Hiring in Colombia: What US Companies Need to Know About the #1 Nearshore Talent Market

Colombia sits closer to the US East Coast time zone than almost any other major Latin American hiring market. During standard time, Bogotá and Medellín run on the same clock as New York. During daylight saving, they’re one hour behind. For most of the year, your Colombian hire is working the same hours you are.

That time zone story is the practical entry point. But it’s not the whole picture. Colombia has developed into one of the most versatile nearshore talent markets in the region: strong in sales, finance, accounting, operations, and a fast-growing technology scene centered in Medellín. It’s not a single-function play. In Hire With Near’s placement data, Colombia leads more role categories than any other country in Latin America.

This guide covers what you need to know before hiring there: who the talent is, what roles Colombia is best for, what you’ll pay, and what to expect from the employment context.

Why Are US Companies Hiring in Colombia?

Colombia gives US companies access to one of the most versatile nearshore talent pools in Latin America: professionals who span sales, finance, technology, and marketing, working hours that are essentially identical to the US East Coast, at salaries that typically run 30–70% lower than US equivalents.

Colombia now accounts for 23% of all placements in Hire With Near’s 2026 State of LatAm Hiring Report, based on over 2,000 hires. That puts it ahead of every other country in the region. And it’s not concentrated in one function: Colombia leads Hire With Near’s data for BDR/SDR, accountant, executive assistant, financial analyst, and administrative assistant roles. That breadth is what sets it apart.

Time zone alignment

Colombia is one of the most popular countries for US companies to hire from because of its time zone.

Colombia operates on Colombia Time (COT, UTC-5) year-round and doesn’t observe daylight saving time. 

During US standard time (November through March), Colombian professionals are just one hour behind the East Coast, but perfectly in sync with the Central time zone. During US daylight saving time (March through November), Colombia is exactly in sync with the Eastern time zone. 

C

ompanies in the eastern half of the US get essentially a full shared working day with Colombia year-round. 

West Coast companies are two to three hours behind Colombia, depending on the time of year, giving them six to seven hours of real-time overlap, more than enough for standups, reviews, and collaboration on most role types.

A fast-growing tech hub in Medellín

Colombia’s developer community on GitHub has surpassed 1 million accounts, growing at double-digit year-over-year rates, a concrete signal of the size and momentum of the technical talent pool.

Much of that growth is concentrated in Medellín, which has become one of Latin America’s most active tech cities. The city has attracted a generation of tech companies, accelerators, and engineering talent, and it’s earned its reputation as Colombia’s innovation hub.

Bogotá runs a parallel track as the country’s financial and administrative capital, producing strong finance, accounting, and operations talent alongside a mature corporate sector. 

Both cities also have established pools of BDR/SDR professionals already working with international clients.

Cost savings

Companies hiring in Colombia typically save 30–70% on salaries compared to US equivalents, with the average annual savings per hire running between $35,000 and $64,000, according to Hire With Near’s 2026 data.

Those aren’t savings on junior talent. Across all of Hire With Near’s LatAm placements, 84% are mid-level or senior professionals. The cost difference reflects Colombia’s lower cost of living, not a difference in the caliber or experience of the people being hired. I cover that in detail in a later section. 

For more on why hundreds of US companies are turning to Latin America for full-time remote roles, that article covers the broader picture.

How Can a US Company Hire in Colombia?

US companies have three options for hiring in Colombia: establish a legal entity, use an employer of record (EOR), or work with a specialist staffing and recruiting company. For most, the third is the fastest path to a great hire. I’ll cover them in order from most to least complex.

Option 1: Establish a legal entity

Registering a legal entity in Colombia means setting up a local subsidiary or branch office, navigating business registration requirements with Colombia’s national chamber of commerce, and building out compliant payroll and benefits administration under the country’s labor code, the Código Sustantivo del Trabajo (CST).

This option makes sense if you’re planning to build a large, permanent presence in Colombia: think 50 or more employees, with dedicated in-country legal and HR infrastructure. 

For most US companies making a handful of remote hires, the overhead is hard to justify. Setup is expensive, the process can stretch several months, and staying compliant with Colombia’s labor code as it evolves requires ongoing legal support.

