Hiring through Second Talent

Reach out via WhatsApp or book a consultation. Most clients receive their first shortlist within 24 hours of that first call. Our team will walk you through outstaffing, EOR, and talent matching options, no upfront fees, no long-term lock-in.

Helpful to have on hand: role title, stack and seniority level, working hours and timezone requirements, budget range, and how quickly you need someone to start. If you don't have a formal job description ready, we can help draft one as part of onboarding.

No. Whether you hire through our EOR or outstaffing model, you don't need a local entity in any of the nine Asian markets we cover. We act as the legal employer on record, handling payroll, tax filings, benefits, and employment contracts, fully compliant with local labor laws.

After the brief is locked, we run candidates through our vetting pipeline and deliver a shortlist of 6-8 pre-vetted profiles within 24 hours. You interview while we run reference checks in parallel. Once you select a candidate, we handle contracts, compliance, and onboarding. Your assigned account manager stays on for weekly check-ins during the first month.

Reach out to your account manager directly. If a placed candidate isn't working out, we activate our replacement guarantee at no additional fee. If there's a compliance or payroll issue, our legal team handles it. We conduct weekly check-ins during the first month so most issues are caught before they escalate.

It is the operating system we use to run everything end to end. Sourcing from our 100,000+ engineer pool, vetting pipelines, AI-assisted candidate matching, contract generation under local law, monthly payroll across 9 Asian markets, and post-placement check-ins all run through it. It is the reason we can deliver shortlists in 24 hours and onboard engineers in days instead of months.

Not yet. Today, our account managers operate the platform on your behalf. You stay focused on the hiring decisions; we handle the operational layer. We are building a client view for 2026, prioritizing the workflows clients ask about most often: live shortlist tracking, contract status, payroll exports, and headcount reporting. Your feedback shapes what ships first.

AI handles the heavy lifting at scale: matching candidates from our pool against your stack, seniority, and timezone needs, scoring technical assessments against role-specific rubrics, flagging which 6 to 8 profiles make the human review stage, and surfacing engagement signals during placement so we catch retention risk early. Final shortlist decisions are still made by senior engineers and account managers. AI is the operating leverage, not the judge.

Every EOR engagement runs through the platform from contract signing onward. Employment contracts are generated under each country's labor law (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand), monthly payroll runs in local currency with statutory contributions handled, payslips and tax documents are issued to engineers automatically, and terminations follow local notice periods and severance rules. One operations layer, nine jurisdictions, zero entities required on your side.

Speed and consistency. The platform is why we can deliver shortlists in 24 hours instead of weeks, why payroll runs cleanly across 9 different markets, and why retention check-ins happen on schedule for every placed engineer. You get the output of a 50-person operations team without managing one. The fewer tools you log into, the better.

All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Internal access is role-based with mandatory two-factor authentication for our team. Audit logs track every action. We do not share or sell data with third parties. Candidate and engineer records follow PDPA (Singapore, Thailand) and GDPR-aligned standards across our markets. When the client view ships, the same access controls extend to your team.

For every 830 applicants in our pipeline, only 6-8 make it to a client shortlist. Vetting includes technical assessments, AI skills evaluation, English proficiency testing, multiple structured interviews, and pre-offer reference checks from previous managers. Every shortlist profile includes a CV, interview recording, English rating, and salary expectations.

You'll have a shortlist of 6-8 pre-vetted candidates within 24 hours of your brief. Interviews typically happen within the first week. From first conversation to engineer starting, most clients are looking at 1-2 weeks for common roles, slightly longer for highly specialized or senior positions.

Absolutely. Interviews are a core step in the process. We run reference checks in parallel with your interviews so we're not adding time to the process. By the time you're ready to make an offer, the background is already verified.

We take time to understand your company's working style, communication norms, and team structure during the initial brief. We assess candidates on working style, communication preferences, and growth goals, and include that information in the shortlist profile so you can evaluate fit before the interview, not after.

Your account manager conducts weekly check-ins during the first month to monitor onboarding progress and catch any early friction. Monthly check-ins continue thereafter. For outstaffing and EOR clients, we handle all ongoing payroll, compliance, and HR matters for the duration of the engagement.

We focus on engineering and technical roles across technology, SaaS, fintech, Web3, eCommerce, and AI. Common roles: Full-Stack Engineers, Back-End Engineers, AI / ML Engineers, DevOps Engineers, Cloud Engineers, Data Engineers, Mobile Developers, AI Agent Developers, Web3 Developers, Forward Deployed Engineers.

Outstaffing and contracting engagements are priced from US$5,000/month per engineer and US$3,000/month for SDRs/BDRs. This covers placement, account management, payroll processing, compliance, and HR support, no additional service fees on top. EOR fees are scoped separately depending on market, headcount, and benefits structure.

No. We provide a complete cost breakdown before any agreement is signed. No surprise admin fees, no currency markups, no platform access charges added later. Replacements are included at no extra charge.

Most clients save 60-75% compared to equivalent U.S. salaries. A senior full-stack engineer in the U.S. costs $12,000-$18,000/month. Through Second Talent, the same caliber of talent costs $3,000-$6,000/month, fully loaded with payroll, compliance, and account management. No benefits overhead, no office costs, no recruitment fees.

