How Cloud Employee
One brief. Two matched engineers in 7 days. Embedded full-time in your team, your culture, and your time zone.
The four stages
How we find, vet, onboard & look after your engineer
Tell us what you need.
We define the role with you first, then search through trusted local networks, never a job board. Here's how it works:
- A US-based CTO learns your stack, team, and hiring bar
- Local recruiters search in Croatia, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and the Philippines
- Existing Cloud Employee engineers help refer proven talent
- Stack
- ReactNode.jsPostgreSQLAWS
- Seniority
- Senior 7+ yrs - mentors juniors
- Time zone
- EST · 9am - 6pm core hours
- Team based
- New York · hybrid team of 6
- Budget
- $5,000 - $6,000 / mo all-in
- Culture
- Fast-moving, low-ego, async-first
- Past hires
- Last contractor over-promised, under-communicated
We find and vet them.
Our senior engineers do live coding interview sessions with each shortlisted candidate for your actual role, not a generic Q&A.
- Custom coding assessment based on your stack
- Live pair-programming session with a senior engineer
- Cultural-fit interview with our US-based client lead
- CTO sign-off before you ever see a profile
- Two matched profiles with a written report on why each fits
The funnel, in numbers
We onboard them into your team.
The first 90 days matter, so we help your engineer start with the context, expectations, and support they need.
- We build a "How to Work With You" guide before day one
- Your engineer reports to you directly, daily, on your timezone (Just like regular FT employees)
- We check in after month one, then continue with quarterly reviews
We handle everything else.
We legally employ your engineer in their country, run all the admin, and keep them growing - so you just direct the work.
- Employed through our local entities
- Payroll, taxes, healthcare, benefits, and compliance handled in-country
- Dedicated development budget, AI training, and peer learning groups
- Wellbeing, performance, and retention support from 60+ specialists
- Quarterly events in all hubs
- Local employment entityCroatia · Colombia · Brazil · Philippines
- Payroll, taxes & complianceRun in-country, every month
- Healthcare & benefitsLocalised, fully managed
- Dev budget & AI trainingContinuous growth, peer groups
- Wellbeing & retentionBacked by 60+ specialists
Built to de-risk your hiring
Testimonials
Reviews from real teams
Working with cloud employee felt nothing like hiring a contractor. The engineer was on our team from week one, shipping code, joining standups, genuinely invested in what we were building.
What role are you hiring for?
Pick one to start - you'll see matching engineers at the end.
- 300+ teams built
- 97% stay 2+ years
- Replace if it isn't working
Got questions?
The questions CTOs and founders ask.
We replace them at no cost, no questions asked. If the match isn't right in the first 90 days, we immediately start a new search and hand you a replacement shortlist within 7 days. There's no penalty and no extra fee.
Your engineer works your hours , full overlap with your team, not a 2-hour window at the end of the day. LATAM engineers align with US East/West; European hubs align with UK and CET; Manila aligns with APAC and UK. You pick the region that fits your standup time.
You own everything, always. Every engagement is covered by a full IP assignment and confidentiality agreement. The engineer signs it before day one. No ambiguity, no carve-outs.
Toptal, Deel, and Upwork are marketplaces , you search, vet, and manage HR yourself. We are a managed service: we source, vet with live senior-engineer coding sessions, employ the engineer locally, and handle all payroll, compliance, and retention. You direct the work; we handle everything else.
One flat monthly fee covers the engineer, local employment, payroll, benefits, and your account manager. There are no placement fees, no setup costs, and no long-term lock-in. Rates vary by role, seniority, and region.
Every candidate goes through a live pair-programming session run by one of our senior engineers , on your actual stack, not a toy problem. We also run KYC, background checks, and psychometric assessments. There is no way to fake a 60-minute live coding interview with someone who knows the codebase.
Week one: your engineer joins your Slack, attends your standup, and starts shipping small tickets. Weeks 2-4: your dedicated account manager runs a structured onboarding check-in to catch any friction early. By day 90, most teams say the engineer feels like a full-time hire they've had for six months.
Yes. A direct-hire conversion path is available in every contract. After 12 months of embedding, you can bring them on as a permanent employee for a pre-agreed conversion fee , far lower than a traditional agency placement. Many teams exercise this option.