South helps growing companies find, hire, and pay top Latin American talent. Build high-performing teams in 21 days or less.
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When the board asks what happens to runway if growth slows 30 percent, you need an answer in an hour, not a week, and it needs to be right. When you hire a financial modeler through South, you get a pre-vetted modeling expert in your US time zone who builds the forecasts, scenarios, and board models your decisions actually depend on. Placement in two to four weeks, 30 to 60 percent below US cost, no large upfront fees.
A financial modeler builds the quantitative models companies use to forecast performance, evaluate decisions, and raise capital. They construct three-statement models, revenue and cost build-ups, scenario and sensitivity analyses, and fundraising or M&A models. The role translates messy business reality into structured, defensible numbers that leadership and investors can trust.
The work is deceptively demanding. A financial model is not a spreadsheet with some formulas; it is a logical system that has to be accurate, flexible, and legible all at once. A good modeler builds a fully integrated three-statement model where the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement are dynamically linked, so a change to one assumption flows correctly through all three and the balance sheet still balances. That sounds basic until you have inherited a "model" that breaks the moment you touch a growth assumption, with hardcoded numbers buried in formulas and no audit trail. Cleaning that up, or building it right from the start, is craft.
Beyond the core statements, a modeler builds the drivers that matter for your specific business. For a SaaS company that means a model wired around ARR, net revenue retention, CAC, payback, and cohort behavior, so leadership can see how changes in churn or sales efficiency ripple into runway and burn. For a services firm it means a model built on utilization, bill rates, and headcount. The modeler makes the assumptions explicit and changeable, builds scenario toggles for base, bull, and bear cases, and runs sensitivities so the team can see which levers actually move the outcome. That is the difference between a model that informs decisions and one that just produces a number.
The other half of the job is communication. A model nobody else can understand is a liability, because the person who built it becomes a single point of failure and the outputs cannot be trusted by anyone who did not build them. Strong modelers follow conventions: clean input, calculation, and output separation, consistent color coding for inputs versus formulas, documented assumptions, and error checks that flag when something breaks. They build models that a CFO can present to a board and that a new analyst can pick up six months later.
Increasingly the role reaches beyond Excel. The best modelers pull actuals directly from the ERP or a data warehouse, sometimes writing SQL to get clean data, and connect models to BI tools like Power BI so the forecast updates against reality. They sit close to FP&A but go deeper on the modeling craft specifically, which is why a dedicated FP&A analyst and a financial modeler are related but distinct hires.
Hire when the decisions resting on your numbers get expensive. The clearest trigger is fundraising. Going into a raise without a credible, flexible model is a real handicap; investors will probe your assumptions, ask for scenarios on the spot, and judge your operational maturity partly by the quality of your model. A dedicated modeler builds something that stands up to diligence and lets you answer hard questions in real time, which is exactly when you do not want to be improvising in a spreadsheet.
The second trigger is complexity that has outgrown a generalist. When your business has multiple revenue streams, real cohort dynamics, headcount-driven costs, and a balance sheet that actually matters, the back-of-envelope model that got you here starts producing wrong answers. You need someone whose specific craft is building models that capture that complexity correctly.
The third is decision velocity. If leadership keeps asking "what if" questions, about pricing, hiring pace, burn, a new market, and the answers take days because no one owns a clean model, you are making decisions slower and worse than you should. A modeler turns those questions into same-day answers.
Who should not hire yet: if your finances are simple, a single revenue line, predictable costs, plenty of runway, you probably do not need a dedicated modeler. A financial analyst or a capable FP&A analyst can maintain a straightforward model alongside other work. Hiring a specialist modeler for a simple business is overkill, and they will be underused. Likewise, if your real problem is that your actuals are a mess, that you cannot close the books cleanly or trust your historicals, fix that first. A model built on unreliable actuals forecasts garbage with great precision; you may need accounting and data hygiene before modeling. And if you genuinely need someone to own the whole finance function, you are looking for a head of finance, not a modeler.
Make them build, or at least dissect, a real model. A resume tells you nothing about modeling skill; the spreadsheet tells you everything. Give a candidate a modeling exercise or, better, have them walk you through a model they built and explain the architecture. The strong modeler immediately shows clean separation of inputs, calculations, and outputs, consistent formatting, documented assumptions, and error checks. The weak one shows hardcoded numbers inside formulas, a model that breaks when you flex an assumption, and no audit trail. This difference is visible in minutes.
Test the three-statement integration directly. Ask how a change in days sales outstanding flows through the model. The strong answer traces it through the cash flow statement and balance sheet and confirms the balance sheet still balances. The weak answer treats the three statements as separate tabs that do not really talk to each other, which means they have never built a properly integrated model.
Probe business-model fluency. A modeler who does not understand your unit economics will build a technically clean model of the wrong business. For a SaaS company, ask how they would model the impact of a churn improvement on ARR and runway. The strong candidate reasons through retention, expansion, and the timing of cash. The generic candidate models revenue as a flat growth rate and misses the dynamics entirely.
Check communication and governance, because a model only one person understands is dangerous. Ask how they make a model legible to others and what conventions they follow. Strong modelers care about this deeply; they have been burned by inherited black-box models and refuse to build them.
Who should not hire yet, as a caution: do not confuse a fast Excel user with a financial modeler. Plenty of analysts can build a quick spreadsheet but cannot architect an integrated, flexible, board-grade model, and the gap shows up exactly when the stakes are highest, in a raise or a board meeting. And do not hire a pure technician who cannot translate the model into a narrative leadership can act on. The role needs both the engineering and the storytelling; screen for both.
