South helps growing companies find, hire, and pay top Latin American talent. Build high-performing teams in 21 days or less.
.svg){kind=logo}
Hire a BI developer who builds the data models, pipelines, and dashboards your whole company reports on. South places pre-vetted BI developers from Latin America who work in your US time zone and cost 30 to 60 percent less than a comparable US hire, with placement in roughly two to four weeks and no large upfront fees. You get a dedicated, full-time business intelligence developer who owns the reporting layer end to end, from ETL and data modeling to polished Power BI and Tableau dashboards.
A BI developer is the engineer who designs, builds, and maintains the technical backbone of a company's reporting: the data models, ETL pipelines, semantic layers, and dashboards that turn raw data into trustworthy business intelligence. More technical than a pure analyst, a BI developer writes the SQL, builds the data warehouse structures, develops the transformation logic, and engineers the dashboards and reports that everyone else relies on.
The role is where data engineering meets reporting. A strong BI developer does not just build a dashboard; they build the pipeline that feeds it, the model that makes the numbers consistent, and the semantic layer that lets business users self-serve without breaking anything. They write performant SQL against warehouses, develop ETL or ELT processes with tools like SSIS, Azure Data Factory, or dbt, design star and snowflake schemas, and then build the reporting layer on top in Power BI, Tableau, or Looker. They handle the harder technical problems a BI analyst would hand off: complex DAX, row-level security, incremental refresh, performance tuning on slow reports, and integrating data from many source systems into one coherent model.
Day to day, a BI developer lives across the data stack. On the Microsoft side that means Power BI with advanced DAX and Power Query, SQL Server, SSIS, and Azure Synapse or Fabric. In the modern stack it often means Snowflake or BigQuery, dbt for transformation, and Looker with LookML. They build and schedule data refreshes, implement security and governance, version their work, and treat reporting as software, with testing, documentation, and maintainability in mind. They are the person who can take a tangle of source systems and produce a clean, fast, governed reporting environment the business can trust.
The role overlaps with several adjacent positions. A BI analyst focuses more on requirements gathering, dashboard design, and analysis, and less on the pipelines and modeling underneath. A Power BI developer or Tableau developer is the platform-specialized version of the BI developer. A data engineer builds broader data infrastructure and pipelines not limited to reporting, and an analytics engineer owns the transformation layer in the modern stack. The BI developer's distinct value is owning the full reporting technical stack: clean ingestion and modeling on one end, fast and trustworthy dashboards on the other. The best ones think like engineers about reliability and performance while keeping the business outcome, decisions made from trusted data, firmly in view.
Hire a BI developer when your reporting needs have outgrown drag-and-drop dashboards and require real engineering. The classic trigger is performance and complexity: dashboards are slow, the data model is a mess, numbers do not reconcile, and integrating new source systems keeps breaking things. When a BI analyst is hitting the limits of what they can build without proper modeling, ETL, and tuning, you need a developer who can engineer the layer underneath.
Another trigger is a data-platform build-out. If you are standing up a warehouse like Snowflake or implementing Microsoft Fabric and need someone to build the pipelines, models, and governed reporting environment on top, that is squarely BI developer work. A third trigger is consolidation: when every team has its own spreadsheets and conflicting numbers, a BI developer builds the single, modeled source of truth with the security and governance to make it trustworthy across the organization.
Who should NOT hire yet: if your data is still scattered with no warehouse and no clean source systems, you may need a data engineer to build the foundational pipelines and infrastructure first, then a BI developer to build the reporting layer on top. If your needs are mostly dashboard design, requirements gathering, and analysis rather than heavy modeling and ETL, a BI analyst is the more cost-effective fit. And if you only need one specific platform deeply built out, a Power BI developer or Tableau developer may match better than a generalist. Hire the BI developer when the full reporting technical stack, modeling, pipelines, and performant dashboards, is the genuine need.
Start with data modeling and SQL depth, because a BI developer who is weak there will build a brittle, slow, untrustworthy reporting layer. The single most important skill is the ability to design a clean model that produces correct numbers and performs well. Give a practical test: ask them to design a model for a revenue dashboard pulling from an ERP and a CRM, and listen for how they think about grain, slowly changing dimensions, avoiding double-counting, and keeping the model fast. Strong candidates reason about the model and the pipeline before they touch the visuals.
