The people you want
already have a job.

We headhunt employed senior professionals across Latin America and the Philippines, then vet them the way we vet our own hires.

Start a searchHow a search runs
$1,000 deposit to start
3 in 21 days shortlist
20% of first-year base
90 days replacement
Diana C.
Diana C.
Strategy · LATAM growth · ChatGPT-native
Lima, Peru
Marcela P.
Marcela P.
Enterprise retention · CRM · Salesforce
Bogotá, Colombia
Camila V.
Camila V.
QBRs · Power BI · HubSpot
Medellín, Colombia
Nicolas R.
Nicolas R.
SaaS lifecycle · renewals · Salesforce
Medellín, Colombia
Ingrid M.
Ingrid M.
Trilingual · UK/EU/CA · multilingual ops
Bogotá, Colombia
Jose A.
Jose A.
Operations · KPI delivery · escalations
Bogotá, Colombia
Laura B.
Laura B.
Editorial · campaigns · Looker Studio
Medellín, Colombia
Diana C.
Diana C.
Strategy · LATAM growth · ChatGPT-native
Lima, Peru
Marcela P.
Marcela P.
Enterprise retention · CRM · Salesforce
Bogotá, Colombia
Camila V.
Camila V.
QBRs · Power BI · HubSpot
Medellín, Colombia
Nicolas R.
Nicolas R.
SaaS lifecycle · renewals · Salesforce
Medellín, Colombia
Ingrid M.
Ingrid M.
Trilingual · UK/EU/CA · multilingual ops
Bogotá, Colombia
Jose A.
Jose A.
Operations · KPI delivery · escalations
Bogotá, Colombia
Laura B.
Laura B.
Editorial · campaigns · Looker Studio
Medellín, Colombia

Where we find people, how we check them, and the hours they work.

The people you want are not on job boards.

A job post reaches the one in ten who is looking. We map the market and go straight to the nine who are not.

Employed, not looking9 in 10
Answering job posts1 in 10

We check them like we would hire them.

The same scorecard, working session and reference calls we run on our own hires. You meet the ones we would have taken ourselves.

Owns the outcome
Written clarity
Judgment under load
Client-ready English
Stays three years

They work your hours.

Where the hire sits does not matter. If overlap matters for the seat, the hours go in the brief and are agreed with them before you ever meet — and they hold, wherever the person lives.

Medellín · Bogotá8 hours shared
ManilaNight shift covered

What clients say after the hire.

Deepak
Search started: June 2026
They helped me find one of the most talented assistants ever — she quickly became our head of operations. This has saved me probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in just wasted time, increased productivity, and additional revenue for my business.
Aaron R.Powerhouse
I was definitely skeptical, but it is incredible who they found for us. Andy is like one of our friends now.
Vela gave us exactly what we needed. They found someone with all the qualifications we were looking for, and Andres has been a really strong addition to our team.
Elijah P.Real Estate Company
Working with Alenah and the Hire Vela team has been one of the best hiring decisions we've made at Autopilot. They've helped us find exactly the kind of self-starters a small, fast-moving team needs. For our most recent search, a growth and performance marketing role, Alenah ran the entire process end to end. She sourced strong candidates across LatAm, managed a paid trial task, and came back with thoughtful, detailed summaries of each submission that made my decision much easier. What sets Vela apart is how much they take off your plate. Alenah scheduled interviews around my calendar, followed up promptly, relayed feedback candidly in both directions, and handled the offer letter and onboarding handoff seamlessly. Even when I was slow to respond during a family emergency, she was patient and kept everything moving. If you're a founder looking to build a world-class team without the overhead of an agency, I can't recommend Hire Vela enough.
Sam H.Co-Founder · Autopilot
The search was very quick. Much quicker than some of the other recruiting agencies I used. They were able to get me all the pieces of information I needed to make a decision on if an interview was worth while with somebody. Exactly what I was looking for. They brought a lot of high quality people in front of me. From sign up to hire, it was about a month, and for how picky I was, I am very pleased with it. They were always responsive and on top of things ensuring my needs were met.
Will M.Owner · Lakeland Window Cleaning

What happens in the first 21 days.

Headhunt
Market mapped, direct outreach
Vet
Scorecard, working session, references
Place
Three candidates, offer, onboarding

Twenty-one days is the pace for common seats. Harder roles take more screening and more interviews, at the same fee — and if the role or the talent market is slowing a search down, we tell you early rather than at day 21.

You do the hiring.
We do everything else.

One fee, charged once, when your hire starts. Your deposit comes off it. No retainer, no monthly minimum, and nothing per candidate.

Start a search
Shortlisted inside 21 days, each one carrying the scorecard, the reference notes and the trial task they actually did.

The first profile usually lands around day 7, and by day 21 you have three. Each one cleared the same bar we use when we hire for our own team: a scorecard filled in against your seat, references we called ourselves, and a short piece of real work you can read before you ever meet them.

You are not screening a pipeline. You are choosing between three people who already made it through one.

Sourcing, outreach, screening, trial tasks, references and scheduling all happen before anyone reaches your calendar.

A few hundred people get considered for a seat. A few dozen hear from us. A handful make it to a working interview — the same conversation we would run to bring someone onto our own team — and the strongest of those get a trial task and reference calls.

By the time anyone reaches your calendar, the open question is fit with you, not competence. Everything before that costs you under an hour: a 20-minute call and a kickoff.

