A leader, not a group of individuals
Sourced in Latin America, placed under a Head of Engineering in Canada — a single point of accountability on an aligned working day, so the company's own leaders spent time on decisions, not coordination.
Success story · Staff augmentation
A structured engineering team for an advisor platform
How a mid-size wealth management firm moved past legacy technical debt and built a new advisor platform through nearshore staff augmentation — a led team, structured pods, and capacity that flexed by project phase.
- Canada-led
- LATAM-sourced
- 2 pods · 10 engineers
10
engineers · two pods
built to run in parallel
The summary
A mid-size wealth management firm was carrying legacy technical debt that had started to limit what it could build. It needed one place for advisors to engage clients — bringing the relationship onto a single system instead of spreading it across several.
The firm knew exactly what it needed built; the capacity wasn't there. Rather than pay a consulting premium or buy an off-the-shelf compromise, it took a third route — nearshore staff augmentation. A dedicated team under Canadian leadership built alongside its own people, keeping full product ownership in-house while unlocking the capacity to execute the roadmap. DevEngine worked directly with the company's Director of Engineering, CIO and CTO.
Mid-sizewealth management firm
- Industry
- Wealth management
- Engagement model
- Nearshore staff augmentation
- Leadership
- Head of Engineering, Canada
Tech stackMicrosoft Enterprise ecosystemNext.jsReactAWS
ModelStaff augmentationEngineering pods
- below equivalent North American cost, same seniority
- 35–40%
- complete pods, built to run in parallel
- 2
- engineers organized as five-person units
- 10
- key engineers retained through maintenance
- Long-term
The situation
Two imperfect options — so the firm took a third
Legacy technical debt had started to limit what the firm could build. It needed to launch a new platform bringing the advisor-client relationship onto a single system. In wealth management, that advisor-client experience is the business — so this was never a background modernization.
A company here usually faces two choices, and neither fits cleanly: build in-house at a consulting premium, or buy an off-the-shelf product that's ready now but doesn't do everything the business needs. This firm knew exactly what it needed built — it was the capacity to build it that was missing.
What DevEngine did
A led team, structured into complete pods
Two pods, five people each
Each pod a complete unit — a tech lead, a QA and three engineers — so both workstreams ran in parallel without one becoming a dependency, and quality was built in as the work happened.
Sourced in LATAM, led from Canada
Neither was a compromise for the other: the sourcing reach opened access to senior capability at lower cost, while nearshore leadership kept the engagement on the company's working day.
How the team was built
Ten people, organized as two complete five-person pods
Pod A · workstream 1
- TLTech lead
- QAQA
- EEngineer
- EEngineer
- EEngineer
Pod B · workstream 2
- TLTech lead
- QAQA
- EEngineer
- EEngineer
- EEngineer
In wealth management, the advisor-client experience is the business — so the firm kept full product ownership in-house while unlocking the capacity to build.
The results
What the engagement delivered
35–40%
Below North American cost
The engagement came in 35–40% under equivalent North American hires at the same seniority — a function of where talent was sourced, not a lighter team.
2 × 5
Built to run in parallel
Ten people as complete units — a tech lead, a QA and three engineers per pod — so the build moved on two fronts under a single point of accountability.
Flexed by phase
Capacity followed the roadmap
The firm added and reduced capacity as delivery demands shifted, without carrying idle headcount — flexibility a permanent in-house team would have made expensive.
Kept in-house
Platform built, knowledge retained
The team delivered the advisor platform — a Microsoft Enterprise ecosystem with a Next.js and React front end on AWS — then moved to a lighter maintenance footprint, with key engineers staying on long-term.
Why it worked
The model fit the shape of the work
Team augmentation fit the work
Access to senior talent across Latin America is what made 35–40% savings possible at unchanged seniority. The firm got the capability first; the cost saving followed from where it was sourced.
Integrated pods, not just profiles
A tech lead, a QA and three engineers were organized into complete units, so each pod could own a workstream end to end rather than depending on capability sitting elsewhere.
The knowledge stayed with the client
With a large consultancy, knowledge leaves once the consultants move on. Here the key engineers stayed from build through maintenance — the institutional knowledge stayed inside the business.
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