AI-Enabled LATAM Talent for Agencies

We headhunt the ones who aren't looking.

Hire one LATAM operator. Get the output of two US hires — typically $80,000 to $120,000 in year-one margin saved. The seniors worth hiring are already employed at another agency and ignoring recruiters; we headhunt them, score them on a 3-level AI rubric, and run a 4-week post-placement program on reporting, automation, and churn prevention.

Start a SearchHow it works →
21d
Median time to three vetted candidates
100%
Currently-employed operators · zero from job boards
$52K+
Typical year-one margin saved per placement
// Eight active searches per monthCurrently placing in Medellín · Buenos Aires · Mexico City · BogotáEST overlap · C1+ English
The problem

Job boards send you the candidates nobody else wanted. And none of them know AI.

The candidates applying to your Indeed post are applying to thirty others the same morning. They have never used Claude for a QBR. They have never automated a client report. They leave for the next two-hundred-dollar raise.

01

Two hundred applications. Three worth a conversation.

By the time you find the three real candidates buried in the Indeed inbox, you have lost a Saturday and the good ones already accepted somewhere else.

02

Generalist recruiters do not speak agency.

They send enterprise SaaS résumés against an agency brief. The vocabulary is wrong, the work history is wrong, and the first 30 days are spent re-teaching what client work even is.

03

The hire leaves within ninety days.

Active job seekers leave for the next active offer. Six weeks of your time, gone before they have run a single full reporting cycle.

04

Zero AI fluency.

Your new hire has never used AI for reporting, automation, or client communication. You are paying 2026 prices for 2020 skills.

The Vela Method

Three steps to a fully-trained AI-enabled operator.

30 days from brief approval to 2x output.

Step 01
Headhunt.

Currently-employed operators in your vertical. Not active applicants, not job-board candidates.

Step 02
Vet.

3-level AI aptitude rubric plus working-call vetting bar. Tool familiarity, prompt judgment, live workflow.

Step 03
Train.

4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessions, weekly, for the first 4 weeks post-placement. Real human AI coach, not a self-paced course.

How the method runs

Four steps. You only handle the part that matters.

Sourcing, screening, AI vetting, and post-placement training are on us. You run two final interviews and pick the hire.

  1. 1

    A fifteen-minute intake.

    We ask the questions and draft the role brief. You do not write a job description.

  2. 2

    We headhunt.

    Direct outreach to operators currently employed at agencies in your vertical. First profile in seven days.

  3. 3

    You interview and choose.

    Three AI-screened candidates in twenty-one days, with full profiles, Loom intros, and aptitude scores.

  4. 4

    We train them on AI.

    4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessions, weekly for the first 4 weeks post-placement. A real human AI coach covering client communication, reporting, automation, and churn prevention.

The AI advantage

They arrive agency-trained. They leave month one AI-enabled.

Every senior placement runs through 4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessions, weekly, across the first 4 weeks post-placement. Built and run by an operator using these workflows on live agency accounts.

// WEEK 1
AI for client communication.
Drafting emails, Slack updates, and status reports with Claude and ChatGPT. Setting up AI templates for onboarding, check-ins, escalations, and QBR prep.
// WEEK 2
AI for reporting.
Analyzing campaign data with AI. Generating QBR decks. Automating weekly report summaries. Three hours of reporting becomes twenty minutes.
// WEEK 3
AI for automation.
Workflows in Zapier, Make, and n8n. Automated client alerts on churn risk and performance drops. A personal AI assistant for daily task management.
// WEEK 4
AI for churn prevention.
Identifying risk signals from client communication patterns. Building an AI-assisted health score. Triggering proactive outreach before the cancellation email.

Trained by an operator running AI-first agency operations daily. Not a course creator. Not a coach.

The screening

We test for something no one else tests for.

Every candidate runs a twenty-minute AI exercise during vetting, scored on three levels: tool familiarity, prompt judgment, and live workflow. We are not grading current mastery. We are grading learning speed and the ability to apply judgment to AI output.

// LEVEL 1
Tool familiarity.