Second, evaluate ETL and performance engineering. Ask how they have built and scheduled pipelines and how they fixed a slow report. The best BI developers can walk through diagnosing a performance problem, whether it was the data model, the query, the refresh strategy, or the visual layer, and explain the fix. This separates the developer who engineers a reliable system from the one who just assembles dashboards that fall over at scale.
Third, look for software-engineering discipline. The best BI developers treat reporting like code, with version control, testing, documentation, and maintainability. Ask how they manage changes, handle multiple environments, and ensure a model someone else can pick up. Candidates who version their work and document their models build reporting that survives them; those who hand-build one-off reports leave a mess.
Who should NOT hire yet: be cautious of the pure dashboard builder who can drag and drop in a BI tool but cannot write performant SQL, build an ETL pipeline, or model data properly, since that is the analyst skill set, not the developer's. Also avoid the engineer who is technically strong but has no feel for the business outcome and builds technically impressive reports nobody can use. You want someone who pairs real data engineering with the judgment to build reporting that communicates and gets used.
A US-based BI developer typically costs around 9,500 dollars per month in base salary, climbing with experience and in higher-cost metros, before benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead. Fully loaded, a US BI developer commonly runs well over 135,000 dollars a year.
Through South, a comparably skilled BI developer from Latin America generally runs around 4,450 dollars per month, a savings of roughly 53 percent. The gap is a labor-market effect, not a quality tradeoff. Latin America has a deep and growing pool of BI and data professionals trained on the exact stack US companies use, from Power BI, DAX, and SQL Server to Snowflake, BigQuery, dbt, and Tableau, many of whom have built reporting infrastructure for US SaaS, fintech, and enterprise companies through nearshore teams. Compensation that is competitive in São Paulo, Bogotá, or Buenos Aires translates to a far lower number for a US employer hiring the same skill set.
The reason quality holds is that BI development is identical regardless of geography. A clean data model, a reliable pipeline, a correctly tuned query, and a dashboard that communicates produce the same value whether built in Seattle or Lima. You are paying for data modeling skill, ETL engineering, and performance judgment, all of which the region produces in volume. Because South places dedicated full-time professionals rather than billing through an agency by the hour, you avoid markups and large upfront placement fees and pay a straightforward full-time salary calibrated to a market where it stretches further. Across a year, the savings are significant while the reporting infrastructure your business runs on stays just as reliable.
Time-zone overlap is a real advantage for BI development because the work is collaborative and often time-sensitive. Gathering requirements, debugging a broken refresh before a Monday review, or pairing with a data engineer on an upstream issue all go faster when your developer is online during your business day. Latin America runs on US business hours, with most of the region overlapping US Eastern and Central time, so when a pipeline fails the night before close or leadership needs a model changed before a board meeting, your BI developer is at their desk, not asleep across the world.
The talent depth is genuine. Latin America has invested heavily in data engineering and analytics skills, and a generation of BI developers has built reporting infrastructure for US companies through nearshore arrangements. Many are deeply experienced in the exact tools and modern stacks US companies run on, from Power BI and SSIS to Snowflake, BigQuery, dbt, and Looker. English proficiency among data professionals is strong, which matters because the role requires constant collaboration with analysts, engineers, and business stakeholders.
Cultural alignment reduces friction. LatAm professionals generally share US norms around engineering rigor, deadlines, and communication, which fits the disciplined, collaborative nature of BI development. Combined with the cost savings and time-zone fit, you get a dedicated developer who functions like an in-house team member at a fraction of the loaded cost. Because you own the relationship directly, your BI developer learns your data sources, your models, and your business logic over time, building institutional knowledge that makes the reporting layer better year over year rather than resetting when an agency contract ends.
South matches US companies with dedicated, full-time LatAm BI developers, making it feel like hiring locally without the cost or the wait. We start by understanding your data stack, your reporting challenges, and the tools you rely on, whether you are standardized on Power BI and SQL Server, building in Snowflake with dbt, or running Tableau and Looker. From a pre-vetted pool of BI and data talent, we present a short list of candidates whose modeling skill, ETL experience, and platform expertise already match your needs. You interview finalists, not a stack of resumes.
