Comprehensive Guide to Hiring a Top Developer

What was once the domain of Silicon Valley giants is now a business essential for almost everyone.

If you’re launching a SaaS product, building internal tools, or creating a mobile app for your restaurant, hiring a great developer can make or break your success. 

However, with rising demand, a global talent pool, and a large number of specializations, figuring out how to hire developer talent the right way isn’t as straightforward as it sounds.

But whether you’re looking for someone in-office, remote within the US, or internationally, the fundamentals don’t change. 

The risks and rewards, however, absolutely do.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through what developers do, what they cost, what skills matter most, where to find them, how to evaluate their potential, and what hiring mistakes to avoid during the process.

What Do Developers Do?

Developers build, maintain, and scale the technology that powers your product or service.

A developer is a person who turns ideas into working software, whether that’s a mobile app, internal tool, API, or e-commerce platform.

The most recent Stack Overflow Developer Profile indicates that 30.7% of developers identify as full-stack, 16.7% as back-end, and 5.6% as front-end. 

Here’s what each role typically involves:

• Full-stack developers work across both the user interface and the back-end systems. They’re often a good fit for early-stage products or lean teams.
• Back-end developers focus on server logic, databases, APIs, and infrastructure. They handle the architecture that keeps software running smoothly.
• Front-end developers handle what users see and interact with. They translate design files into responsive, accessible, and interactive interfaces.

In a typical team, developers collaborate with product managers, designers, and QA (Quality Assurance) engineers. They’re responsible for building new features, writing and testing code, integrating with third-party services, and fixing bugs.

While writing code is just part of the job, great developers build systems that support your goals, handle scale, and deliver a smooth user experience.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Developer?

Developer salaries vary widely depending on experience level and where your hire is based.

In the US, typical full-time salary ranges are:

• Junior developer: $71,000 – $132,000
• Mid-level developer: $132,000 – $143,000
• Senior developer: $143,000 – $184,800

If your budget doesn’t allow for domestic hires, offshore hiring is also an option.

In our experience hiring across Latin America, companies can expect to pay significantly less while still accessing strong talent.

According to our benchmarks, here’s what you could expect to pay in LatAm:

• Junior developer: $36,000 – $48,000
• Mid-level developer: $48,000 – $66,000
• Senior developer: $66,000 – $90,000

That translates to cost savings of up to 64%, depending on the developer’s role and experience. These differences reflect local costs of living and not differences in skill, professionalism, or work ethic. You can also see similar savings in other regions, such as Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. 

Hiring remotely doesn’t mean underpaying developers. It means hiring fairly in another market where your budget stretches further and makes it easier to bring experienced talent onto your team. 

Keep in mind that salaries can also vary based on specialization. Developers focused on areas like mobile, DevOps, or machine learning often command higher rates due to niche demand. 

What Skills Should You Look For When Hiring a Developer?

Great developers are strong coders, but they also understand the product, solve problems thoughtfully, and work well with others. Hiring the right developer means looking beyond resumes and certifications to focus on the capabilities that actually drive results.

Below, we’ve broken down the skills to look for in a developer.

Hard skills (the must-haves)

The technical foundation matters. The best developers have:

• Proficiency in relevant languages and frameworks: The most widely used primary programming languages today are Java, JavaScript, and Python, according to the most recent JetBrains data ecosystem report. SQL and HTML/CSS were the most commonly used within the past year. A solid candidate should be comfortable in at least one of these, depending on your tech stack.
• Experience with Git, APIs, testing, and deployment: These are core parts of modern development workflows. Strong candidates understand how to manage code versions, integrate external services, and ship stable features with automated tests in place.
• Data modeling and database fluency: Whether using SQL or NoSQL, developers need to know how to structure, store, and retrieve data efficiently. This impacts everything from app speed to reporting accuracy. Look for candidates who can describe the data models they’ve used and explain why they were a good fit for the project.
• CI/CD pipeline familiarity: Continuous integration and delivery pipelines automate the process of testing and deploying code. Developers with this experience can ship updates faster and with fewer bugs. Ask how they’ve used CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab in past roles.
• Back-end experience (if relevant): For back-end developer roles focused on infrastructure or server-side systems, look for experience with Docker (for containerization), microservices (for breaking apps into manageable parts), and architectural design (for performance and scalability). Candidates should be able to explain how they build and scale systems behind the scenes and not just how they write code.
• Front-end expertise (if relevant): A strong front-end developer should know how to turn design files (like Figma) into fully functional interfaces that look good and perform well on any device. That includes understanding CSS frameworks, JavaScript libraries, accessibility standards (like WCAG), and optimizing for speed and responsiveness.

