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 you hire an FP&A manager, you get the person who owns the entire planning function: the budget, the forecast, the board deck, and increasingly a team of analysts producing it all. South places full-time, pre-vetted FP&A managers 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 financial planning leader embedded in your team, not a spreadsheet jockey who needs constant direction.
An FP&A manager is the finance leader who owns financial planning and analysis end to end: setting the budgeting and forecasting process, leading variance analysis, building the models that drive capital allocation, and presenting the numbers to leadership and the board. They run the planning calendar, manage analysts, and translate financial data into the decisions executives actually make. They sit one level above the analysts and one level below the CFO or head of finance.
The distinction from an analyst matters. An FP&A analyst builds models and runs variance analysis under direction; an FP&A manager owns the process, sets the standards, and is accountable for the quality and credibility of the entire plan. Where the analyst answers questions, the manager decides which questions matter, designs the forecasting methodology, and stands in front of the board to defend the numbers. As the team grows, the manager also hires, coaches, and reviews the work of analysts, which makes this a leadership role and not just a senior individual-contributor seat.
The work spans the full planning cycle. An FP&A manager designs and runs the annual budget, owns the rolling forecast, leads monthly variance reviews with department heads, and builds the board and investor reporting package every cycle. They partner with the CEO and CFO on the big decisions: hiring plans, pricing changes, fundraising, market expansion, and the scenarios that sit underneath each one. They set the financial modeling standards the team follows and own the integrity of the model that the whole company plans against. Where a financial modeler goes deep on a single complex model, the FP&A manager owns the entire planning architecture.
In SaaS, a strong FP&A manager lives in ARR, net revenue retention, CAC payback, magic number, burn multiple, and the bookings-to-revenue bridge, and can defend each assumption to a skeptical board. In professional services, they think in utilization, realization, and project margin. In fintech, they layer in unit economics, cohort behavior, and capital and regulatory considerations. Across all three, they own the tooling stack: expert Excel or Google Sheets, a planning platform like Anaplan, Adaptive Insights, Pigment, or Vena, an ERP such as NetSuite or Sage Intacct, and BI tools like Power BI or Tableau for leadership dashboards.
What separates a great FP&A manager from an average one is judgment, communication, and leadership, not modeling speed. A great manager builds the right process, knows which assumptions drive the outcome, flags risk before it becomes a surprise, develops the analysts under them, and explains a complex result to a non-finance executive in two sentences. They treat the forecast as a living decision tool, not a quarterly ritual, and they own its credibility with the board. Companies in SaaS, professional services, and fintech lean on FP&A managers to run planning as a discipline.
The clearest trigger is that planning has outgrown a single analyst or a stretched CFO. When the budget process is improvised, the forecast is only updated when the board asks, and nobody owns the methodology or the credibility of the numbers, you need someone accountable for the whole function. An FP&A manager turns planning into a disciplined, repeatable process with standards, a calendar, and a defensible model behind it.
The second trigger is scale that demands a team. Once you have a couple of analysts, or enough planning work to justify them, you need a manager to set direction, review work, and develop the people doing it. Leaving analysts unmanaged produces inconsistent models, no shared standards, and a plan nobody fully trusts. A manager creates the structure that makes the team's output reliable.
The third trigger is a fundraise, M&A, or a board that has gotten more demanding. When investors and directors start scrutinizing the model line by line, you need someone who can own that conversation, defend every assumption, and produce diligence-grade materials under pressure. That is a manager-level responsibility, not something to hand a junior analyst.
Who should not hire yet: an early-stage company whose planning a single strong FP&A analyst or a fractional CFO can still cover. If you have one revenue line, no team to manage, and a board that is satisfied with a clean monthly update, you do not yet need a manager. The honest test is whether planning requires real leadership and a team, or just competent execution. If you need someone to own the function and the people, hire a manager. If you need someone to build models under direction, hire an analyst first.
Evaluate FP&A managers on judgment, leadership, and communication first, because at this level the modeling mechanics are assumed and what you are buying is ownership of the whole function. Give them a realistic scenario: here is the business, here is a decision the board is weighing, and here is a forecast that is starting to drift from actuals. Watch whether they diagnose why the forecast is off, redesign the approach, and tell leadership clearly what to do. A strong candidate owns the process and the credibility of the numbers; a weak one just rebuilds the model and waits for the next question.
Test the leadership dimension directly. Ask how they would set up a budget process from scratch, what standards they would impose on a team of analysts, and how they coach someone whose models are technically correct but impossible to audit. Listen for someone who has actually run a planning calendar, managed people, and stood in front of a board. Probe the SaaS depth: real command of ARR mechanics, net revenue retention, and CAC payback, plus how they reconcile the plan to the ERP and keep the model auditable as the team scales.
Green flags: they own outcomes rather than tasks, they have built and defended a model in front of a board, they develop the analysts under them, and they can explain a complex result to a non-finance executive in plain language. Bonus if they have supported a fundraise or run diligence.
Red flags: someone who is a brilliant individual contributor but has never owned a process or led a team, who confuses producing a forecast with owning its credibility, who cannot communicate to non-finance stakeholders, or who treats FP&A as spreadsheet work rather than business partnership and leadership. Be wary of managers who cannot articulate how they would set standards and develop a team, since that is the core of the role.
