A well-gelled team from day one
Each member is selected on technical and soft skills to ensure the whole pod works well together.
Engineering Pods
Engineering Pods: dedicated, client-directed teams from Latin America and Canada
A DevEngine Engineering Pod is a dedicated engineering team that joins your project from day one and operates under your direction. You define the pod's composition, its size, and the location of each member, including the lead: Canada, the United States, or Latin America. The pod works within your business hours, uses your tools and processes, and reports to your leadership.
What you get with an Engineering Pod
Built around your project
You define the pod's roles, size, and the location of each member, lead included, based on your needs and project requirements.
You direct the work
You set priorities, provide product or business direction, and approve key decisions. The pod's technical lead coordinates day-to-day engineering work and keeps the team aligned with your priorities.
35 to 40% below North American cost
for a pod staffed from Latin America, at the same seniority.
How a pod works with your team
Selected as a team, not as individuals.
We assemble each pod for the project it will work on. Candidates are screened on technical and soft skills and for fit with the other members, and the team starts on your project together, so you brief one team rather than integrating separate hires yourself.
The lead coordinates, you decide.
You set priorities, run the board, and sign off. The pod's lead keeps the team's technical work coordinated and reports to you. The pod is an extension of your team, not a vendor running your project.
Composition follows the work.
A typical pod is 4 to 5 people: engineers, a QA engineer, and a technical lead. Add a discipline, swap a role, or change the size as the project requires.
Location is set per member.
Each member, lead included, can be based in Canada, the United States, or Latin America, and a single pod can combine them. All three work North American business hours. Latin America opens a larger talent pool at lower rates; Canada and the United States keep the team in your own market or next door.
Capacity flexes with the phase.
Discovery needs a few people, a build phase needs more, maintenance needs fewer again. Scale the pod to the phase you are in, without carrying idle headcount between phases.
Staff augmentation, a managed team, or a pod?
The question is whether you need people or a team, and who you want directing it.
DevEngine Engineering Pod
- What you get
- A dedicated, cross-functional team you run
- Who directs the work
- You
- Who coordinates the team
- The pod's lead, reporting to you
- Composition
- Set by you
- Where members are based
- Canada, the US, or Latin America, your choice per member
Staff augmentation
- What you get
- Individual engineers
- Who directs the work
- You
- Who coordinates the team
- You
- Composition
- One role at a time
- Where members are based
- Per hire
Managed delivery team
- What you get
- A team the vendor runs
- Who directs the work
- The vendor's lead or PM
- Who coordinates the team
- The vendor
- Composition
- Set by the vendor
- Where members are based
- Vendor-dependent
You need people
Staff augmentation
Vetted individual engineers who join a team you already run. The right call when you are short on people, not team structure. Nearshore Staff Augmentation covers Latin America, and IT Contract Staffing covers Canada.
You need a team
An Engineering Pod
A dedicated unit with its own lead and QA engineer that takes on a workstream under your direction. The right call when you need structure and quality built in, without handing control to a vendor.
What a pod looks like: common scenarios
The pods below are starting points, not fixed packages. Swap roles, add a discipline, or change the size.
Data Pod
For your data platform, pipelines, and reporting.
- Roles
- A data architect as lead, 2 data engineers, and a QA engineer.
- Typical stack
- Snowflake or BigQuery, dbt, Airflow, on AWS or Azure.
- Also works with
- Fivetran, Airbyte, Dagster, Databricks.
Cloud & Infrastructure Pod
For your cloud platform, infrastructure, and delivery pipelines.
- Roles
- A cloud or platform architect as lead, 2 DevOps engineers, and a site reliability engineer.
- Typical stack
- AWS or Azure, Terraform, Kubernetes, CI/CD.
- Also works with
- GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, Prometheus and Grafana, Datadog.
Software Development Pod
For building and extending your web applications, APIs, and services.
- Roles
- A software architect or senior full-stack engineer as lead, 2 software engineers across front end and back end, and a QA automation engineer.
- Typical stack
- TypeScript, React, Node.js or Python, PostgreSQL, on AWS or Azure.
- Also works with
- Java, .NET, Go, Next.js, Playwright, Cypress.
AI Engineering Pod
For building AI features and LLM-powered products into your applications.
- Roles
- An AI or machine learning engineer as lead, 2 software engineers with applied AI experience, and a QA engineer focused on model evaluation and testing.
- Typical stack
- Python, LLM APIs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Azure OpenAI, LangChain or LlamaIndex, and a vector database such as pgvector or Pinecone, on AWS or Azure.
- Also works with
- PyTorch, Hugging Face, MLflow, Amazon Bedrock.
Need a mix of disciplines, or a larger build? A project can run more than one pod in parallel.
How the engagement runs
You brief us on the work, the stack, the roles, and where you want each person based.
We agree on the composition with you.
DevEngine proposes a structure based on your needs and project requirements, and you confirm the final roles, size, and locations.
We source and screen each role.
We match from DevEngine's pre-vetted network first and open a new search when the role needs it. Either way, the candidate is chosen for your role, not because they happen to be free. A senior peer in the same field assesses each candidate's technical and soft skills, rather than matching keywords.
You interview and approve every member of the pod.
The pod starts together on your project, within your business hours and in your tools.
DevEngine handles contracts, payroll, and administration.
If something slips, you talk to your DevEngine account manager.
If a member is not working out within the first two weeks from their start date, DevEngine replaces them.
Not offshore outsourcing
A pod works under your direction and within your business hours, which is what separates it from offshore outsourcing. Offshore engagements tend to break down on time zones and distance: work is handed off at the end of your day and returns the next morning, often not quite what you asked for. A pod works North American business hours, so questions are answered the same day. For the full nearshore-versus-offshore comparison, see Nearshore Staff Augmentation.
Frequently asked questions
What is an engineering pod?
An engineering pod is a dedicated team of typically 4 to 5 people, usually engineers, a QA engineer, and a technical lead, that starts on your project together and works under your direction.
Who manages the pod day to day?
You direct the pod: you set priorities, review progress, and sign off on its work. Day to day, the pod's technical lead, a senior engineer or architect, breaks down tasks, reviews code, and reports to you. In a managed delivery team, by contrast, the vendor runs the project.
Can we choose the pod's roles and where each member is based?
Yes. You set the roles and the size, and you can add a discipline, swap a role, or run more than one pod for a larger build. Each member, lead included, can be based in Canada, the United States, or Latin America, and one pod can combine them. All work North American business hours.
How much does a pod cost compared with hiring locally?
A pod staffed from Latin America costs 35 to 40% less than an equivalent North American team at the same seniority. Pods with Canadian or US members are priced to those markets.
Can the pod scale down after launch?
Yes. Once the build is done, you can reduce the pod to a smaller maintenance team and keep the members who know your platform, so their context stays with the project.
What's your interest?
Choose the path that aligns with how you want to build and scale your team.
Not sure which shape fits?
Tell us what you are building. We will give you an honest read on whether a pod, staff augmentation, or neither is the right call.