Soft skills (equally important)

Technical skills get projects built. Soft skills keep them moving.

• Clear communication: Developers often need to explain complex ideas to designers, product managers, and stakeholders who don’t have a technical background. Candidates should be able to describe their thinking and decisions in plain terms.
• Ownership and initiative: The best hires don’t wait for tickets—they ask questions, spot problems, and propose solutions.
• Ability to explain past decisions: Our recruiters suggest asking candidates to walk through decisions they made on previous projects. If they can’t explain the “why,” it could mean they were just following instructions rather than thinking critically.
• Adaptability: Tech stacks shift. Priorities change. Look for developers who can work through ambiguity and adjust to new tools and challenges without losing momentum.
• Receptiveness to feedback: Strong developers treat feedback as a tool for better code, better collaboration, and better outcomes. A good question to ask: “Can you share a time when feedback led to a meaningful change in your work?”

Nice-to-have skills (the differentiators)

These aren’t essential, but they can push a strong candidate to the top of your list. This is especially true in competitive markets.

• DevOps or infrastructure experience: Developers who understand deployment environments can often work more independently and solve problems faster.
• Security-first mindset: This is especially important for companies handling user data or payment systems.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Developers who’ve worked closely with designers, product leads, or QA teams tend to ship smoother, more cohesive products.
• Startup or international team experience: Experience in lean or distributed teams usually means they know how to manage themselves and prioritize well.

As with any hire, testing for these skills is particularly important. Skills matter. However, how they apply them to day-to-day operations matters even more.

Where Can You Find and Hire Great Developers?

Before you can hire a great developer, you need to decide where to search and how to find them. That means weighing location, budget, collaboration needs, and sourcing methods.

Below, we’ve outlined each part of the decision.

Choosing the right location: Local, national, or global

Your first step is deciding whether to hire someone in-office, remotely within the US, or internationally. Each path has trade-offs:

• In-office (local) developers: Great for face-to-face collaboration and direct involvement in meetings and company culture. Onboarding and payroll are often simpler. The trade-offs are cost—local hires tend to command the highest salaries—and a candidate pool limited by geography.
• Remote US-based developers: This opens your search to a national talent pool. You’ll still be working with professionals familiar with US business practices and time zones. But expect to pay about the same as local rates, especially for in-demand roles.
• International developers: Hiring globally gives you access to the broadest pool of talent and often cost savings (as we explained earlier). Depending on where you choose to hire, it is essential to consider navigating time zone differences.

Thanks to time zone alignment with the US, offshoring to Latin America has been the choice for hundreds of US businesses. Plus, the LatAm region has talent with strong English proficiency and deep experience working with US teams. 

That being said, South and Southeast Asia (like India and the Philippines) and Eastern Europe (like Poland and Serbia) also offer excellent developers, especially for teams comfortable with asynchronous communication.

If you’re building your team from the ground up, hiring offshore developers can be a practical starting point for startups with lean budgets and fast timelines.

Choosing the right sourcing channel

Once you know where you’re looking, the next step is deciding how to find candidates. Here’s how common sourcing channels stack up:

Each approach has its own strengths depending on your goals. Many companies start with referrals or job boards, then turn to a trusted recruiter if they’re not getting quality matches, or when international hiring starts adding complexity. 

How to Hire the Best Developers: Best Practices

Hiring a developer is easy. Hiring a developer who understands your tech stack, thinks critically, communicates well, and won’t leave in three months? That takes more than a job post and a few interviews.

Here’s what experienced hiring managers and recruiters do when building a development team that actually works.

Stage 1: Define the role before you start sourcing

Don’t generalize—Get specific about what kind of developer you need

“Developer” covers a huge range of specializations. Just saying you need one can signal to top candidates that you don’t actually know what you’re hiring for. That’s a red flag, and many will skip your listing altogether. 

Are you building new features or maintaining legacy systems? Are you looking for full-stack, front-end, or back-end skills? Do you need experience in a specific framework?

Start by identifying your tech stack and the type of work this role will focus on most. If you’re not sure what you need, it’s often better to work with a partner who understands how to hire a developer and can help clarify the technical requirements for you.

Craft a job description that attracts the right talent

A job description is your first chance to show serious candidates that you understand their world. Be specific about tools, responsibilities, collaboration style, and the type of problems they’ll solve. 

Avoid vague phrases like “rockstar developer” or “fast-paced environment.” Great developers want to know what they’ll actually be doing and how their work will matter.