Has used ChatGPT casually. Willing to learn. Needs guidance on prompting. The candidates who enter here, when paired with the rest of the rubric, tend to grow fastest in the program.

// LEVEL 2
Prompt judgment.

Uses AI weekly for drafting and analysis. Iterates on prompts. Catches AI errors instead of forwarding them to clients. This is the entry tier for the candidates we place.

// LEVEL 3
Live workflow.

Builds repeatable AI workflows. Can teach the rest of the team. By day thirty of the program, every placement operates here.

The exercise: a sample anonymized client dataset. Twenty minutes to draft a QBR summary with three recommendations using Claude or ChatGPT. We score comfort, prompting quality, iteration, and critical thinking.

Sample profiles

Three operators we'd send a real agency owner this week.

Anonymized representative profiles from a recent search batch. Each links to the same dossier we deliver after vetting — experience, AI rubric pass-marks, daily stack, target comp.

Camila Restrepo
// VEL-26-A-038

Camila Restrepo

Senior CSM · Paid Performance

Location
Medellín, Colombia
Years
6
AI rubric
3/3
Target base
$36K
Read profile →
Mateo Salazar
// VEL-26-A-041

Mateo Salazar

Senior Project Manager · SEO

Location
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Years
5
AI rubric
2/3
Target base
$32K
Read profile →
Valentina Cruz
// VEL-26-A-044

Valentina Cruz

Senior CSM · Cold Email

Location
Mexico City, Mexico
Years
7
AI rubric
3/3
Target base
$42K
Read profile →
The candidates

We vet on the tools you actually run. Then we layer AI on top.

Every operator has shipped paid client work in the stack your vertical depends on. We verify it on a working call, not a résumé. Week one of the program adds the AI layer.

// Cold Email
InstantlySmartleadApolloClayBisonLemlist
// Paid Ads
Meta AdsGoogle AdsTikTok AdsLooker StudioTriple Whale
// SEO
AhrefsSEMrushSurferScreaming FrogGSC
// General Ops
SlackNotionClickUpLoomHubSpotGoHighLevel
// AI Stack (added in onboarding)
ClaudeChatGPTZapierMaken8nNotion AI

C1+ English. Agency-trained. AI-screened. EST overlap. Every candidate, without exception.

By agency type

What the senior hire actually owns on day thirty.

Two seats by vertical: the senior CSM owns retention, reporting, and the client relationship. The senior project manager owns timelines, handoffs, and the delivery commitments that keep the work on schedule. Same vetting bar. Different seat.

// where retention is the product
// Senior CSM

Owns the client relationship.

  • Owns campaign performance and the weekly client cadence.
  • Runs monthly QBRs anchored on reply rate, meetings booked, and pipeline impact.
  • Monitors deliverability and surfaces inbox issues before clients raise them.
  • Owns churn prevention: early signals, intervention, save plays.
  • Uses AI to draft QBR summaries and flag deliverability risks before they escalate.
// Senior Project Manager

Owns the delivery.

  • Owns sequence build timelines and the campaign launch calendar.
  • Coordinates copy review, list build, and deliverability checks against launch dates.
  • Runs the weekly internal status across SDR, copy, and ops.
  • Tracks sequence health and flags re-launch decisions before churn lands.
  • Automates the weekly status update with AI from project-management tool data.
What's included

Everything required. Nothing surplus.

// Vela placement
20% of operator year-one base salary

$500 refundable deposit to start · credits to placement fee on hire

Example: senior CSM at a $36,000 base salary places at $7,200. Includes 3 vetted candidates in 21 days, 90-day replacement window, and 4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessions, weekly, for the first 4 weeks post-placement.

// Junior placement
Same 20% applied to a junior base

Junior CSM, Executive Assistant, or junior project manager. Vetted bench. Fourteen-day shortlist.