Option 2: Use an Employer of Record (EOR)

An employer of record handles all of the legal employment infrastructure on your behalf. The EOR becomes the employer of record on paper while you manage the work directly. They take care of contracts, payroll processing, tax withholdings, and compliance with Colombian labor law.

Two things in particular tend to catch US employers off guard when hiring in Colombia. First, a mandatory mid-year and year-end bonus equivalent to 30 days’ salary total, paid in two installments (one in June and one in December). 

Second, mandatory social security contributions, which cover health insurance and pension, adding to the total employer cost beyond the base salary. An EOR handles both automatically.

Popular EOR companies include Deel, Remote, Oyster, and Globalization Partners. 

For a detailed breakdown of how EOR arrangements work, our comprehensive guide to hiring remote foreign employees covers the mechanics.

The trade-off: an EOR handles employment logistics, not recruiting. You’ll still need to source candidates yourself, either through LinkedIn or a job board for hiring in Latin America.

Option 3: Work with a specialist staffing and recruiting company

This is where most US companies hiring in Colombia end up. You partner with one of the specialist staffing firms for LatAm hiring, like Hire With Near, that combines talent acquisition and ongoing employment management in one package.

Hire With Near sources and vets candidates, then manages payroll, benefits, and compliance through our nearshore staffing and recruiting services. You describe the role, we present qualified candidates, and once you hire, we handle the rest. 

The process is as straightforward as bringing on someone domestically: one partner, one monthly invoice, and a team member who shows up to your standups and owns their work.

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If you’ve been relying on freelance platforms like Upwork or Fiverr, specialist staffing gives you fundamentally different results for full-time remote hires. The difference is a dedicated team member focused on your business, not someone splitting attention across multiple clients.

What Can US Companies Expect from Colombian Professionals?

Colombian professionals are particularly strong in sales, finance, operations support, and marketing. Most mid and senior-level candidates in those fields work hours that line up directly with the US East Coast, and English proficiency among client-facing professionals in Bogotá and Medellín is meaningfully stronger than the national average.

That last point is worth unpacking. Colombia scores in the "low proficiency" band on the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index overall, which can be misleading.

The national average pulls in regions with limited international exposure. Bogotá and Medellín are at a moderate level, higher than the national average. Within those cities, white-collar professionals in tech, finance, and sales routinely work in English daily.

As Lucia Atensia, Sales Recruiter at Hire With Near, puts it: 

Clients are often pleasantly surprised by the combination of strong English proficiency, cultural alignment with US businesses, and the advantage of working in a similar time zone. This makes collaboration smoother and allows Colombian professionals to integrate naturally into remote teams.

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Hire With Near screens for English proficiency on every placement.

Sales: Colombia’s dominant strength

BDR/SDR is the single most-placed role across all of Hire With Near’s LatAm placements, and Colombia is the top source country for it. 

Colombian sales professionals have grown up in a business culture shaped by exposure to international clients, and a significant share of mid-level candidates have already been working with US companies directly. 

For US companies looking to hire an SDR in Latin America or build out a sales development function, Colombia is typically where Hire With Near’s recruiters look first.

Finance and accounting

Colombia ranks alongside Argentina and Mexico as a top source country for Hire With Near’s finance and accounting professionals. Accountant and financial analyst are the second and fifth most-placed roles overall, with Colombia leading both. 

Bogotá, in particular, has a mature professional services sector. The Big Four (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG) all maintain significant operations there, which means a meaningful share of experienced finance candidates have trained inside the same US GAAP and IFRS frameworks that US clients rely on.

If you need to hire an accountant in Latin America or bring on a financial analyst, Colombia’s talent pool is deep at the mid and senior levels.

Operations and executive support

Executive assistant and administrative assistant round out Colombia’s top-five most-placed roles in Hire With Near’s data. 

Colombian operations professionals tend to be highly communicative and comfortable working across functions, exactly the traits that make remote operations work, as Lucia Atensia explains: 

One thing that consistently stands out about Colombian professionals is their strong communication skills and customer-focused mindset. They tend to adapt quickly to US-based teams, work effectively across functions, and build strong relationships with both colleagues and clients.