Stage 2: Screening and evaluation

Test how they think, not just what they know

A good resume shows experience. But a good evaluation gives you insight into real-world thinking and judgment. The goal isn’t to stump them. It’s to understand how they approach problems and whether they follow clean code principles.

According to our recruiters, this doesn’t need to be a massive take-home assignment. A short test followed by a discussion can reveal how a candidate thinks, how they write code, and how they explain their decisions.

Ask about past projects and listen for clarity

As our recruiters point out, good devs can explain what they built and why it mattered. Make sure your candidates can walk you through not just what they built but also why they built it that way, and what impact it had. 

If a candidate talks vaguely about their role or glosses over challenges, that’s often a red flag. 

Look for communication and ownership

You’re not just hiring someone to write code. You’re also hiring someone to work with your team. Strong developers are proactive, take feedback well, and can explain technical ideas to non-technical colleagues. 

One useful question: “Can you share a time when feedback changed how you approached a problem?” The answer will often tell you more than any resume.

Stage 3: Making the offer and closing the deal

Move fast and make it count 

Great developers don’t stay available for long. If your hiring process takes too long or your offer is unclear, you’ll lose top candidates to faster-moving teams.

Be upfront about timelines, communicate consistently, and once you’ve found the right person, make a strong offer without delay.

Show them they have a future with you

Stack Overflow surveys show that most developers (about 70%) don’t see AI as a threat to their jobs because they understand their value. However, around 30% are unsure or concerned.

This uncertainty highlights that developers are thinking beyond just salary. They want to know if they’ll be part of something that lasts. 

Your offer should speak to more than compensation. Ask yourself:

• What does this role offer beyond a paycheck?
• Will they get to learn something new, own a critical part of the product, or help shape how your team works?
• Can you clearly communicate how this role connects to your long-term roadmap?

In international markets, especially, it’s important to understand what makes an offer feel serious. That might include paying in USD, offering paid time off aligned with their country’s holidays, or giving them a clear path to skill development and career progression.

Miss these cues, and you risk losing top candidates to competitors.

You can get a more in-depth idea on how to make a good job offer to hire and retain top talent in our guide on the topic.

Top Interview Questions for Hiring Developers That Reveal the Right Fit

Interviewing developers isn’t just about checking for language proficiency or asking, “Can you write clean code?” 

You need to uncover how they think, how they’ve worked in real environments, and whether they can contribute meaningfully to your team from day one.

Below are five questions to ask developers and what to pay attention to in their answers.

“Tell me about a time when a feature you built had unintended consequences. What did you learn from it?”

This question goes beyond success stories and highlights real-world problem-solving. Look for developers who can acknowledge a misstep, explain the root cause, and talk about how they adjusted their process going forward. 

Red flag: If a candidate struggles to come up with an example or shifts blame.

“How do you usually approach breaking down a complex task into smaller steps?”

You want someone who’s methodical and organized, not just reactive. Strong candidates will describe a structured process, like reviewing documentation, identifying dependencies, scoping out phases, and checking in at milestones. 

It’s a good window into how they plan and collaborate and eliminates developers relying on so-called vibe coding—that is, making things work without understanding why they work (usually with the help of AI).

Red flag: Watch for candidates who either skip this step entirely or give vague, overly general responses. If they can’t explain their approach clearly, it may indicate they rely too much on direction from others and struggle with independent planning.

“What do you do when you’re stuck on a technical problem for more than an hour?”

This tests persistence, resourcefulness, and how well they balance autonomy with collaboration. Look for developers who start by debugging systematically, search for relevant documentation, and only escalate after exhausting reasonable paths. 

Red flag: Avoid candidates who immediately escalate or give up. Another red flag is those who try to power through without asking for input when needed.

“What’s something new you’ve taught yourself recently, and how did you go about it?”

This reveals curiosity and self-direction, which are essential in a field where tech evolves constantly. Great answers show not just what they learned but how. This can be through documentation, tutorials, side projects, or contributing to open source. You want someone who takes initiative, not someone who waits for formal training.

Red flag: If a candidate struggles to name anything they’ve learned recently or defaults to vague, surface-level answers, it may signal a lack of motivation or initiative

“If a product manager asked for a feature you didn’t agree with technically, how would you handle it?”

This question shows how well they handle trade-offs, communication, and alignment with business goals. The strongest candidates will explain how they’d raise concerns constructively, suggest alternatives, and work toward a shared solution without blocking progress. 

