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 a solutions architect, you get the person who turns a complex customer requirement into a working technical solution and closes the gap between sales promises and real implementation. South places full-time, pre-vetted solutions architects from Latin America who work in your US time zone, cost about 56% less than a US hire, and start in roughly two to four weeks. You get a dedicated technical expert on your revenue team, not a fractional consultant.
A solutions architect is a technical expert who designs how a product or platform will fit a customer's specific environment, bridging sales, engineering, and the customer. They lead technical discovery, design integrations and architectures, run proofs of concept, and translate business needs into technical plans that engineering can build and customers can trust.
The role sits at a crossroads, and that is the point. A pure salesperson can sell the vision but cannot answer the hard technical questions. A pure engineer can build anything but may not understand the commercial context or speak the customer's language. The solutions architect does both. In a SaaS or cloud infrastructure company, they are often the person in the room who makes a $500,000 enterprise deal feel safe to the buyer's technical team, because they can credibly explain how the product will integrate with the customer's existing stack, meet their security requirements, and scale to their needs.
There are two broad flavors of the role, and it helps to know which you need. Pre-sales solutions architects work alongside sales, joining discovery calls, scoping technical requirements, building demos and proofs of concept, answering security and architecture questions, and helping close deals. They are measured on pipeline influence and win rates. This flavor overlaps heavily with the sales engineer role, and at many companies the titles are nearly interchangeable. Post-sales or delivery solutions architects pick up after the deal closes, designing the actual implementation, guiding integration, and ensuring the customer gets to value. Some companies split these, others ask one person to do both.
Across both flavors, the technical substance is real. A strong solutions architect is fluent in cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), understands API design and integration patterns, can reason about authentication, data flows, networking, and security, and can sketch an architecture on a whiteboard that a customer's engineers respect. They produce solution designs, reference architectures, integration plans, and technical proposals. The best ones are also excellent communicators who can move between a CTO conversation and a hands-on configuration session without missing a beat. That combination of depth and range is why the role commands high salaries and why it is hard to hire well. Companies in SaaS, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise software lean on solutions architects as the connective tissue between what they sell and what they deliver.
The clearest trigger is that your deals have gotten too technical for your account executives to handle alone. When prospects start asking detailed integration, security, and architecture questions, and your salespeople are stuck saying "let me check with engineering," you are losing momentum and pulling engineers off product work to firefight sales calls. A solutions architect absorbs that load, answers credibly in real time, and keeps deals moving. The first time one saves an enterprise deal that would have stalled on a security review, the hire has paid for itself.
The second trigger is deal size and complexity. As you move upmarket from self-serve or SMB sales into mid-market and enterprise, the technical bar rises sharply. Enterprise buyers have technical evaluators who need to be convinced, proofs of concept that need to be run, and existing systems that your product has to fit into. That is exactly the work a solutions architect owns. If you are signing larger contracts that require real implementation planning, you need the role.
The third trigger is implementation failures. If customers sign but then struggle to integrate and adopt your product, churn follows. A delivery-focused solutions architect designs implementations that actually work and gets customers to value faster, protecting the revenue you worked hard to win.
Who should not hire yet: a company selling a simple, self-serve product into SMBs where the sales motion is light and technical questions are rare. If your product integrates in minutes and your deals close without a technical evaluation, a dedicated solutions architect will be underused, and your engineers can field the occasional question. The honest test is whether technical complexity is slowing your sales cycle or hurting your implementations. If it is, hire. If your motion is genuinely low-touch, wait until deals get more technical.
Evaluate solutions architects on the rare combination at the heart of the role: can they go deep technically, and can they communicate that depth to people who are not engineers? Most candidates are strong on one axis and weak on the other. The pure engineer struggles to read a room or handle a skeptical buyer. The polished communicator gets exposed the moment a customer's architect asks a hard question. You want someone who holds both. The best way to test it is a live exercise: give them a realistic customer scenario and have them lead discovery, then design and explain a solution out loud.
Watch how they handle ambiguity and pushback. Real customer environments are messy, and great solutions architects ask sharp clarifying questions before proposing anything. When you challenge their design, a strong candidate engages with the tradeoffs and adjusts, while a weak one gets defensive or hand-waves. Listen for whether they design for the customer's actual constraints or just pitch the happy path. The ability to say "here is what I would not recommend, and why" is a green flag, because it shows they are advising rather than just selling.
Green flags: they ask about the customer's existing stack and constraints before designing, they can whiteboard an architecture and defend it, they translate technical decisions into business impact, and they have stories about deals they helped win or implementations they rescued. Curiosity about your product's actual mechanics is a strong positive. This is the same instinct you want in a great sales engineer or solutions engineer.