Yes. Our contracts include termination clauses with reasonable notice periods. We don't lock you in, we keep clients because the service works. For EOR engagements, exits involve local law compliance (notice periods, severance), which we handle on your behalf.

Yes. Clients hiring 5+ engineers receive tiered pricing. We also offer dedicated account management and priority sourcing for larger engagements. Ask your account manager for a custom proposal based on your team size and timeline.

An Employer of Record (EOR) is a third-party organization that becomes the legal employer for your remote workforce in a foreign country. Second Talent acts as the EOR, handling employment contracts, payroll processing, tax filings, benefits, and compliance with local labor laws. You maintain full control over the engineer's day-to-day work. For most clients, EOR cuts time-to-hire in a new market from 3-6 months to under 2 weeks.

We provide EOR services across nine Asian markets with dedicated compliance expertise and established local payroll infrastructure in each: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Thailand.

Employment contract drafting and execution under local law, monthly payroll processing and salary disbursement, tax filings and statutory contributions, benefits administration (health, leave, local statutory requirements), ongoing HR support and policy management, employee onboarding and offboarding, termination support and severance handling.

Almost always, yes, especially in the early stages of international hiring. Setting up a legal entity typically takes 3-6 months and costs tens of thousands of dollars in legal and registration fees, plus ongoing local accounting and HR infrastructure. EOR gets you hiring in weeks, not months.

Yes. If you decide to set up a local entity and bring engineers directly onto your payroll, we support that transition, handling employment contract novation, payroll migration, and benefit continuity so the engineer's experience is seamless throughout.

We manage the full termination process in compliance with local law, notice periods, severance calculations, legal documentation, and final payroll processing. Always speak to your account manager before initiating a termination so we can advise on the right process for the specific market.

An AI-native engineer integrates AI tools, LLMs, coding copilots, agent frameworks, into their daily workflow as a default, not as an experiment. All our developers are trained on Claude Code (Anthropic's CLI for AI-assisted development) and use it for code generation, debugging, refactoring, and codebase exploration. We assess AI fluency as a distinct dimension during vetting, separate from general technical skill. This includes evaluating real usage of tools like Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and LangChain in actual project contexts.

AI proficiency is a dedicated section of our vetting process, separate from general technical skill. We evaluate which tools candidates actively use (Cursor, Claude, Copilot, LangChain, etc.), how they approach AI-assisted development, their experience building with LLMs and AI agents, and how they stay current with the rapidly changing tooling landscape.

Core (all developers): Claude Code, every engineer in our network is trained and assessed on Anthropic's Claude Code CLI for AI-native development workflows.

AI coding tools: Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf
Agent frameworks: LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen
LLM platforms: OpenAI API, Claude API, Gemini, Hugging Face
ML frameworks: PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV
Automation: n8n, Flowise, Zapier AI

Every developer is proficient in at least two AI toolchains. We verify this through live coding assessments with Claude Code, not self-reported surveys.

Yes. We have a growing pool of specialists in multi-agent systems, RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) architectures, vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, ChromaDB), and orchestration frameworks like LangGraph and CrewAI. These engineers have built production AI systems, not just prototypes.

Our internal data shows AI-native engineers deliver 30-50% more output compared to traditional developers at equivalent seniority levels. They ship faster because AI tools handle boilerplate, code review, testing, and documentation. The result: your team builds more with fewer engineers, which directly reduces costs and shortens release cycles.

Yes. AI tooling changes fast. We re-assess AI skills quarterly across our talent pool. Engineers who fall behind on current tools are flagged. We also run internal benchmarks comparing productivity across tool stacks so we can advise clients on which combinations drive the best results for their use case.

Track record: 200+ companies served, 8,000+ engineers placed, 98% client satisfaction.
Recognized: G2 rated #1 in Global Hiring, Trustpilot Excellent, Clutch Top Global B2B.
Transparent: $0 upfront fees, no hidden costs, unlimited replacements.
Operator-built: Founded by people who ran their own remote engineering team first, we built the platform we wished existed.
Compliant: Legal entities in 9 Asian markets with in-house compliance teams.

We offer a 90-day satisfaction guarantee on all placements. If a hired candidate doesn't meet expectations within 90 days, we replace them at no additional cost. For outstaffing and contracting engagements, replacements are unlimited for the duration of the contract. This is not a refund, it's a commitment to getting it right.

We follow strict data handling protocols aligned with applicable privacy regulations across our markets, including PDPA (Singapore, Thailand) and GDPR-aligned standards for clients in the EU and UK. Candidate and employee data is stored securely, access is role-restricted, and we do not sell or share data with third parties. All engineers sign NDAs before placement.

Reach out to your account manager directly. If a placed candidate isn't working out, we activate our replacement guarantee at no additional fee. If there's a compliance or payroll issue, our legal team handles it. We conduct weekly check-ins during the first month so most issues are caught before they escalate. No finger-pointing, no delays.