Red flag: Be cautious with answers that focus too heavily on defending their technical opinion at the expense of collaboration.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Developer

Even those with experience in the hiring process make mistakes—ones that waste time, budget, and your best candidates. 

These are the most common mistakes we see when companies hire developers, and how to avoid them.

1. Requiring a college degree as a baseline

Plenty of excellent developers never finished (or even started) a formal computer science program. In regions like Latin America, it’s common for developers to enter the workforce before completing a degree.

Instead, many build up years of hands-on experience while studying part-time or through bootcamps.

By requiring a degree, you might filter out some of the most capable candidates. Focus on real skills, past projects, and the ability to learn, qualities that matter most in day-to-day work.

2. Focusing too narrowly on specific tools or frameworks

Tech stacks change fast. A developer who hasn’t used your exact toolset but has worked on similar systems can often get up to speed quickly. This is because they already understand core concepts and architectural patterns.

If your hiring process filters for an exact match on tools, you’ll shrink your pool unnecessarily.

Ask yourself: Are you hiring someone to follow instructions or solve problems? Focus on the latter.

3. Skipping practical assessments

Portfolios and resumes tell part of the story. Without a real-world task, you won’t see how a developer actually works. Practical assessments don’t need to be complex. A short coding challenge or small system design prompt is often enough to assess technical ability and decision-making.

Skipping this step means you’re taking their word for it. In a high-stakes technical hire, that’s risky.

4. Overloading your process and losing good candidates to delays

Top developers often have multiple offers. A slow, unclear, or overly complicated hiring process can cost you great talent, especially if you require multiple rounds of interviews, long take-home projects, or vague timelines.

Be clear upfront about your process, and move fast when you find someone strong. If you wait too long, someone else won’t.

5. Cutting costs at the expense of quality

Hiring internationally can lower hiring costs. However, trying to get the lowest possible rate often means sacrificing experience, reliability, and long-term performance. 

There’s a lot that goes into what you pay a developer for, including clear communication, deep problem-solving, and the ability to work autonomously. When you prioritize cost over quality, you risk losing those essential skills along with the savings.

As we explain in our breakdown of offshore developer rates, the lowest price doesn’t always translate to the best value. 

Why Working With a Recruiting Partner Makes a Difference

Plenty of companies successfully hire developers on their own, especially if they’ve done it before, have a clear process, and aren’t in a rush.

But if you’re short on time, hiring for a specialized role, or trying to expand beyond the US talent pool, doing it all internally can slow you down and drain resources.

A recruitment partner with experience hiring developers can help you move faster and make better choices. They screen candidates for both technical ability and soft skills, handle the early filtering, and bring you candidates who are ready to contribute, not just interview.

When hiring developers in LatAm, for example, you can benefit from strong regional talent, time zone compatibility, and deep familiarity with US workflows. However, this works only if you understand how the hiring process works in that market. A partner can help guide you and avoid common missteps, especially if you’re expanding internationally for the first time.

The best companies for hiring LatAm developers specialize in getting to know your business and working out what you need both technically and culturally. That level of involvement saves time, reduces churn, and leads to better long-term matches.

Recruitment partners also handle contract details, onboarding, and international compliance, so you’re not left figuring it out on your own.

Yes, there’s a fee for working with a partner, but that cost is often offset by:

• Time saved sourcing, screening, and qualifying technical candidates
• Fewer costs due to hiring mistakes, thanks to deeper vetting of both hard and soft skills
• Better offers that are aligned with market expectations, reducing negotiation friction or rejections
• Lower total cost per hire when accessing high-quality developers in lower-cost markets like Latin America

It’s not the only way to hire. However, when the stakes are high and timelines are tight, using a good recruitment partner is often the most efficient and least stressful option.

Final Thoughts

Hiring a developer isn’t just about checking boxes for languages and frameworks. It’s about finding someone who can own problems, work seamlessly with your team, and help move your product forward—whether they’re building from scratch or scaling something already in motion.

If your past hiring rounds have left you empty-handed—or over budget—it might be time to shift your strategy. The right hire might not be in your city or even in the US, but they’re out there. And when you find them, the impact goes well beyond code commits.

If working with a recruitment partner sounds like the right move for your team, look for one that understands the nuances of tech hiring and international search. 

At Near, we take the time to understand what you actually need in a developer—whether that’s front-end expertise, back-end systems thinking, or someone who can do a bit of both.

We help you clarify your goals and connect you with pre-vetted developers across Latin America who match your requirements, work style, and time zone.

Book a free consultation today, and let’s find the right developer for your team.