In the US, an experienced financial modeler runs roughly 8,000 to 11,000 dollars a month, around 9,000 at the midpoint, and modelers with banking or private equity pedigrees command well above that. Loaded with payroll taxes, benefits, and overhead, the real cost is a third higher again. Genuine modeling skill, the ability to build integrated, flexible, board-grade models, is rarer than the supply of people who list "financial modeling" on a resume, and the premium reflects that scarcity.
Through South, a comparably skilled financial modeler in Latin America typically costs around 4,250 dollars a month, roughly 53 percent less. The candidates we place have built real three-statement models, fundraising models, and scenario analyses, often trained in banking, consulting, or FP&A roles serving US companies. Many hold credentials like the CFA. The savings come from cost of living and currency in markets like Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil, not from a drop in rigor.
The value case is about decision quality, which is hard to price but enormous. A model that helps you raise at a better valuation, avoid a bad acquisition, or catch a runway problem two quarters early is worth multiples of the modeler's cost. Against a fully loaded annual cost in the low 50,000s, a single good decision the model enables pays for the role many times over. This is a seat where being cheap on talent is expensive on outcomes, which is exactly why getting strong modeling at LatAm rates is such a good trade.
South charges no large upfront fees and bakes no recruiting multiplier into the rate. You pay a clean monthly cost, you own the relationship with the person directly, and you get a dedicated full-time modeler rather than a consulting firm that builds you a model and then disappears, leaving you with a black box you cannot maintain. An in-house modeler through South keeps the model living, owned, and trustworthy.
Time-zone alignment matters because modeling is interactive at the moments that count. During a board meeting or a live investor conversation, leadership needs the modeler reachable to run a scenario on the spot. During budget season, the modeler is in constant back-and-forth with department heads refining assumptions. A modeler in Latin America works your hours, joins those conversations live, and turns "can we see what happens if..." into an answer the same day rather than the next. For a role this embedded in real-time decisions, the overlap is not a nice-to-have; it is the point.
The talent is strong and well-suited to this work. Latin America has a deep bench of quantitatively trained finance professionals, many from investment banking, private equity, consulting, and corporate FP&A, often having served US companies directly. They are fluent in three-statement modeling, valuation, and the unit economics of modern businesses. Because much of the regional finance talent is oriented toward US capital markets and US-style reporting, they already understand US GAAP basics, US investor expectations, and the conventions of a model that has to survive US diligence.
English proficiency is high in the markets South recruits from, which is essential for a role that presents assumptions to leadership and fields questions from investors. A modeler has to defend the numbers articulately, and the candidates we vet can.
Retention strengthens the case. Skilled modelers in the US are aggressively recruited by banks, funds, and growth-stage companies, so tenure is short and the institutional knowledge embedded in your models walks out with them. For an equally skilled LatAm professional, a stable full-time role with a US company at a competitive local wage is a genuinely good job worth keeping. Lower turnover means the person who built and understands your model stays to maintain and evolve it, which is exactly what you need from a system your decisions depend on.
South recruits, vets, and places full-time financial modelers from across Latin America with US companies that make real decisions on their numbers. We screen for the craft that separates a true modeler from a fast spreadsheet user: clean, integrated three-statement architecture, driver-based models tuned to your business, rigorous scenario and sensitivity work, and the communication discipline to make a model legible and trustworthy. Every candidate is tested on actual modeling work, not just interviewed.
You tell us your business model, your stack, and what you need modeled, whether that is a fundraising model, a board model, a runway forecast, or a rebuild of something fragile you inherited. We come back with a short list of pre-vetted candidates who fit, usually within days. You interview the ones you like, you make the call, and you own the relationship directly. The modeler is a full-time member of your team, keeping your models living and owned, not a consulting firm that hands you a black box and leaves. Placement typically takes two to four weeks.
There are no large upfront fees and no recruiting commission hidden in the rate. You get a dedicated, time-zone-aligned financial modeler at 30 to 60 percent below comparable US cost, plus the decision-quality upside of finally having a model you can trust and flex on demand.
If your next raise, your next board meeting, or your next big decision is riding on a model nobody fully trusts, the fix is a dedicated modeler who builds it right. Book a call with South and we will show you vetted financial modeler candidates who can start building your models within the month.
A full-time financial modeler through South costs about $4,250 per month, compared to roughly $9,000 for a US hire, around 53% in savings. You get serious modeling capability without the US finance salary.
Yes. South places financial modelers across Latin America who overlap US business hours, so board prep, scenario reviews, and finance syncs happen live with your team.
They build and maintain the models that drive decisions: three-statement models, forecasts, scenario and sensitivity analysis, budgets, and valuation work like DCF and LBO. A strong modeler builds clean, auditable models others can actually use.
Look for advanced Excel and three-statement modeling fluency, DCF and LBO experience, strong accounting grounding, and ideally a CFA or relevant finance degree. SQL and a planning tool like Anaplan or Mosaic are a plus.
Typically two to four weeks. South screens for modeling rigor, accuracy, and English fluency, so you interview pre-vetted candidates instead of sourcing yourself.
Full-time and dedicated. South does not place gig workers. Your financial modeler is a long-term member of your finance team, which matters because model quality and institutional knowledge compound 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.
