June 25, 2025
With tighter budgets, limited hiring bandwidth, and constant pressure to deliver faster, many North American tech companies are rethinking their approach to hiring and team expansion. Traditional recruitment cycles in the U.S. and Canada have become longer, more expensive, and increasingly competitive, especially when it comes to mid-level to senior software engineers.
That’s why a growing number of engineering and product leaders are turning to offshore development teams. The goal isn’t just to cut costs, it’s to build sustainable, high-output teams that ship faster, scale smarter, and stay agile. Choosing the right model plays a crucial role in that success, which is why many are weighing the benefits of Offshore Vs Nearshore Teams: What’s Right for Your Business? before making the leap. Here’s how to do it right.
Here’s how to do it right.
Hiring great engineers in North America is expensive and slow. According to data from Glassdoor and Levels. fyi, the average total compensation for a mid-level software developer in the U.S. exceeds $150,000 per year, and that doesn’t include bonuses, equity, or benefits.
In Canada, the story is similar. Between 2021 and 2023, tech salaries increased by 14%, driven by a shortage of skilled developers across provinces (source: CBRE's Tech Talent Report).
Meanwhile, offshore teams offer access to highly skilled, English-speaking developers located in top global tech hubs such as Sri Lanka, India, Colombia, and Morocco. These professionals often have experience working with global product companies and are comfortable using agile practices, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native architecture, at 40–60% lower cost.
The result for North American teams?
This isn’t about hiring cheap labor, it’s about building a lean, high-performance offshore development team that operates just like your in-house squad.
The offshore model succeeds only when it’s executed with intention. Simply hiring a few developers overseas and assigning them tickets doesn’t cut it.
Here’s what separates effective offshore development from outsourced chaos:
Forget the myth that offshore means asynchronous handoffs and missed messages. When set up correctly, offshore teams can work in full or partial overlap with your core hours, especially on EST and PST.
At Type B Digital, for example, our teams in Colombo and Bogotá are time zone-aligned with U.S. clients. That means daily standups, sprint planning sessions, and ad hoc communication all happen in real time.
The best offshore teams run on your sprint cycle. That means weekly or bi-weekly deliveries, backlog grooming, planning meetings, retrospectives, and velocity tracking, just like an in-house team.
According to Accelerance’s 2023 Global Software Outsourcing Report, offshore squads that follow agile practices can deliver MVPs 20–30% faster than conventional dev shops.
Great developers don't work in silos, they work in your systems. The best offshore developers comment in your Figma files, reply in Slack threads, show up to standups, and work from your Jira or Linear boards.
When a remote team is truly embedded in your tools, rituals, and feedback loops, they stop feeling like “contractors” and start behaving like your core team.
The offshore model gives you flexibility, but that doesn’t mean settling for generic skills. You want developers who’ve worked on fintech platforms, SaaS products, React dashboards, or whatever mirrors your current roadmap.
Skill fit is still king. The difference is, now you can hire exactly what you need, without waiting three months or blowing your budget.
Let’s break down how offshore development compares to in-house hiring in real numbers, without any compromise on quality.
Instead of using a chart, here’s the same data clearly written out:
An in-house developer in the U.S. or Canada typically costs $120,000-$160,000 per year. That includes salary but doesn’t factor in benefits, taxes, equipment, or long onboarding cycles.
By contrast, a similarly experienced offshore engineer working with Type B Digital would cost between $40,000 and $70,000 per year.
Hiring an in-house team of 3-4 developers often requires a budget exceeding $500,000 annually. The same sprint-ready team working offshore through Type B costs between $180,000 and $250,000 per year, without sacrificing delivery speed or engineering quality.
Hiring timelines are another major differentiator:
Now apply that time and cost savings to your next MVP release or product relaunch. You’re not just cutting overhead, you’re gaining delivery velocity and adaptability.
And according to Deloitte’s Global Outsourcing Survey, 70% of companies still cite cost reduction as a key driver for outsourcing, but 40% now rank speed to market and quality of delivery as equal priorities.
We’re not a staffing firm or dev shop. We build lean, embedded offshore squads that integrate with your existing product team and move at startup speed.
Here’s how we make offshore development teams actually work for North American companies:
Whether you're building a new product, extending your engineering team, or clearing a backlog, our model is designed for speed, clarity, and continuous improvement.
Final Word
Offshore development isn’t a shortcut; it’s a smarter operating model. For North American companies facing budget pressure and growing delivery demands, offshore teams provide the flexibility, velocity, and cost efficiency needed to stay ahead. When done right, it becomes a powerful form of resource augmentation, something we dive into more in How Resource Augmentation Supports Tech Teams In North America.
But success depends on more than location. It comes down to how well your offshore partner integrates into your delivery culture, your tools, and your roadmap.
At Type B Digital, we help North American startups and scale-ups build offshore development teams that ship fast, collaborate deeply, and deliver reliably, without the bloat of traditional agencies. Let’s collaborate and build something extraordinary together.
Let’s collaborate and build something extraordinary together.
Type B Digital - The go-to partner for forward-thinking teams ready to turn ideas into impact.