Vela · Junior

+
Ninety-day replacement guarantee
If the hire does not work out within the first ninety days, we run the replacement search at no additional cost.
+
Seven-day first-profile target
The first vetted candidate lands in your inbox within seven days. The full $500 deposit is refundable if we miss day 21 with three vetted candidates, or if you decline to interview any of them. Once you take an interview with a Vela candidate, the deposit is earned. On hire, it credits against the placement fee.
+
Operator-level vetting
Every candidate has been interviewed on a working call. Not a screening form, an actual conversation about the work.
+
AI aptitude screening
A twenty-minute exercise during vetting that tests learning speed, prompting quality, and the ability to apply judgment to AI output.
+
AI onboarding
4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessions, weekly, for the first 4 weeks post-placement. A real human AI coach, not a self-paced course. Covers client communication, reporting, automation, and churn prevention.
+
Custom role brief
Drafted from your intake call. You approve the brief rather than author it.
+
Salary benchmarking report
What this role pays in Medellín, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Bogotá, so the offer is anchored to the local senior tier.
+
Contract and payment walkthrough
The contractor agreement, plus a guided setup of Deel, Wise, or Payoneer for international payment.
The comparison

Vela vs the four other ways you could do this.

Same seat. Same $36K LATAM target salary, or its US-equivalent baseline. Different motion, different number on the bottom row.

// Vela// US recruiter// Job board// DIY
Source poolCurrently-employed operatorsActive jobseekersActive applicantsActive applicants
Time to first profile7 days3 – 6 weeks1 – 2 weeksDays to weeks
Three vetted candidates21 days · senior6 – 10 weeks200+ apps to triageWhenever you have time
AI fluency vetting3-level rubric on every callNot standardNoneNone
Replacement guarantee90 days · no re-fee30 – 60 days typicalNoneNone
Owner effort~5 hours total~6 – 8 hours30 – 40 hours50+ hours
Year-one cost ($36K seat)$43,200$96,000$80,000$80,000

Year-one totals: Vela = $36K LATAM contractor + $7,200 placement fee. US recruiter = $80K salary + $16K fee (20% of $80K). Job board / DIY = $80K US salary, no placement fee but no help and no replacement.

The math

The placement fee pays itself back by week six.

// US CSM + US Recruiter
Annual salary$80,000
Recruiter fee (20% of US salary)$16,000
Year-one total$96,000
Year one$96K
// LATAM AI-enabled hire + Vela placement
Annual contractor rate$36,000
Placement fee (20% of $36K base)$7,200
4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessionsincluded
Year-one total$43,200
Year one$43.2K
Year-one savings vs US route
+$52,800
Salary delta$44,000
Fee delta (recruiter vs Vela)$8,800
Time to hire3 weeks faster

Worked example: a senior CSM at a $36,000 base salary. Vela placement fee is 20% of base, so $7,200. A US recruiter charging the same 20% of a US $80,000 salary lands at $16,000 before the salary delta even enters the math. The program targets 2x output by day 30. The cost of a bad hire ranges around $30,000 in wasted salary and ramp time before you even start over.

What you get

Stacked value, plain math.

Every component priced at what it would cost you to source it standalone. Add it up before you compare the fee.

// Component// Comparable// Implied value
Headhunting from currently-employed operatorsUS recruiter at 20% of $80K US salary$16,000
AI aptitude screening (3-level rubric)Custom assessment build$2,000
Working call run by an operatorHiring consultant call $500/hr × 4 candidates$2,000
4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessionsPrivate 1-on-1 AI coaching, 4 weeks$6,000
90-day replacement windowAvoided cost of re-fee$3,000
Brief drafting and intakeFractional recruiting ops$1,500
Total stacked value$30,500
Vela placement (20% of $36K example)$7,200
Multiple vs Vela placement4.2x
Your effort

Five hours of your time, across twenty-one days.

You run the part only you can run: the final interviews and the hiring decision. We run everything else.

// Component// Mode// Your time
Intake callDWY15 min
Brief draftingDFY0 hrs
SourcingDFY0 hrs
AI aptitude screeningDFY0 hrs
Working calls with candidatesDFY0 hrs
Final interviews (you talk to 3)DIY3 hrs
Hiring decisionDIY30 min
Contract and payment setupDWY1 hr
AI onboarding (1-on-1 instructor sessions)DFY0 hrs
Your total time over 21 days~5 hrs
Fit check

We say no more often than yes.