Red flags: someone who only talks in buzzwords without technical substance, who has never actually built or configured anything, who cannot explain a concept simply, or who treats every customer problem as a nail for their one hammer. Be wary, too, of candidates with deep engineering chops but visible discomfort in customer-facing situations, since the role is fundamentally about people as much as systems.
Use these to test both halves of the role:
A US-based solutions architect typically costs around $12,500 per month in base salary, often more once you add bonus, equity, benefits, and recruiting fees, and senior architects at enterprise software companies command considerably more. Through South, a comparably skilled solutions architect from Latin America runs closer to $5,500 per month, a savings of roughly 56%.
The difference reflects geography, not capability. Latin America has a deep pool of technical professionals fluent in cloud platforms and integration work, many of whom have supported global SaaS and enterprise customers. They earn strong local wages that still produce major savings for a US employer. Because the solutions architect role is so directly tied to revenue, the return is easy to see: you are putting a credible technical closer in front of customers at roughly half the fully loaded cost of a domestic hire, without compromising on the depth or polish the role demands.
This role is built on live customer interaction, which makes time zone overlap non-negotiable. Discovery calls, demos, technical workshops, and deal-closing conversations all happen in real time with your US prospects and your sales team. A solutions architect in Sao Paulo, Bogota, or Mexico City works your business hours, joins your sales calls, and collaborates with your account executives without the delay that wrecks offshore arrangements many time zones away. When a deal needs a technical answer this afternoon, your architect is online.
The talent depth is substantial. Latin America has produced a strong generation of cloud and integration specialists, many trained on AWS, Azure, and GCP and experienced supporting international customers. English fluency among senior technical professionals is high, which is essential for a customer-facing role where credibility depends on clear communication with sophisticated buyers.
Retention matters here because product and customer knowledge compound. A solutions architect gets more effective the longer they work with your product, your common customer environments, and your sales team's rhythm. A full-time, dedicated architect who is well compensated locally and integrated into your revenue team tends to stay, so that knowledge accrues rather than resetting with each hire. South places architects for long-term, full-time roles for exactly this reason, the same logic that makes LatAm strong for a cloud engineer or a delivery-focused solutions engineer.
South recruits, vets, and places full-time solutions architects from across Latin America so you get a dedicated technical expert on your revenue team, not a contractor or fractional consultant. Every candidate is screened for what the role actually requires: real cloud and integration depth, the ability to design and explain solutions, customer-facing polish, and fluent professional English. We test the rare combination of technical substance and communication that separates a great solutions architect from a merely competent one.
The process is fast. Most roles are filled in about two to four weeks, versus the two to three months a domestic solutions architect search typically takes. There are no large upfront fees, and the pricing model is straightforward, so you get an excellent architect at a fraction of US cost rather than a recruiting markup. You own the relationship. Your solutions architect works on your team, in your time zone, in your sales and product workflows, reporting to you. South handles sourcing and vetting and supports the placement, but the architect is yours.
If your deals are stalling on technical questions or your implementations are struggling, a solutions architect is the role that fixes both, and hiring from Latin America makes it affordable. Book a call with South and we will place a vetted solutions architect on your team in weeks.
A solutions architect through South typically runs around $5,500 per month for full-time, dedicated work, compared to roughly $12,500 per month for a comparable US hire. That is about 56% in savings, with no large upfront recruiting fees. Because the role drives revenue directly, the return on the lower cost is easy to measure.
Yes. South places solutions architects from countries like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina whose business hours overlap with US time zones. This is essential for the role, since discovery calls, demos, and deal-closing conversations all happen live with your US prospects and your sales team.
The roles overlap heavily and titles vary by company. A sales engineer is usually focused on the pre-sales technical motion, demos, and answering buyer questions. A solutions architect often goes deeper on solution design and may also handle post-sale implementation architecture. Many companies use one person for both, and South can match for either emphasis.
Most South placements happen in about two to four weeks, compared to the two to three months a domestic search commonly takes. South maintains a vetted pipeline of LatAm technical talent, so you move straight to interviewing strong, pre-screened candidates.
Many do. South can match for candidates holding certifications like AWS Solutions Architect Associate or Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or Google Professional Cloud Architect, depending on the stack and seniority you need. We screen for hands-on cloud and integration experience, not just paper credentials.
Full-time and dedicated. South does not place gig or freelance workers. Your solutions architect is a long-term member of your team, which matters because their effectiveness grows with deep knowledge of your product, your common customer environments, and your sales motion.
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.
