South helps growing companies find, hire, and pay top Latin American talent. Build high-performing teams in 21 days or less.
.svg){kind=logo}
When you hire a Figma designer, you get the person who turns ideas and requirements into clean, usable interfaces, real screens, interactive prototypes, and a maintainable design system, built in the tool your whole product and design org already runs on. South places full-time, pre-vetted Figma designers from Latin America who work in your US time zone, cost roughly 53% less than a US hire, and start in about two to four weeks. You get a dedicated designer embedded on your team, not a freelancer who disappears between projects.
A Figma designer is a digital product or UI designer who works primarily in Figma to design interfaces, prototypes, and design systems: building screens, components, and interactive flows that are clear, consistent, and ready to hand off to engineering. Figma is the industry-standard tool, and fluency in it is now a baseline expectation for product design work.
The role reflects how design actually gets done today. Figma has become the default environment for digital design, from early wireframes in FigJam through high-fidelity UI, interactive prototypes, and the shared component libraries that keep a product consistent. A Figma designer is someone whose craft lives in that environment: they design the interfaces, but they also build them the right way, with reusable components, auto layout, and variables, so the work scales and engineering can implement it cleanly. The title overlaps heavily with a UI designer, a UX designer, and a product designer; "Figma designer" is often how companies describe the tool-fluent, execution-strong designer they need to actually produce the screens.
The defining skill set is Figma craft on top of real design fundamentals. A strong Figma designer is fluent in components and variants, auto layout, constraints, styles and variables, and interactive prototyping, the features that separate a maintainable, scalable file from a pile of disconnected frames. They build and maintain design systems so a product stays consistent and a team can move fast. They wireframe and ideate in FigJam, run real prototypes for user testing and stakeholder review, and structure their files so engineers can inspect specs, grab assets, and implement without guesswork. Under that tool fluency sits the actual design ability: visual hierarchy, typography, color, spacing, layout, and an understanding of usability and how people use interfaces. The work touches a UX/UI designer and, for marketing surfaces, a web designer.
What makes a Figma designer great is the combination of taste and discipline. The taste shows in interfaces that are clean, usable, and on-brand. The discipline shows in files that are organized and systematized, so the design scales and the next person, including the engineer, can work with it. A designer who makes one beautiful screen but leaves a chaotic file is a problem; a designer who builds a clean, component-driven system that a whole team can build on is a force multiplier. Companies in SaaS, e-commerce, and marketing agencies rely on Figma designers to ship a product or brand that looks and works the way it should, which is why getting a strong, embedded one matters.
The clearest trigger is that design has become a bottleneck on your product. When engineers are waiting on screens, when product managers are mocking up features in slides because no designer is available, and when the interface quality is suffering because design is an afterthought, you need a dedicated designer. A Figma designer embedded on the team keeps the product designed properly and unblocks the engineers who depend on those screens.
The second trigger is inconsistency. If your product looks like five different people designed it, because five different people did, with no shared components or system, you have a consistency problem that compounds with every new feature. A Figma designer builds and maintains a design system so the product stays coherent and the team moves faster, which matters a great deal for SaaS products and e-commerce stores where polish and trust drive conversion.
The third trigger is volume and ongoing need. Agencies and growing product teams that constantly need new screens, landing pages, and interfaces are better served by a dedicated, embedded designer than by a rotating cast of freelancers who never learn the brand or the system. Continuity makes the work better and faster.
Who should not hire yet: a very early-stage company with occasional, one-off design needs and no real product surface to maintain. If you need a logo and a simple landing page once a quarter, a freelancer or a contract graphic designer is a better fit than a full-time hire. The honest test is whether you have enough ongoing product and interface work that a dedicated designer would stay busy and the continuity would pay off. If design is a recurring bottleneck or your product is drifting into inconsistency, hire. If your needs are occasional and project-based, wait.
Evaluate Figma designers on both the output and the file, because a strong portfolio can hide a chaotic process. Look at the shipped work for taste, usability, and craft, then open the actual Figma file. A strong designer's file is organized, component-driven, uses auto layout and variables, and is clearly built to scale and hand off. A weak one delivers a screen that looks fine in a screenshot but is a disconnected mess underneath that no engineer or teammate could work with. The file tells you whether you are hiring a designer or a screenshot.
Test design fundamentals beyond the tool, because Figma fluency without taste produces tidy files full of mediocre design. Ask them to critique an interface, or walk you through a design decision and the reasoning behind it: why this layout, this hierarchy, this pattern. Probe design-system thinking, since building and maintaining a system is what separates a scalable designer from one who reinvents every screen, which is where the role touches a product designer. And probe collaboration: how they work with product and engineering, take feedback, and hand off work cleanly.
Green flags: a strong portfolio of shipped product work, clean and systematized Figma files, clear reasoning behind design decisions, and real design-system experience. Someone who talks about reusable components, consistency, and clean handoff is thinking like the role demands.
Red flags: a beautiful portfolio with chaotic underlying files, a designer who cannot explain their decisions beyond aesthetics, someone who has never built or worked in a design system, or who treats handoff as someone else's problem. Be wary of candidates whose work is all concept pieces with nothing actually shipped, since real product design is constrained, collaborative work.
