The Problem: Hiring LatAm Developers Is Broken

US companies want to hire talented Latin American developers—same timezone, lower costs, excellent English skills. But the current landscape is painful:

1. Toptal and Turing charge 20-40% markup on developer rates—your $80/hour budget means the developer sees $50
2. Traditional recruiters charge $20-50k placement fees for senior engineers
3. LinkedIn job posts get buried in thousands of applications with no LatAm-specific targeting
4. Developers waste hours building profiles—manual data entry, resume formatting, skill selection
5. Companies spend days writing job descriptions—researching market rates, required skills, benefit packages

I wanted to build something different: direct hiring with zero fees, powered by AI that eliminates manual work for both sides of the marketplace.

The result: LatAmCoders, where AI does the heavy lifting so companies and developers can connect directly.

The Vision: AI-Powered Marketplace with Zero Middlemen

I set out to build LatAmCoders: a job platform that uses AI to automate the tedious parts of hiring while keeping humans in control of the important decisions. The core principles:

The LatAm Developer Advantage

Why are smart US companies specifically targeting Latin American developers? The advantages are significant:

The Tech Stack: Modern Full-Stack for Speed

The AI Architecture: Making Onboarding Effortless

The biggest friction in job platforms is profile creation. Developers hate filling out forms. Companies hate writing job descriptions. AI solves both problems.

Developer Resume Parsing

When a developer uploads their resume PDF:

1. PDF Text Extraction: Parse document using pdf-parse library to extract raw text
2. GPT-4o Processing: Send text with structured extraction prompt requesting JSON output
3. Field Extraction: AI returns name, email, phone, location, skills, experience entries, education
4. Bio Generation: AI writes a professional 2-3 sentence bio based on extracted experience
5. Profile Population: Populate form fields with extracted data for user review
6. Skill Matching: Map extracted skills to platform's standardized skill taxonomy

Result: 5 minutes instead of 2+ hours. Developers review AI-populated fields, make edits, and submit.

Company Website Analysis

When a company enters their website URL:

1. Web Scraping: Fetch homepage and about page content
2. GPT-4o Analysis: Extract company name, description, industry, size estimate, culture signals
3. Logo Detection: Identify and download company logo from website
4. Profile Auto-Fill: Populate company profile form with extracted data

Result: 2 minutes instead of 30+ minutes. Company reviews extracted info, adds any missing details, done.

AI Job Description Generation

When a company creates a job posting:

1. Input Collection: Job title, seniority level, company context
2. GPT-4o Generation: Write 400-600 word compelling job description
3. Salary Recommendation: Suggest market-appropriate salary range for LATAM
4. Skill Suggestions: Auto-select relevant technical skills for the role
5. Benefits Suggestions: Recommend LATAM-relevant benefits (remote work, flex hours, etc.)

Result: 1 minute instead of 20+ minutes. Company reviews, edits if needed, publishes.

The Database Architecture: Two-Sided Marketplace

Job boards are two-sided marketplaces. The schema must handle developers, companies, jobs, applications, and the relationships between them:

Core Models

• User: Authentication entity with email, password hash, role (DEVELOPER/COMPANY/ADMIN)
• Developer: Profile with bio, skills, experience, education, availability, hourly rate
• Company: Profile with name, description, website, logo, industry, size, subscription
• Job: Posting with title, description, salary range, skills, employment type, status
• Application: Developer applying to job with status (pending, reviewed, interviewing, hired, rejected)
• Skill: Standardized taxonomy of technical skills (React, Python, AWS, etc.)
• Experience: Work history entries with company, title, dates, description
• Education: Educational background with institution, degree, field, dates

Key Relationships

// Prisma Schema Relationships

model Developer {
  id         String       @id
  user       User         @relation(fields: [userId])
  skills     Skill[]      // Many-to-many via implicit table
  experience Experience[] // One-to-many
  education  Education[]  // One-to-many
  applications Application[] // One-to-many
}

model Company {
  id   String @id
  user User   @relation(fields: [userId])
  jobs Job[]  // One-to-many
}

model Job {
  id           String        @id
  company      Company       @relation(fields: [companyId])
  skills       Skill[]       // Many-to-many
  applications Application[] // One-to-many
}

model Application {
  id        String    @id
  developer Developer @relation(fields: [developerId])
  job       Job       @relation(fields: [jobId])
  status    ApplicationStatus @default(PENDING)
}

Key Platform Features

Security & Privacy Considerations

Job platforms handle sensitive data—resumes, salary expectations, contact information. Security isn't optional:

• Password Hashing: bcrypt with 10 rounds—secure storage, no plaintext passwords ever
• Email Verification: Required before profile completion—prevents fake accounts
• Rate Limiting: API endpoints protected against brute force and abuse
• Input Validation: Zod schemas validate all user input—no injection attacks
• HTTPS Everywhere: TLS encryption for all traffic—no plaintext transmissions
• Spam Protection: Honeypot fields and rate limiting on contact forms
• Developer Visibility Controls: Developers choose whether to appear in search results

The Challenges and Trade-Offs

The Results: AI-Powered Efficiency

Conclusion: AI That Removes Friction

LatAmCoders proves that AI can transform marketplace platforms. The key insight: don't use AI to replace humans—use it to eliminate busywork.

Developers still write code. Companies still make hiring decisions. But nobody has to spend hours filling out forms or writing job descriptions. AI handles the tedious parts, humans handle the important parts.

The combination of zero recruiting fees and AI-powered onboarding creates a compelling value proposition for both sides of the marketplace. Companies save thousands in fees. Developers save hours in profile creation.

That's how you build a marketplace that wins: make both sides better off than the alternatives.