// For
  • Agencies past the founder-led account management phase.
  • Owners hiring senior CSM or senior project manager #1, #2, or #3. A real seat, not a virtual assistant.
  • Teams that already know what good client management looks like.
  • Operators who want CSMs who use AI, not just manage inboxes.
  • Anyone tired of LinkedIn applicants who have never run a QBR.
// Not for
  • SaaS, ecommerce, or product companies.
  • Pre-revenue or pre-product-market-fit teams.
  • Owners optimizing for the cheapest possible hire.
  • Anyone who thinks AI is a fad their team does not need.
  • Roles that need to be in a US time zone past 6pm EST.
Proof

Agency owners who hired through Vela. In their own words.

Thirty-second cuts. Founder voice. Real placements, real results.

// Recording 01

“We replaced two US hires with one Vela operator. The QBR decks come back better than what we used to ship to clients ourselves.”

// Result: book grew from 12 to 19 accounts, NPS +14
M
Maya R.
Cold Email · Austin
// Recording 02

“First profile hit my inbox on day six. The candidate I hired had already automated half the reports I was paying a senior to write by hand.”

// Result: 11 hours/week saved, $94K margin recovered
D
Daniel S.
Paid Ads · Austin
// Recording 03

“Three years of LinkedIn recruiter spam never produced one decent CSM. Vela placed two in a quarter. They both still ship.”

// Result: zero churn across 22 retainer accounts in Q4
P
Priya K.
SEO · Brooklyn

Hired through Vela? We are collecting stories. Send a 30-second Loom →

Who's behind this

Not a recruiter. An operator who hires this role daily.

Born and raised in Miami. Lived in New York. Eight years inside agencies in both cities, the kind of education that cannot be substituted. NYC shops with enterprise brands; one of them was acquired. Miami performance teams running hundreds of accounts. Cold email and lead-gen shops, full-service shops, niche specialist teams. I have worked the seat, managed the seat, and now lead the people in it.

Two years ago I started rebuilding customer-success operations around AI. Claude for reporting. n8n for workflow automation. AI-assisted churn prediction. The results changed how my teams work. Three-hour tasks became twenty-minute tasks. Reactive firefighting became proactive risk management. I have hired this role thirty-plus times, and I have watched what happens when the operator in the seat actually knows how to use these tools.

The thesis is straightforward. Job boards return the candidates who are actively looking, which is rarely the candidates worth hiring. The good operators are already employed at another agency, doing the exact role you are trying to fill. Reaching them requires a different motion, and most agency owners do not have the time to run it themselves.

Vela is that motion. We headhunt the operators who are not on Indeed, not on LinkedIn Jobs, and not replying to recruiters. We screen them for AI aptitude. Then we run 4 weekly 1-on-1 AI instructor sessions post-placement that turns them from agency-trained into AI-enabled. Same vetting bar everyone else claims. Plus the training.

— Jonathan

[ Founder portrait ]

Jonathan, founder · Medellín · Miami · New York · Eight years inside agencies in both cities.

The compounding part

The second search takes half the time.

By search two, we already have your brief, your vetting criteria, your candidate archetype, and a warm bench. Search one runs twenty-one days. Search two runs ten. Search three, faster. The relationship compounds. So do the savings.

Start a search

Your next CSM or project manager is already working at another agency.
They arrive agency-trained. They leave month one AI-enabled.

Fifteen-minute intake. First profile in seven days. Three AI-screened candidates in twenty-one days. $500 refundable deposit starts the search and credits to the fee on hire. Vela placement is 20% of the operator's year-one base salary and includes 4 live 1-on-1 AI instructor sessions, weekly, the first 4 weeks post-placement. Ninety-day replacement.

Book Intake Calljonathan@hiringthevela.com
// Eight active searches per month. When the calendar is full, it is full.Medellín · Miami · New York