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For companies looking to hire an executive assistant in Latin America, Colombia is a reliable and fast-sourcing market.

Technology

Medellín has a well-earned reputation as Colombia’s technology hub. The city’s tech ecosystem has grown steadily over the past decade, producing software engineers, DevOps specialists, and product managers with hands-on experience on international teams. 

Bogotá adds depth, particularly in fintech and enterprise software.

Related reading: Should You Outsource Software Development to Colombia?

Marketing

Colombia sits in the top three LatAm countries for marketing placements in Hire With Near’s data. The country has a strong tradition of consumer brand culture and a growing performance marketing skill set, particularly in digital channels. 

Bogotá and Medellín are home to regional operations of major global advertising networks, which means experienced marketing candidates tend to have structured, international-facing backgrounds.

Top universities to recognize on a resume

University background is a useful signal when reviewing Colombian candidates’ resumes. These are the institutions that consistently produce strong professionals in the roles that US companies hire most:

1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL): Colombia’s top public university and the most competitive to enter. UNAL graduates consistently produce strong back-end developers, data analysts, and technical specialists.
2. Universidad de los Andes: The leading private institution for tech, fintech, high finance, and corporate law. Ivy League-modeled, with a highly polished, typically bilingual graduate profile. Top choice for product management, corporate finance, and senior client-facing roles.
3. Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA): Medellín’s major public research university and the country’s premier source for healthcare-adjacent talent, DevOps engineers, and cloud infrastructure specialists.
4. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana: The authority for marketing, digital communications, and creative roles. Its graduates dominate top advertising networks and corporate marketing departments.
5. Universidad EAFIT: The standout institution for business strategy and international finance in Medellín. Multinational consumer goods companies and global ad agencies recruit heavily from EAFIT for bilingual business and marketing roles.

If you’re working through the hiring process for the first time, we’ve put together answers to common questions US companies have about hiring remote talent offshore.

What Are the Salary Ranges for Colombian Hires?

Hiring in Colombia typically costs 30–70% less than the equivalent role in the US. The table below shows what that looks like across the roles that US companies hire most from Colombia.

Source: Latin America compensation benchmarks, 2026

The savings are real, and they hold up at mid and senior levels, not just at entry level. What makes them possible is a straightforward cost-of-living difference. 

A financial analyst earning $36,000–$48,000 in Bogotá is living well. The same role in a US city starts at $87,000. The gap is entirely about what money buys locally, not about the quality or output of the professional.

Here’s how Colombia’s three major cities compare to Houston, Texas, on everyday costs:

Source: Numbeo.com

For the full role-by-role breakdown, see our full US vs. Latin America Salary Guide.

What Do US Companies Need to Know Before Hiring in Colombia?

Hiring Colombian professionals through Hire With Near means you’re not necessarily bound by the country’s labor code. But understanding what Colombian professionals are used to matters, because it directly affects how you structure compensation and time off in a way that attracts and retains good people. 

Two things in particular tend to shape expectations: the mid-year and year-end bonus built into Colombian employment culture, and a public holiday calendar that is the most extensive of any OECD country.

PTO and statutory leave

Under Colombia’s Código Sustantivo del Trabajo (CST), the statutory vacation entitlement is 15 working days per year after 12 months of continuous service. These are calculated as working days, not calendar days, which means weekends and public holidays don’t count against the vacation balance. 

A few mechanics worth knowing: Employers must give at least 15 days’ advance notice before requiring an employee to take a vacation. Employees must take at least 6 continuous working days of physical rest per year. The remaining 9 days can be split or accumulated for up to two years (four years for senior, tech, or executive roles). 

With a written agreement, employees can also “sell back” up to half their vacation time (up to 7 days) in exchange for direct compensation, as long as they still physically rest the other half.

Public holidays

Colombia has 19 mandatory national holidays, the highest number of any OECD country, following the passage of Ley 2578 in 2026, adding a new holiday. All 19 are legally non-working days for both public and private sectors.

A defining feature of the Colombian holiday calendar is Ley Emiliani (Law 51 of 1983): most civic and religious holidays that fall on a Tuesday through Friday are automatically shifted to the following Monday, creating a long weekend. 

