The US market for AI engineers has gotten expensive fast. Average salaries crossed $206,000 in 2025, and that figure doesn't account for benefits, payroll taxes, or the months spent sourcing candidates in a talent pool where job postings grew 143% in a single year. If you're an engineering leader trying to build a real AI team, not just fill one seat, domestic-only hiring means paying more for less. Every open headcount costs you twice: once in salary, again in lost velocity.
Howdy sources, vets, employs, and retains remote AI engineers from Latin America for US product teams. The model is built for engineering leaders who need long-term AI talent working their hours, at a fraction of US cost, without the overhead of setting up foreign entities or managing international compliance themselves.
Roles covered
Howdy places six distinct AI and ML role types, each mapped to a specific function within modern AI product teams:
- AI Engineer. The generalist who bridges research and production. AI engineers build and deploy end-to-end AI systems, integrating models into production applications and managing the infrastructure that keeps them running.
- ML Engineer. Owns the model lifecycle: data pipeline construction, training, evaluation, deployment, and performance monitoring in production. If a model breaks at 2 AM, this is the person who knows why.
- LLM Engineer. Fine-tuning large language models, building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, designing agentic workflows. Enterprise adoption of generative AI has made this one of the hardest roles to fill and one of the most expensive.
- AI Prompt Engineer. Designs and optimizes prompts for LLM-powered systems. The work is more engineering than copywriting: systematic prompt construction that improves output quality, reduces hallucinations, and lowers token costs at scale.
- Conversational Chatbot AI Engineer. Customer-facing chatbots, voice assistants, multi-turn dialogue systems. This role sits at the intersection of NLP, UX, and backend integration, and it requires someone comfortable in all three.
- Machine Learning/AI Engineer. A hybrid role for teams where one person needs to handle both model development and production deployment. Often the right fit for smaller AI teams that need breadth over deep specialization.
Whether you're building RAG systems, fine-tuning large language models, deploying production ML pipelines, or designing conversational AI products, these roles cover the full spectrum.
Why LatAm AI engineers for US teams
Full or near-full US time zone overlap. Every Howdy market (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru) operates within or close to US time zones, enabling full or near-full overlap with US business hours. For product engineering that depends on synchronous collaboration, code reviews, and standups, that overlap is non-negotiable.
60 to 65% cost savings versus US hiring. Howdy's 2025 payroll data across 12,500+ placements shows LatAm AI engineers averaging $53,000 to $63,000 per year. US AI engineers averaged $206,000+. You can do the math on what that means for a five-person team.
Deep AI/ML talent supply. Mexico and Brazil produce some of the largest engineering university pipelines in the Western Hemisphere, with growing AI and ML specializations at the graduate level. Argentina and Colombia have developed strong Python and ML communities, with active open-source contribution and competitive performance in global coding benchmarks. Chile's expanding fintech and AI sector has added another layer of production-experienced engineers to the regional talent pool.
How to hire remote AI engineers: build vs. buy
US engineering leaders scaling AI teams internationally generally face four paths, each with distinct tradeoffs. For a deeper look at Howdy's step-by-step hiring process, the companion guide breaks down each stage in detail.
Direct international hiring gives you the most control but requires setting up legal entities in each country, managing local labor law compliance, and administering benefits and payroll yourself. For a single country that overhead may be worth it. Across multiple LatAm markets, the operational cost adds up fast.
Freelance marketplaces offer speed and flexibility. The tradeoff is no employment continuity, no retention infrastructure, and limited ability to vet for long-term team fit. Freelancers also typically work on contract terms, which creates IP and availability risk for core engineering functions.
Offshore agencies add a management layer between your team and the engineers, often using fixed contract terms and rotating staff. That can work for project-based work but creates friction for teams that need embedded, long-term contributors.
Howdy's model sits between these options: full-time, indefinite employment with no entity setup required, a single all-inclusive fee, and retention infrastructure designed to keep engineers in place for years rather than months.
How Howdy compares to other AI hiring options
- Freelance marketplaces. Fast to start, but no employment continuity, limited vetting for long-term fit, and no built-in retention infrastructure.
