5 Roles You Should Stop Hiring in the U.S.

The talent isn’t missing. You’re just looking in the wrong place.

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I will never get tired of saying this:

You need to hire people where the right skills and motivation already exist!

A while back, I was talking to a friend who runs a small tech company.

He needed to hire several C# developers (not an easy role to fill). It’s highly technical, very specific, and in the U.S., extremely expensive.

Like most small companies, he simply couldn’t justify U.S. dev rates.

Then he told me something that stopped me in my tracks.

In Nepal, high school students learn C# as part of their curriculum.

So he did what most founders don’t even consider:

He outsourced nearly 90% of his development work to Nepal.

And suddenly:

  • He had access to skilled, motivated developers

  • He could scale without burning cash

  • And he was paying a fraction of U.S. rates

The talent is out there.

You’re just searching in the wrong place.

Here are 5 roles you should seriously reconsider hiring in the U.S.

This one is the easiest win.

Most founders use EAs for:

  • inbox + calendar management

  • travel coordination

  • research

  • light ops + follow-ups

None of that requires a U.S. salary.

Typical compensation

Role

U.S.

Colombian

VA / EA

$3200 - $4800 / month

$900 - $3000/ month

What Colombian VAs & EAs bring

  • 5–10+ years supporting founders & execs

  • Fluent English (with neutral accents)

  • Strong tools stack: Notion, Slack, GSuite, ClickUp

  • Proactive problem solvers with familiarity with US expectations

  • Timezone overlap for real-time collaboration

Savings: $28k per hire, per year.

U.S.-based ops roles have become some of the most overpriced positions in growing companies.

The reality:

  • Ops ≠ strategy

  • Ops = execution, systems, accountability

Typical compensation

Role

U.S.

Serbia

Ops / PM

$5,200 - $10,000 / month

$1,700 - $4,500 / month

Our Serbian Ops Managers aren’t just 70% cheaper…

  • They’ve led cross-functional teams remotely

  • Built SOPs from scratch

  • Have deep experience in ClickUp, Asana, Monday, Jira

  • Comfortable managing U.S. teams across time zones

The project managers we place bring structure to chaos. They create accountability, clarity, and momentum so you can focus on growth instead of micromanagement.

If your SDR role is:

  • outbound email

  • LinkedIn prospecting

  • qualification + booking

There is zero reason it needs to be U.S.-based.

Typical compensation

Role

U.S.

South Africa

SDR

$4,200 - $6,500 / month

$1,000 - $3,000 / month

What our elite South African SDRs bring

  • Proven outbound frameworks

  • CRM-native (HubSpot, Salesforce, GHL)

  • Strong written + spoken English

  • Comfortable selling into the U.S. and EU markets

Skeptical? Meet Nicholas, one of the top-performing SDRs from Cape Town (click here to meet Nic).

This one surprises people.

Yes, great copywriters exist outside the U.S.
And many of them write better conversion-focused copy than expensive “brand” writers.

Typical compensation

Role

U.S.

South Africa

Copywriter

$6200 - $10600 / month

$850 - $4000 / month

What our South African Copywriters bring to the table

  • Direct-response experience

  • Email, landing page, ad, and funnel copy

  • Revenue-backed samples and strong portfolios 

  • Deep familiarity with U.S. audiences

Good copy takes great communication, native English, and a deep understanding of consumer psychology, and our South African Copywriters have all 3. 

This is where payroll waste really adds up.

Founders assume media buyers need to be local.
They don’t.

They need:

  • analytics

  • pattern recognition

  • discipline

  • accountability

Typical compensation

Role

U.S.

Eastern Europe

Media Buyer

$4,500 - $11,200 / month

$2,000 - $6,000 / month

What Eastern European Media Buyers are achieving 

  • $500k–$5M+ in managed monthly spend

  • Meta, Google, TikTok experience

  • Structured testing frameworks

  • Clear reporting tied to revenue

Our best media buyers are basically mini-CEOs for your account. 

Hiring globally doesn’t mean cutting corners.


It means allocating payroll where it actually matters.

You should only pay U.S. rates when proximity matters.

For everything else?

Build globally. Operate smarter. Scale faster.

And the best part is that if you’re hiring for any of these roles, we can help you:

  • source pre-vetted candidates

  • validate skills and experience

  • and avoid expensive hiring mistakes

👉 Book a call with our recruitment specialists
👉 Or reply to this email with the role you’re hiring for

We’ll show you what great talent actually looks like.

Until next time,

4.9 Google Rating
Nathan Fales

Nathan Fales

Nathan Fales is an award-winning entrepreneur and social impact leader who’s spent the last three years helping U.S. businesses build high-performing teams across the globe. His Lean Leverage recruitment model has helped dozens of entrepreneurs hire smarter, scale faster, and achieve stronger ROI through world-class talent.