The key holidays to plan around:

• January 1: New Year’s Day
• January 6: Epiphany (observed the following Monday) 
• March 19: Saint Joseph’s Day (observed the following Monday)
• March/April: Maundy Thursday & Good Friday (dates vary). Semana Santa causes a nationwide slowdown all week; expect limited availability.
• May 1: Labor Day
• May/June: Ascension Day (date varies, observed on Monday)
• June: Triple Puente Month. Three consecutive holiday long weekends. Historically, the lowest-productivity month on the corporate calendar.
• July 9: Our Lady of Chiquinquirá (observed the following Monday) 
• July 20: Independence Day 
• August 7: Battle of Boyacá 
• August 15: Assumption of Mary (observed the following Monday)
• October 12: Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity (observed the following Monday)
• November 1: All Saints’ Day (observed the following Monday)
• November 11: Independence of Cartagena (observed the following Monday)
• December 8: Immaculate Conception 
• December 25: Christmas Day 

A practical approach: offer a set number of floating holiday PTO days so your Colombian hire can decide which holidays to observe without tying your team’s schedule to the full calendar. 

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Private health insurance

Colombia has a universal public healthcare system, where coverage is provided through a network of government-regulated health insurers. Formally employed workers are enrolled automatically and contribute monthly premiums split between the employer and employee.

The public system covers a broad range of services but faces structural stress: long wait times for specialist appointments, overcrowded facilities, and periodic insurer interventions are common.

White-collar professionals rely heavily on private prepaid medicine as an add-on to their mandatory public coverage. For remote professionals, a corporate private health plan is widely considered the most valued non-salary benefit, more than any bonus. 

Mid-level companies typically either cover 100% of the private premium or share the cost with a small employee copay for specialist visits. Senior and executive hires generally expect full coverage, often extended to immediate family members.

The prima de servicios

Colombia’s mandatory mid-year and year-end bonus is called the prima de servicios. It equals 30 days’ salary total per year, paid in two installments: 15 days’ salary by June 30 and 15 days’ salary by December 20. It’s a legal obligation for formal employees, not a discretionary bonus.

For professionals hired on a contractor basis, the prima de servicios isn’t a legal requirement. That said, experienced Colombian professionals understand what they’d be giving up, and it factors into how they evaluate offers. 

How Does Hire With Near Help US Companies Hire in Colombia?

Hire With Near has placed professionals across Colombia’s major hiring markets, like Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla, in roles in sales, finance and accounting, operations, marketing, technology, and more. 

Colombia is the single most active country in our placement data.

Our recruiters have deep experience with the talent pool here: which cities to source from for which roles, what candidates at different levels expect to earn, and where the strongest concentration of sales, finance, and operations professionals is.

That knowledge cuts the guesswork out of the process on your end. 

Here’s what working with Hire With Near typically looks like. 

You describe exactly what you’re looking for on a kickoff call with your dedicated recruiter. Within five days, you receive a shortlist of pre-vetted candidates with video introductions. 

You interview the ones you want to meet, make a pick, and from kickoff to accepted offer, the whole process usually takes just three weeks. Compare that to the three to six months a search might take in the US.

Once you’ve made your hire, we handle payroll, benefits administration, and compliance. 

We also know how to structure offers that win. A candidate who turns down an offer because the benefits package didn’t reflect local expectations is a loss that’s easy to avoid. Our recruiters set expectations on both sides before an offer is made, which is why acceptance rates and retention on our placements are consistently high.

The pattern we see repeatedly: companies make one hire with us, see the quality we can find for them, and expand from there. 

CyberFortress is one example. They used Hire With Near to build out a 20-person finance and accounting team, including CFO, Director of Accounting, and Treasury Manager, saving $1.2 million annually and closing their books 33% faster. The first hire was the test. The next 19 followed because the first one worked.

For companies filling director-level or leadership positions, Hire With Near also handles executive search in Latin America across all departments. 

If you’re ready to explore hiring in Colombia, book a free consultation to talk through your requirements with our team. They’ll walk you through salary benchmarks and what the process looks like, so you have what you need to decide if it’s right for you.

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