three live offers. BONbLOC's actual headcount and client concentration. His references at BONbLOC and the Ohio firm.
Sources: Apollo.io peer screen of 197 firms (12 Oct 2026); LATAM distressed agency talent map; field conversation 14 Oct 2026. Press coverage of KogniVera's Mexico City hub (El CEO, Crónica, 2026).