- Offshore agencies. Managed model with a layer between you and the engineers. Often contract-based with rotating staff, which limits direct control and team cohesion.
- Direct international hiring. Maximum control over the relationship, but requires entity setup and local labor law compliance in each country you hire from.
- Howdy. Full-time employment in each LatAm country, no entity setup required, a single all-inclusive fee, and retention infrastructure (benefits, coaching, physical offices, employment continuity) built into the model.
How Howdy vets AI engineers
Howdy's recruiters are full-time psychologists who use structured evaluation frameworks to assess candidates. The process goes beyond technical screening to evaluate communication style, collaboration patterns, and long-term fit with US product teams.
Out of thousands of candidates evaluated annually, what Howdy reports as roughly 1% make it through. Vetting starts within 24 hours of a partner request, and the full recruitment cycle typically runs 4 to 6 weeks.
What's included: end-to-end model
Howdy charges a single 15% all-inclusive fee. That fee covers every operational layer between you and a fully employed, fully supported remote AI engineer.
Recruiting and vetting
Psychologist-led structured evaluations produce what Howdy reports as a top 1% selection rate. Every candidate is assessed on technical depth, soft skills, and alignment with your team's working style before you ever see a profile.
Employment and compliance
Howdy operates as the employer of record in each country. Local contracts handle IP protection, payroll runs on time, and your company never needs to set up a foreign entity. Compliance across eight LatAm countries is managed entirely by Howdy's operations team.
Retention and support
Howdy's retention rate sits at 98%, drawn from internal placement data across 12,500+ professionals in eight countries. Full-time, indefinite employment (not contract terms with expiration dates) is the foundation of that number.
AI training
Every engineer receives structured AI training during onboarding, covering AI-native engineering practices so your new hire arrives already working with the tools and patterns your team cares about.
Cost: LatAm AI engineers vs. US hiring
Howdy's 2025 payroll data shows LatAm AI engineers averaging $53,000 to $63,000 per year. US AI engineers averaged $206,000+ in 2025, salary alone, before benefits, office overhead, and equipment.
Who this is for
Howdy is built for enterprise and midmarket US engineering leaders who are building long-term AI teams. Placements typically range from mid-level to senior engineers, with the strongest results coming from teams that embed Howdy engineers directly into existing US engineering orgs rather than running them as standalone offshore units. If you need one contractor for a three-month project, this won't be the right fit.
If you're scaling an AI function, adding ML and LLM engineers to an existing product org, or standing up a dedicated AI team that needs to operate as a real extension of your US engineering group, Howdy's full-time employment model and retention infrastructure are built for exactly that use case.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly can Howdy source remote AI engineers?
Vetting kicks off within 24 hours. From there, expect 4 to 6 weeks to a hired, onboarded engineer, though complex or senior roles can take longer.
What AI engineering roles does Howdy place?
Six roles: AI Engineer, ML Engineer, LLM Engineer, AI Prompt Engineer, Conversational Chatbot AI Engineer, and Machine Learning/AI Engineer. They cover everything from model training to production deployment to prompt optimization.
How does Howdy handle compliance when hiring AI engineers in Latin America?
Howdy is the employer of record in each country. That means local contracts, IP protection, payroll, and labor law compliance are all handled on Howdy's side. Your company doesn't need a legal entity anywhere in LatAm.
What does the 15% fee cover?
The fee covers recruiting, employer-of-record administration, compliance, payroll, benefits (medical, dental, vision, wellness), onboarding, performance coaching, physical office access at Howdy Houses, equipment, community programming, and structured AI training. No add-on charges.
Do LatAm AI engineers work US hours?
Yes. Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru all operate within or close to US time zones, enabling full or near-full overlap with US business hours. Every Howdy engineer works synchronously with their US team during standard business hours.
How does Howdy's retention compare to other platforms?
98% retention rate, based on internal data across 12,500+ professionals in eight LatAm countries. That's what happens when you combine full-time employment, real benefits, physical offices, performance coaching, and a network that keeps engineers employed even when individual assignments end.
Get started
If you're ready to hire remote AI engineers from Latin America with full time zone overlap, vetted talent, and an all-inclusive employment model, book a demo to see how Howdy works for your team.