If the hire does not work out inside ninety days, we run the search again and you are not charged for it twice.

Cover is not a coupon. We stay close after the start date — check-ins with you and with the hire through the first weeks — so if something is off, it surfaces early instead of at the deadline.

If it still does not work out inside ninety days, the search restarts with everything we learned the first time. Same team, no second fee. The risk sits with us, not with you.

Everything the fee covers. Nothing extra.

No add-ons, no line items, no invoice you did not see coming.

Some of the roles we place

Ranges are first-year base at the local senior tier.

Customer Success
$28–40k / year
Project & Ops
$30–44k / year
Executive & Admin
$22–34k / year
Design & Content
$26–40k / year
Marketing
$28–42k / year
Account Management
$30–44k / year
Sales Development
$26–38k / year
Finance & Bookkeeping
$28–42k / year
Recruiting & People
$26–38k / year
Customer Support
$20–30k / year
Data & Reporting
$30–44k / year
Or the seat you actually need

These are the ones we run most. Tell us the seat you are hiring for and we will tell you straight whether we can fill it.

Ask us →

Vela vs the other three ways you could do this.

Same seat, same $36K target salary. What changes is who does the work, how long it takes, and what it costs you in year one.

VelaUS recruiterJob boardDIY
Source poolCurrently-employed professionalsActive jobseekersActive applicantsActive applicants
Time to first interview14 days3 – 6 weeks1 – 2 daysDays
Three interview-ready professionals21 days · senior6 – 10 weeks200+ apps to triageWhenever you have time
Vetted like our own teamScorecard + working callNot standardNoneNone
Replacement guarantee90 days · no re-fee30 – 60 days typicalNoneNone
Your time running the searchUnder 1 hour~6 – 8 hours30 – 40 hours50+ hours
Year-one cost ($36K seat)$43,200$96,000$80,000$80,000

Who runs your search, and how.

People run this, not software. Here is every step, in order, including the parts that are slow.

  1. We take the brief

    One call with whoever will manage the hire. We write the role brief, benchmark the salary against Medellín, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Bogotá and Manila, and read the whole thing back to you before anyone is contacted.

  2. We map the market

    No job post goes up. We build a list of people already doing this job at companies like yours — usually a few hundred names — and rank it before writing to anyone.

  3. We write to them one at a time

    Every message is written for the person receiving it. Most of them are employed and not looking, which is the entire reason we work this way, and most of them say no. That is expected and it is priced in.

  4. Everyone who answers is interviewed

    A screening call first, then a working interview about the actual work — the situations this seat handles, and how they would handle them. No forms, no one-way video.

  5. Everyone still standing does a trial task

    Built from your brief and marked against it. It is the best predictor we have of how someone performs in the seat, and it is where most of the list comes off.

  6. We call the references

    The people they reported to, not a list of friendly names. Same scorecard we use on our own hires, and you get the notes.

  7. You get three, with the work attached

    Three people, each with the scorecard, the reference notes and the trial task they did. You interview whoever you want to interview. If none of the three is right, we keep going.

We say no more often than we say yes.

We are very likely a fit if…

You are hiring one seat that matters, not ten at once.
You will sit in the final interviews yourself.
You can have someone onboarded inside a month.
You want someone senior who stays, not the cheapest hour you can find.

We might not be the best for you if you are looking for…

A bench of ten people by the end of the quarter.
Engineers, or a development shop.
The lowest hourly rate on the market.
Résumés today, from three agencies at once.

Your part takes under an hour.

Two short calls at the front, and the search runs from there. You hear from us when there is something worth reading.

Yours

Tell us the seat you are hiring for10 min
A 20-minute call — we take the brief off you20 min
Kickoff call — we read it back before we start15 min
Everything you owe the searchUnder 1 hr

Ours

Writing the role brief and benchmarking the salary
Mapping the market and writing to each person individually
Interviews, trial tasks and reference calls
Scheduling, contract, payment setup and first-week onboarding

Questions clients ask before they start.

What does a search cost?

A $1,000 deposit to start, credited toward the fee. When your hire starts: 20% of their first-year base salary. A $36,000 base is a $7,200 fee. No retainer, no monthly minimum, nothing per candidate.

When is the deposit refundable?

In full, if we have not introduced candidates you want to meet by the shortlist deadline. Once those introductions land, the deposit is earned — and it credits against the placement fee on hire.

What if the hire does not work out?

If they leave or are let go within ninety days of starting, we run the search again for the same role. No second fee.

How much of my time does this take?

Under an hour before the shortlist: a 20-minute call and a kickoff. The next thing we need from you is to meet the three people worth meeting.

Do they work US hours?

Yes — live overlap, not an overnight queue. Bogotá and Mexico City sit on US Central time, and Buenos Aires is one hour ahead of Eastern.

Who employs the hire?

You do, usually as a full-time contractor — the standard shape for cross-border roles. We hand over the same paperwork templates our own team uses, so paying someone abroad is not your problem to solve.

What if none of the three fit?

We keep going at no extra cost. The fee is only ever charged when someone you chose starts.

How is this different from a job board?

Job boards show you people who are looking. We approach people who are employed and good at the seat right now — then run the scorecard, the working interview, the trial task and the reference calls before anyone reaches you.

Hiring guides by role

For professionals in Latin America and the PhilippinesA weekly letter on working with US companies — what the roles pay, who is hiring, what is moving.

Tell us the seat.
We go get them.

Start a search