Most placement-firm FAQ pages are written with a sales handler in mind. This one is read by founders past the founder-led account-management phase, hiring senior CSMs and project managers who will own retention and delivery for years.
The questions below assume that. They cover the working call, the AI rubric, the four post-placement instructor sessions, and the contractual terms that make a relationship worth running twice. Cost is one line item — it sits inside a section, not on top of one.
If a question matters and is not answered here, the contact form at the bottom of the page reaches the professional running your search.
Twenty-one days from intake call to a shortlist of three on a senior search; fourteen on the junior bench. The frame is the same every time so the variable is the brief, not the motion.
Three steps: Headhunt, Vet, Train. We headhunt professionals currently working at agencies in your vertical, vet them on a live working call plus a three-level AI aptitude rubric, then run four live one-on-one AI instructor sessions in the first four weeks post-placement.
First vetted profile in fourteen days for senior searches, seven days for junior. Three vetted candidates by day twenty-one (senior) or day fourteen (junior). If none of the three fit, the search continues at no additional cost.
We reply the same day to book a fifteen-minute intake call. We draft the role brief from the call, you approve in a single Slack reply, and sourcing begins the same day.
Someone who has hired this role at agencies. Not a recruiter, not a screener. Every candidate sits a live working call before reaching your inbox, and the notes ride along on the candidate brief — traceable back to specific moments in the call.
No. We turn your fifteen-minute intake call into a structured role brief. Most clients approve in a single Slack reply. The brief becomes the source of truth for every candidate you see.
We keep searching at no additional cost until you hire, or you stop. If you stop without taking any interview from the three delivered, the deposit is refunded in full.
One placement fee, billed on confirmation of hire. One refundable deposit to start the search. No retainers, no add-ons, no managed-service surcharges. The structure is the point; the worked example sits in the proposal.
A single placement fee — twenty percent of the placed professional's year-one base salary on the standard tier, twenty-five percent on the placement-plus-AI-residency tier. The fee is billed only when you and the candidate confirm terms; nothing else is due before that. A $499 refundable deposit starts the search and credits to the fee on hire. Worked examples by seat and city sit in the salary benchmarking report we deliver during sourcing.
A wrong mid-level hire costs more than the salary line. Three months of loaded comp, the recruiter fee on top of it, the restart, and the client churn that lands while a misfit holds the seat. The replacement window and refund terms below are designed so the worst-case outcome of a Vela engagement is a refunded deposit and a restart at no additional fee.
Custom role brief, professional-led working-call vetting, salary benchmarking report, contractor agreement template, payment-platform setup walkthrough, ninety-day replacement guarantee, and four live one-on-one AI instructor sessions in the first four weeks post-placement. No add-ons, no hidden line items, no premium tier.
If we miss three vetted candidates by the day twenty-one mark on a senior search, or day fourteen on a junior, the deposit is refunded in full. The placement fee is only billed on confirmation of hire.
Senior placements come from professionals currently running real client books at agencies in your vertical. Junior placements come from a vetted LATAM bench already interviewed and scored. Both are vetted on a live working call before they reach your inbox.
Senior: professionals currently employed at agencies in your vertical, reached by warm intro, prior-network referral, or a researched personal email. Junior: a vetted LATAM bench already interviewed and scored. No job boards, no applicant pools, no InMail blasts.
C1 minimum, verified on a live working call covering a hypothetical client escalation. Most placements are C1+ with agency-context English. Scored against seat seniority, not a generic test.
US business hours with EST overlap by default. Candidates sit in Medellín, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, or Mexico City. We do not place professionals who require presence past 6pm EST.
The working call probes real scenarios from your brief: specific tools, account loads, QBR cadence, tenure. References when the candidate provides them. The notes land as a written summary in the candidate brief, traceable back to a moment on the call.
Local senior tier in the candidate's city. The salary benchmarking report delivered during sourcing shows the band for your specific seat and city, and for the matched candidate's tenure and book size. Junior placements anchor to local junior tier, same approach.
The questions on this page were asked on intake calls. The answers below are the ones we gave, refined over a hundred-plus searches.
Ninety-day window on every placement. The deposit terms are written so you can stop at any point before an interview at no cost — once the vetting work is delivered, it is paid for. After that, the relationship is what carries.
Ninety days for every placement, senior or junior. If the hire does not work out inside that window, we run the replacement search at no additional cost. You keep the original brief; we restart sourcing.
Either side calling it. Candidate quits, you end the engagement, or both parties agree the fit is wrong. No documentation or performance review required.
The $499 deposit is refundable in full if (a) we miss three vetted candidates by day twenty-one (senior) or day fourteen (junior), or (b) we deliver and you decline to interview any of them. Once you take any interview with a Vela candidate, the deposit is earned — it pays for the sourcing, working-call vetting, and shortlist work already delivered. If none of the initial candidates is the right fit, we keep recruiting at no additional cost until you hire. On hire, the deposit credits in full to the placement fee.
Stop before any interview, $499 deposit refunded in full. Once you take any interview with a Vela candidate the deposit is earned — but if you decide later to walk away, you walk away. The full placement fee is only billed when you and a candidate confirm terms; nothing else is due before that.
Every placement is screened on a three-level AI aptitude rubric during the working call and trained post-placement on four live one-on-one instructor sessions. Both included in the placement fee. Both run by someone using these workflows on live agency accounts.
Four live one-on-one instructor sessions, one per week for the first four weeks. Week one: client communication via Claude. Week two: reporting automation in n8n or Zapier. Week three: churn early-warning workflows. Week four: the professional's own SOP, refined and handed back to your team. Live only — no video library to grind through.
A three-level rubric run during the working call: tool familiarity, prompt judgment, and live workflow under observation. We are not testing current mastery. We are testing learning speed and the ability to apply judgment to AI output.
They enter AI-comfortable — using it regularly for drafting and analysis — and exit the four sessions AI-fluent, building workflows systematically. We screen for aptitude, then train. We do not pretend the finished product already exists in volume.
Every shortlisted candidate has cleared the AI aptitude screen and accepted training as part of the role. If they refuse after placement, it triggers the replacement guarantee. Not optional on the candidate side.
Vela is a placement firm, not a staffing layer or managed service. Once you and the candidate confirm terms, the hire is yours. You sign the contractor agreement directly. No Vela markup on their pay. No managed-services hold. They go on your payroll, your tools, your team — we hand off and step back.
Deel, Wise, or Payoneer. We walk you through setup as part of the placement. You own the contractor relationship from day one.
We provide a contractor agreement template. You sign it directly with the professional. Vela is not a managed-service or staffing firm — there is no markup on the professional's pay, no managed-services layer between you and the seat.
No. Vela is a placement service, not a PEO. For managed payroll or benefits, Deel and Remote offer LATAM contractor management on top of the contract you sign with the professional.
Or send a note. The form below opens directly to the professional running your search, not a sales inbox. Replies typically land the same day.