Tech Industry in Mexico – Is This Destination Right For Your Project Outsourcing

Latin America is a promising destination to run your software development offshore. Some of the Latin American countries are especially attractive for the projects that strive for hiring the best tech talent at an affordable cost and enjoy other benefits of having a remote development team. Mexico is one of them. 

Being one of the leading countries in offshore business services worldwide, it opens up a lot of value-driving opportunities for both the first-time startup initiators and large enterprises, so let’s take a deeper look at this destination and analyze the IT market in Mexico in more detail. 

Mexico IT industry overview – facts and stats

Let’s get started by reviewing the economic, political, and investment landscape in Mexico, and then proceed with taking a deeper look at its software development market. Mexico is ranked 60 among 190 economies in the “ease of doing business” rating. It is also a politically stable country with a low business climate risk rate, and these are just a couple of reasons why  Mexico is ranked 1st among U.S. trade partners.

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The country’s GDP is approximately $1 trillion while a projected GDP growth of 2.3% annually. The inflation rate is about 4.4 % a year, and that’s why Mexico is positioned for moderate growth in the long term. 

Nevertheless, the IT industry in Mexico has been growing at an annual rate of 10%-15%. AR, VR, Cognitive AI, and IoT are the IT sectors with the highest annual growth rate in Mexico, so there is no surprise that the country’s engineers have cutting-edge data analysis skills and are good at machine learning development, mathematics, and statistical programming, according to Global Skills Report 2022. 

The tech talent pool in Mexico is represented by 223,000+ tech talents, and most of them have higher engineering education. There are 7 leading engineering universities that follow globally recognized educational practices, and 20% of Mexican college graduates have engineering degrees. 

Why the IT industry is growing in Mexico?

So, the IT industry in Mexico is growing and evolving, attracting foreign investment and creating opportunities for domestic entrepreneurs. Below are some of the reasons that drive technology market growth in this country.

• The tech talent shortage in the US. In 2020, the tech talent shortage has already reached 1.4 million jobs. In 2023? it is projected to grow. That’s why the US companies had to look for an additional labor force nearshore and hire engineering companies in Mexico to quickly bridge the talent gap and keep their tech projects running. 
• The significant salary gap between American and Mexican developers. In addition to the opportunity to hire engineers in Mexico, following the software development outsourcing business model, the cost to hire in Mexico is significantly lower compared to the price for the same services in the US. For comparison, an average software developer rate is $25-50 per hour in Mexico in contrast to $100-150 per hour to hire programmers in the US. 
• Convenient time zone overlap. Mexico’s time zone (UTC-5) conveniently overlaps with the time zones of Texas, Nebraska, Illinois, Arkansas, and some other US states. Getting to Guadalajara from the major cities of the states mentioned takes up to two hours. These geographic factors make Mexico a good match for the companies appreciate staying in constant touch with the team and the opportunity to effortlessly visit them if the project requires the personal presence of a stakeholder. 
• Cultural and language compatibility. Partnering with Mexican tech companies is also easy because of the cultural proximity and no language barriers. Most Mexican developers speak English fluently, while their hands-on experience allowed them to borrow the business ethics principles of the American companies.

Ready to hire the best-in-class developers from Mexico? Contact Bridge to attract the perfect-fit candidates! 

Average software developer salary in Mexico

Let’s proceed with analyzing the technology industry in Mexico by taking a look at the average salaries local web and mobile developers get.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire Software Developers in Mexico

On average a web developer makes $1600 per month, depending on the programming languages, tools, and frameworks they are skilled with. 

A mobile developer, in turn, earns a little more compared to a web programmer. The salaries of iOS and Android developers in Mexico are $1800 and $1900 per month respectively. 

The average software developer salary in Mexico also depends on their experience, so below is the programmer’s wages breakdown depending on their seniority. 

Also, let’s take a look at the cost to hire other tech specialists in Mexico, who will complement your development team with others, no less essential skills. 

So, the cost to hire tech talent in Mexico is up to three times lower compared to hiring remote development teams in the USA. While the market-average costs to hire are rarely the only factor to consider when choosing an outsourcing destination, the opportunity to cut operational expenses is important for the projects on a budget. Mexico, in turn, promises a good price-quality ratio, combined with other valuable and local tech market-specific factors. 

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How to hire a tech team in Mexico – comparing the options

So, if Mexico seems a good fit for your project to hire remote talent from, let’s review the main tactics to do it, compare their pros and cons, and choose the smartest one. 

Extending your in-house team with remote developers from Mexico

For those businesses with an in-house tech team already gathered, strengthening it with remote Mexican developers is a good choice. This tactic is called IT augmentation or team extension and implies hiring several remote programmers to help your in-house ones with urgent, laborious, and time-consuming tasks. 

As for the benefits of this strategy, it comes with the opportunity to cut hiring costs and extend the team pretty quickly, especially if you hire augmented team members from a talent sourcing vendor. Also, keep in mind that team augmentation drives the most benefit in the short run, and vice versa, the tactic becomes costly in the long-term perspective. 

Let’s extend your in-house development team with top tech talent from Mexico. Contact Bridge now to give remote hiring a way! 

Hire freelance developers

Hiring freelance developers to either gather a development team from scratch or extend your in-house one is another intuitive strategy that first-time startup initiators consider exceptionally beneficial. It actually comes with great advantages, such as global hiring, and affordable costs depending on the location.

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However, managing and controlling a freelance team is a challenge even for companies with great recruitment and remote management experience. What’s more, freelance developers are unlikely to be fully committed to your project, despite in some cases, hiring them can be a good choice for the short-term project. 

Hire from a talent vendor like Bridge

As for the last strategy to hire software developers in Mexico, consider partnering with an experienced talent sourcing vendor. Below are just some of the advantages such a partnership can promise. 

• Simple and fast hiring. Leveraging the IT recruitment expertise of a talent vendor is an opportunity to hire faster and more effectively, cutting operational costs along the way. We at Bridge, for example, can quickly find the winning candidates for your project, help you with their interviewing, while you would be able to manage the hiring process via our dedicated platform. 
• Project-candidate match. For projects with little hiring expertise, partnering with a tech talent sourcing company is the way to ensure a perfect project-candidate fit. The suggested candidates are accurately screened, validated, and interviewed to ensure accurate compliance with the project’s requirements and a job requisition. 
• Several services to choose from. Last but definitely not least, you are welcome to choose the most suitable engagement model when partnering with a talent sourcing company. For example, Bridge experts are here to help you with the IT staffing (team augmentation) we have mentioned above. Plus, you can consider sourcing as a service – a great offer for the companies that need to quickly get a well-validated list of potential candidates. 

Let’s unlock the Mexican talent pool and find the top-skilled developers for your project. Send us a quick message to get started instantly! 

Conclusion

The Mexican tech industry is growing, opening up promising opportunities to run your software development in this country and attract top local talent. Bridge talent sourcing company would be happy to help you with recruiting Mexican developers in the most effective way, cutting the operational costs, ensuring the perfect job-candidate match and streamlining your project development! 

Reach out to us now!