Use these to test design craft, Figma discipline, and collaboration:
A US-based Figma designer, mid to senior product or UI designer, typically costs around $7,500 per month in base salary, and more once you add benefits and recruiting fees. Strong product designers at well-funded SaaS companies command well above that. Through South, a comparably skilled Figma designer from Latin America runs closer to $3,500 per month, a savings of roughly 53%.
For a US hire, expect about $7,500 a month in base, plus benefits, with a search that often stretches a month or two because genuinely strong designers, the ones with both taste and file discipline, are harder to find than the flood of design portfolios suggests. Through South, the same caliber of Figma designer from Latin America comes in around $3,500 a month, fully dedicated, working in your US time zone, with placement in roughly two to four weeks and no large upfront fee. Compared to a freelancer who charges per project and never learns your system, a dedicated embedded designer is both cheaper over time and far more valuable.
The gap reflects geography, not capability. Latin America has a deep and growing pool of product and UI designers fluent in Figma and trained on the same standards as their US peers, many with experience designing for US and global SaaS and e-commerce companies. They earn strong local wages that still produce major savings for a US employer. Because a good designer drives product quality, conversion, and team velocity, and an embedded one compounds in value by learning your brand and system, the return on the role is high and the lower cost makes it easy to justify.
Product design is collaborative, iterative work, and time zone overlap makes it function. The role lives on conversations with product managers about requirements, on live feedback and iteration, on working sessions with engineers during handoff, and on quick turnarounds when a screen needs a change before a release. A Figma designer in Sao Paulo, Bogota, Mexico City, or Buenos Aires works your business hours, joins those conversations live, ships the revision the same afternoon, and even co-designs in real time in the same Figma file rather than across a day-long gap. For a role built on tight collaboration with product and engineering, that overlap matters.
The talent depth is substantial and well matched to the role. Latin America has produced a strong generation of product and UI designers fluent in Figma and modern design practice, many with experience designing for international companies. English proficiency is high among senior designers, which matters for a role built on collaborating with US product and engineering teams and presenting design decisions.
Retention is a real advantage here, because design context compounds and is painful to lose. A designer who knows your brand, your design system, your users, and the history behind every pattern is far more valuable in year two than a freelancer who relearns it each engagement. A full-time, dedicated designer who is well compensated locally and embedded in your team tends to stay, so your product stays coherent and the design system keeps improving rather than fragmenting. South places designers for long-term, full-time roles for exactly this reason, the same logic that makes Latin America strong for a UX/UI designer or a UI designer.
South recruits, vets, and places full-time Figma designers from across Latin America so you get a dedicated designer embedded on your team, not a freelancer who vanishes between projects. Every candidate is screened for what the role actually requires: advanced Figma fluency including components, auto layout, and variables, real design-system experience, strong fundamentals in hierarchy, typography, and usability, and the file discipline that makes work scalable and handoff-ready. We review portfolios and actual files, because the combination of taste and discipline is exactly what separates a designer who elevates your product from one who leaves a beautiful screenshot on top of a chaotic file.
The process is fast. Most roles are filled in about two to four weeks, versus the month or two a domestic search for a genuinely strong designer typically takes. There are no large upfront fees and the pricing is straightforward, so you get an excellent designer at a fraction of US cost rather than a recruiting markup. You own the relationship. Your Figma designer works on your team, in your time zone, inside your Figma files and your product, reporting to you. South handles sourcing and vetting and supports the placement, but the designer is yours.
If design has become a bottleneck, or your product is drifting into inconsistency, a Figma designer is the hire that keeps your product clean, usable, and coherent while unblocking your team, and hiring from Latin America makes it affordable. Book a call with South and we will place a vetted Figma designer on your team in weeks.
A Figma designer through South typically runs around $3,500 per month for full-time, dedicated work, compared to roughly $7,500 per month for a comparable US hire, plus benefits. That is about 53% in savings, with no large upfront recruiting fees, and far better value than a per-project freelancer who never learns your system. Because a strong designer drives product quality and team velocity, the return easily justifies the cost.
Yes. South places Figma designers from countries like Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico whose business hours overlap with US time zones. This matters because product design lives on live collaboration with product and engineering, real-time feedback, and even co-designing in the same Figma file, none of which work well across a large time gap.
South screens for advanced Figma skills, including components and variants, auto layout, variables, and prototyping, plus real design-system experience and strong fundamentals in hierarchy, typography, and usability. Many also have UX research, brand, or front-end awareness. We match for your specific product and design needs.
Most South placements happen in about two to four weeks, compared to the month or two a domestic search commonly takes to find a designer with both taste and file discipline. South maintains a vetted pipeline of LatAm design talent, so you move straight to reviewing strong, pre-screened portfolios instead of sorting through a flood of applicants.
The roles overlap heavily. A product designer typically owns the end-to-end product experience, including research and strategy. "Figma designer" emphasizes deep fluency in Figma and strong execution of interfaces, prototypes, and design systems. Many strong product designers are excellent Figma designers; the title signals tool fluency and execution strength.
Full-time and dedicated. South does not place gig or freelance workers. Your Figma designer is a long-term member of your team, which matters because design context, your brand, system, and users, compounds, and continuity keeps your product coherent and your design system improving over time.
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.