Use these to test modeling depth, leadership, and communication:
A US-based FP&A manager typically costs around $11,000 per month in base salary, and meaningfully more once you add bonus, equity, benefits, and recruiting fees. Senior FP&A leaders at well-funded SaaS and fintech companies command considerably more than that. Through South, a comparably skilled FP&A manager from Latin America runs closer to $5,150 per month, a savings of roughly 53%.
For a US hire, expect about $11,000 a month in base, plus a bonus, equity, and full benefits load on top, with a typical search taking two to three months or longer for leadership roles. Through South, the same caliber of manager from Latin America comes in around $5,150 a month, fully dedicated, working in your US time zone, with placement in roughly two to four weeks and no large upfront fee.
The gap reflects geography, not capability. Latin America has a deep pool of senior finance leaders trained in the same planning discipline, fluent in the same metrics, and experienced running FP&A for US and global companies. Many have led finance teams at multinationals, worked in investment banking or Big Four advisory, and run planning on the same Anaplan, NetSuite, and Excel stack their US peers use. They earn strong local compensation that still produces major savings for a US employer. Because a good FP&A manager directly improves the quality of capital allocation and growth decisions across the whole company, the return on the role is high and the lower cost makes it easy to justify.
FP&A leadership is a partnership role, and partnership requires real-time collaboration with US executives. The work happens in budget reviews, forecast discussions, board prep, and the constant back-and-forth with department heads and the CFO. A manager in Bogota, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, or Buenos Aires works your business hours, joins those conversations live, and turns around a board-ready scenario the same day rather than across a time gap that turns every planning cycle into a series of lost days. For a function defined by responsiveness during planning and board prep, that overlap is genuinely valuable.
The talent depth is substantial. Latin America produces a strong stream of senior finance professionals, many with experience leading teams at multinational companies, global banks, and the finance functions of US-headquartered firms. English proficiency is high among senior finance leaders, which matters enormously for a role built on presenting clearly to US executives and boards. The modeling rigor, metrics fluency, leadership experience, and tooling depth translate directly.
Retention is the quiet advantage. FP&A leadership knowledge compounds: a manager who knows your model's history, the reasoning behind every assumption, your board's expectations, and the seasonality of your business is far more valuable in year two than a fresh hire relearning it all. A full-time, dedicated manager who is well compensated locally and embedded in your team tends to stay, so that institutional knowledge accrues instead of walking out the door. South places finance leaders for long-term, full-time roles for exactly this reason, the same logic that makes Latin America strong for a finance manager or a head of finance.
South recruits, vets, and places full-time FP&A managers from across Latin America so you get a dedicated planning leader, not a senior analyst who needs constant direction. Every candidate is screened for what the role actually demands: expert financial modeling, ownership of a budget and forecast process, board-level communication, metrics command for your industry, and the leadership to set standards and develop a team. We test judgment and leadership with realistic scenarios, because the rare combination of modeling depth, business sense, and people skills is what separates a manager who owns the function from one who just produces output.
The process is fast. Most roles are filled in about two to four weeks, versus the two to three months a domestic FP&A leadership search typically takes. There are no large upfront fees and the pricing is straightforward, so you get an excellent manager at a fraction of US cost rather than a recruiting markup. You own the relationship. Your FP&A manager works on your team, in your time zone, inside your ERP and planning stack, reporting to you. South handles sourcing and vetting and supports the placement, but the manager is yours.
If your planning has outgrown a single analyst, or you are heading into a fundraise or a growth inflection that demands real financial leadership, an FP&A manager is the hire that makes planning a disciplined function and lets you make big decisions with your eyes open, and hiring from Latin America makes it affordable. Book a call with South and we will place a vetted FP&A manager on your team in weeks.
An FP&A manager through South typically runs around $5,150 per month for full-time, dedicated work, compared to roughly $11,000 per month for a comparable US hire, plus the bonus, equity, and benefits a US role carries. That is about 53% in savings, with no large upfront recruiting fees. Because a strong FP&A manager improves capital allocation and growth decisions across the whole company, the return on the role is high relative to its cost.
Yes. South places FP&A managers from countries like Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico whose business hours overlap with US time zones. This matters for FP&A leadership, which is a partnership role built on live budget reviews, forecast discussions, board prep, and fast turnarounds during planning cycles.
South screens for expert financial modeling, ownership of a budget and forecast process, board reporting, and the leadership to manage analysts. Many of our managers also have experience with planning tools like Anaplan or Adaptive Insights, ERPs like NetSuite, BI tools like Power BI, and deep metrics fluency for SaaS, professional services, or fintech. We match for your specific stack.
Most South placements happen in about two to four weeks, compared to the two to three months or longer a domestic leadership search commonly takes. South maintains a vetted pipeline of senior LatAm finance talent, so you move straight to interviewing strong, pre-screened candidates instead of starting from a blank slate.
An FP&A analyst builds models and runs variance analysis under direction. An FP&A manager owns the entire planning process, sets the methodology and standards, presents to the board, and manages the analysts. The manager is accountable for the credibility of the whole plan, not just the execution of individual models.
Full-time and dedicated. South does not place gig or freelance workers. Your FP&A manager is a long-term member of your team, which matters for this leadership role because planning knowledge and board relationships compound, and continuity makes every cycle more reliable as the manager learns your business.
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.