Because candidates are screened for SQL and data modeling, ETL engineering, BI-tool proficiency, English fluency, and US-time-zone availability, most clients move from kickoff to a placed, full-time BI developer in about two to four weeks. There are no large upfront fees, and you own the relationship directly. Your BI developer joins your team, learns your data sources and your business logic, and stays for the long term, building reliable reporting infrastructure rather than churning like a contractor.
If you are not sure whether you need a BI developer, a BI analyst for dashboard work, a data engineer for the foundation, or an ETL developer for the pipelines specifically, we will help you scope the right hire before you commit. Ready to build a reporting layer your business can finally trust? Book a call with South and we will line up vetted BI developer candidates in your time zone within days.
A US-based BI developer typically costs around 9,500 dollars per month in base salary plus benefits and overhead. Through South, a comparably skilled BI developer from Latin America generally runs around 4,450 dollars per month, a savings of roughly 53 percent, with no large upfront placement fees.
Most placements move from kickoff to a signed, full-time BI developer in about two to four weeks. Candidates are pre-vetted for SQL, data modeling, ETL, BI-tool skills, English fluency, and time-zone fit, so you spend your time interviewing finalists rather than screening a large pool.
Yes. South places developers who work US business hours. Most of Latin America overlaps with US Eastern and Central time, so your BI developer is online to gather requirements, fix broken refreshes, and ship model changes in real time before your reporting deadlines.
South's candidates are vetted for hands-on experience in the tools US companies use, including Power BI with DAX, Tableau, and Looker with LookML, plus ETL tools like SSIS, Azure Data Factory, and dbt, and warehouses like SQL Server, Snowflake, and BigQuery.
A BI developer engineers the full reporting stack: data models, ETL pipelines, and performant dashboards. A BI analyst focuses on requirements, dashboard design, and analysis on top of an existing model. If you need the modeling and pipelines built, the BI developer is the right hire.
You own the relationship directly. South places dedicated, full-time professionals who join your team and build lasting knowledge of your data sources and business logic. They are not rotating agency contractors billed by the hour, and there are no markups on their work.
It helps, but not always. A BI developer can build modeling and pipelines into a warehouse like Snowflake or SQL Server. If you have no warehouse and no clean source data at all, a data engineer may build the foundational infrastructure first, then the BI developer builds the reporting layer on top.
The region has the perfect mix of everything you want in remote employees: English skills, shared time zones, hard-working, and depth of talent. They are already accustomed to working remotely for top US startups and Fortune 500 companies.
Absolutely! The US and Latin America have basically the same time zones. No Latin American city is more than two hours ahead of EST.
Every hire is sourced based on your exact needs. They will arrive ready to support your business right away. They can do basically any tasks done remotely, but we recommend starting them as support so your team has more bandwidth for high-value strategic tasks.
All types of roles - customer service, executive assistant, sales, accounting, email marketing, lead generation, content writers, operations, social media marketing, and more!
You can pay directly through us (most popular) or we can connect you with one of our payroll partners.
You don't have to deal with any American labor laws / taxes when hiring full-time remote contractors. They aren't US-based, so no visas or sponsorships to deal with either.
We recommend market pay which varies for each role. See our salary guide and success stories for some ideas.
Then, we have two different models:
Staffing (most popular) - We charge a small monthly fee for each employee's monthly salary to make the process hassle-free. The fee covers sourcing, recruiting, admin, payroll, compliance, ongoing support, and a free replacement if necessary at any point. There are no cancellation fees or minimum commitments. You only pay if you make a hire.
Headhunting - A one-time simple fee once we've found the perfect candidate. This comes with a 120-day replacement guarantee.
For both options, you only pay something if we find you someone great that you want to hire.
Yes, we only recruit for full-time and we strongly recommend full-time hiring if you can. Stability (full-time & long-term) is highly sought after abroad. The top caliber candidates are only looking for full-time work.
You're also going to spend time training and getting them up to speed on your processes. It would be a waste to do that over and over again with new people all the time.
We recommend training new hires on one thing at a time.
For example, once they get up to speed on lead generation, you can add the next role writing blog posts or whatever you'd like. You can definitely overlap roles until you have enough work for multiple people.
The cost of living is much less in Latin American countries. Many of our employees are able to own homes, raise families, provide for their parents, and have in-home help of their own with their salaries.
If you aren't happy with your hire in the first 120 days, we will work with you to conduct a second round of search for the same role for free.
Just email us at Hello@HireInSouth.com and we will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.