Yes. We have published case studies across technology, SaaS, Web3, fintech, and eCommerce, including clients like Open Campus, Beyond Cars (acquired by Carro), Tom Ferry International, and Lane Crawford Joyce Group. Ask your account manager for references from clients in a similar industry or market. We also have 50+ verified reviews on G2 and Trustpilot.

Every candidate goes through a multi-step identity and experience verification process before they reach your shortlist.

Identity: Government-issued ID verification, video interview with camera on (matched to ID), and IP/location checks to confirm they are based where they claim.
Experience: We verify employment history through direct reference calls with previous managers (not just HR). Technical claims are tested through live coding assessments on their stated stack, not take-home tests that can be outsourced.
Education: Degree and certification claims are cross-checked against institution records where available.
Ongoing: During the first month, weekly check-ins with both client and engineer catch any discrepancies between the interview and actual performance. If something does not add up, we activate replacement immediately at no cost.

All placed engineers sign NDAs and IP assignment agreements before starting. The specific terms can be customized to your company's requirements. For outstaffing and EOR clients, our contracts include standard IP clauses ensuring all work product belongs to you. We can also work with your legal team to incorporate your existing IP agreements.

Our AI-native engineers consistently match or exceed the output of equivalent in-house hires. Three reasons: (1) AI tools accelerate their workflow by 30-50%, (2) they are pre-vetted for the exact stack and seniority you need, so ramp-up is minimal, and (3) they work full-time, dedicated to your team, not split across projects like freelancers.

Retention and engagement drive sustained productivity. We assess cultural fit and growth alignment during vetting. Post-placement, your account manager runs regular check-ins to catch engagement issues early. We also advise on competitive compensation benchmarks per market to reduce turnover risk. Engineers who feel valued, challenged, and fairly paid perform best.

Yes. We source engineers with 4-6 hours of daily overlap with U.S. business hours as standard, without requiring engineers to work unusual hours. Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines naturally align with U.S. morning sessions. We confirm overlap windows during the brief so they are built into role requirements from day one.

Most of our engineers are productive within the first week. Our vetting process matches candidates to your exact tech stack, so there is no framework learning curve. We also recommend onboarding best practices: shared codebases on day one, paired programming sessions in week one, and a clear 30-day milestone plan. AI tools like Cursor and Claude Code accelerate codebase understanding significantly.

Yes. Our model is built for flexibility. Need to add 3 engineers next month? We deliver shortlists in 24 hours. Need to scale down? Our contracts include clear notice periods with no penalty fees. For outstaffing clients, scaling is handled entirely by us, payroll, contracts, compliance adjustments, so your HR team is not burdened.

We do not micromanage your engineers. You direct their work and evaluate their output. What we do: run regular check-ins to flag engagement or communication issues, gather feedback from both sides, and intervene early if there is a mismatch. If performance is not meeting expectations, we help you decide between coaching and replacement, and act quickly on either path.

We maintain dedicated compliance and legal teams for each of our nine markets. Employment contracts are drafted under local law, payroll is processed to local tax and statutory contribution requirements, and we monitor regulatory changes proactively, adjusting contracts and payroll systems before deadlines hit.

The most common risks are misclassification (treating employees as contractors when local law deems them employees), non-compliant payroll, and wrongful termination exposure, particularly in markets with strong worker protections like Indonesia and the Philippines. Using an EOR or outstaffing model with Second Talent eliminates all of these.

Yes. We manage the full exit process: severance calculations under local law, termination documentation, final payroll processing, and ensuring the exit is legally clean. Always speak to your account manager before taking any step toward termination.

We follow strict data handling protocols aligned with applicable privacy regulations across our markets, including PDPA (Singapore, Thailand) and GDPR-aligned standards for clients in the EU and UK. Candidate and employee data is stored securely, access is role-restricted, and we do not sell or share data with third parties.

Yes. We draft and execute employment contracts under applicable law for each market, covering probation periods, termination clauses, non-compete provisions, benefits, and salary structures.

We operate across nine markets with in-market compliance expertise and sourcing infrastructure in each: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Thailand. Each market has different talent profiles, cost structures, and compliance requirements.

We source engineers with 4-6 hours of overlap with U.S. business hours as standard, without requiring engineers to work unusual hours. Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines naturally align with U.S. morning sessions. We confirm overlap windows during the brief so they're built into role requirements.

The most common friction points are navigating different labor laws per country, managing multi-currency payroll, time zone coverage, and accurately assessing English proficiency. Our model addresses all of these: we handle legal and payroll complexity, we rate English proficiency for every candidate, and we source engineers with matching overlap built in.

Outstaffing: Engineers placed on full-time contracts through us. You direct their work; we handle payroll, compliance, and HR.

Recruitment: We source and vet candidates for you to hire directly onto your own payroll.

Employer of Record (EOR): We become the legal employer in the target country, managing employment contracts, taxes, benefits, and ongoing HR.

No. We only place full-time engineers. Freelance and short-term contracts tend to create management overhead without the productivity gains clients are looking for. If you're testing demand before committing, we can discuss a structured 3-month engagement within our outstaffing model.