When companies evaluate nearshoring for the first time, they almost always compare the wrong things. They look at a US salary, look at a LATAM salary, and make a decision based on that delta. This is like comparing the sticker price of a car without accounting for insurance, fuel, maintenance, and financing.

The real cost of a US engineering hire includes recruiting, benefits, equity, payroll taxes, office space, onboarding, productivity ramp, and turnover. When you account for all of it, the comparison changes dramatically.

The True Cost of a US Senior Engineer

Let us build the full picture for a senior software engineer in a major US market like San Francisco, New York, Austin, or Seattle.

Base salary ranges from $130,000 to $175,000 per year at the senior level in these markets, depending on the company and the stack. Equity adds 10 to 20 percent of base on top, though this is harder to count as a cash cost in early-stage companies. Employer payroll taxes (FICA, federal unemployment, state unemployment) add approximately 8 to 12 percent of base. Health, dental, and vision benefits add $8,000 to $15,000 per employee per year for a typical employer plan. Other standard benefits including 401k match, paid parental leave, and equipment add another $5,000 to $10,000.

That brings the fully loaded annual cost of a US senior engineer to approximately $175,000 to $230,000 before you count recruiting or any of the one-time costs associated with bringing someone on.

Recruiting adds another $30,000 to $60,000 for a typical contingency search, or 20 to 30 percent of first-year salary. If you are using an in-house recruiter, the cost is lower but the time is real. A typical senior engineering search takes 60 to 90 days, during which your team is operating understaffed.

Onboarding and productivity ramp add another 2 to 3 months of partial productivity. A new hire operating at 50 percent capacity for the first 60 days represents roughly $15,000 to $25,000 in lost productivity, conservatively.

Turnover is the cost that most companies underestimate. The average tenure of a US software engineer has declined to under 2 years at many companies. When an engineer leaves after 18 months, you restart the entire cost cycle. The total cost of a senior engineering hire including turnover amortized over a 3-year horizon is often $400,000 to $600,000.

The True Cost of a Nearshore Engineer

A senior engineer placed nearshore through a company like Resourcee costs $55,000 to $75,000 per year in total compensation, fully loaded. This includes local salary, statutory benefits, payroll taxes in the engineer's country, and our management fee. You get one invoice. One number. No surprises.

Recruiting is included in our placement process. We source, screen, and present candidates. You interview and decide. The time from kickoff to start date is typically 14 days, compared to 60 to 90 for a US search.

Onboarding is faster because the candidates we present have been specifically vetted for integration into US engineering teams. They are familiar with asynchronous collaboration, timezone-aware communication, and remote-first workflows. The ramp to full productivity is typically 30 to 45 days, not 60 to 90.

Turnover with nearshore hires, when the placement is done well, is significantly lower. Our own 90-day match rate is 98 percent. Engineers who are well-placed into well-structured teams tend to stay. The economics of the arrangement are good for them too.

The Real Comparison

Over a three-year horizon, the total cost of a US senior engineer (salary, benefits, recruiting, ramp, turnover) is approximately $450,000 to $600,000. The total cost of a nearshore senior engineer over the same period is approximately $165,000 to $225,000.

The savings are not 60 percent. They are closer to 60 to 65 percent on a true apples-to-apples comparison. And the productivity, when the nearshore relationship is set up well, is genuinely comparable.

When the Math Does Not Work

There are scenarios where nearshoring does not make financial sense. If the role requires daily in-person presence, nearshoring is simply not viable. If the role is at the executive level, the organizational context and relationship capital required to be effective are harder to build remotely. If the company is so early-stage that it does not yet have a stable product or team to integrate into, the ramp cost of any new hire, near or far, dominates the equation.

But for the vast majority of senior individual contributor roles in a company with an established team and product, the economics of nearshoring are compelling enough that the better question is not whether to do it but where to start.