Hire Node.js Developers

Hiring Node.js developers through CodigoDelSur means adding senior backend engineers, employed by us, to the team that owns your API and the rules behind it. They work in your repository and your sprints, on the services, integrations and data your apps depend on, and they are used to backends that serve web and mobile clients at the same time. CodigoDelSur has been building software from Montevideo, Uruguay since 2007, for companies in the United States and the rest of the world.

It is the right move when the backend is where your roadmap waits: endpoints nobody has time to build, business rules that live in one person's head, integrations that keep breaking. It is the wrong move when what you need is an architecture decision nobody on your side can own, because an embedded engineer implements direction, they do not replace it. We tell you which one you are on the first call.

Is hiring a Node.js developer the right move for you?

It is when the backend work is defined, the server runs on JavaScript or TypeScript, and someone on your side reviews the code.

Yes, if:

Your API or services run on Node.js, or your frontend team already writes JavaScript and TypeScript and you want the server in the same language.
Web and mobile apps share one backend and it is falling behind both of them.
The work is known: endpoints, integrations, a rules engine, a content backend, a migration.
Someone on your team reviews pull requests and owns the architecture.

No, if:

The system needs a redesign and nobody on your side can decide what it should look like. That calls for a team where the most senior person makes those calls.
The hard part of the backend is numerical or data heavy work, where the shared language with your frontend saves less than the wrong tool costs.
You need the whole product, backend and apps, from one company accountable for it. That is full-cycle product development.

How hiring a Node.js developer works, step by step

Five steps, and the first question is not the framework but what the backend has to guarantee: which data, which clients, which rules. Every step ends with a person in your repository or a clear reason not to continue.

Intro call, 30 to 45 minutes. Your runtime and framework, TypeScript or JavaScript, the database, how services are deployed, and which clients depend on the API. Who will review the work and what the first month should ship. If what you need is someone to own the architecture rather than more capacity, this is where we say so.

Written role brief. One page: the services the engineer will own, seniority, overlap and start date. Nothing moves until you sign it off, because every profile is measured against it.

Named profiles. Bench first, and we tell you whether the Node.js engineer you need is on it today or has to be recruited. Each CV names the systems the person worked on and what they owned in them, not an anonymized list of skills.

You run the technical interview. Your process: a design conversation about one of your own services, a code review, a take-home. You can turn down anyone we propose without giving a reason.

First day in your repository. One standard services agreement, signed once. We handle equipment, accounts, background checks where required and payroll. The engineer joins your standup on day one, gets the service running locally in the first days, and aims for a first merged pull request that same week.

How long it takes to add a Node.js developer

Five business days from signed agreement to first day as standard, and as soon as the next business day when the engineer is already on our bench.

Stage	Typical time
Intro call to written role brief	1 business day
Role brief to first profiles, if the profile is on our bench	1 business day
Role brief to first profiles, if we have to recruit	5 business days
Interviews	Your calendar, usually within a week
Signed agreement to the engineer's first day	5 business days as standard, or as soon as the next business day if the engineer is on our bench and you are ready
First day to first merged pull request	3 to 5 business days

The last row depends on something only you can provide: a way to run the service locally. A seed database and a working local setup save more days in the first week than anything we can do on our side.

What our Node.js developers work on

Backends in production that serve mobile and web apps, including the business logic that is the actual product.

Work	What it involves	Where it shipped
Business rules engines	Turning regulation into calculations that have to be right, in an architecture that takes new rules as the system grows	WageWatch
Backends for mobile subscription apps	One Node.js backend shared by the iOS and Android apps: plan delivery, progress state and the subscription flow	Shred
Catalogue and content backends	Node.js on AWS with Strapi for content management, and a product database built and maintained through scraping	Vartender
Serverless and edge backends	Node.js and Cloudflare Workers behind a React Native app, with SQLite for storage	StreamWolf
Long running product backends	The Node.js side of a recommendation app, developed alongside the app for close to six years	Taste

Around Node.js we work with TypeScript, GraphQL and PostgreSQL, and deploy to AWS, Azure and serverless platforms. Seniority runs from mid level to tech lead, and we do not place junior engineers in these roles.

What it costs to hire a Node.js developer

What a Node.js developer costs depends on seniority and on what the role covers, and you get the number in writing with the role brief, before you commit to anything.

The minimum project size is $10,000, roughly one engineer for one month, and the shortest engagement we sign is two weeks, one sprint. There is no recruiting fee, no placement fee and no management fee, and the project manager on our side is included at no additional cost. Billing is per sprint, Net 14, or monthly if your finance team prefers, with volume discounts of 5 percent from five people and 10 percent from seven.

If the problem sits in one specific service, one engineer for one sprint is a real engagement and a cheap way to find out how deep it goes.

The Node.js projects behind this page

Four clients with a published case study, and in all four the backend is where the product's rules live.

WageWatch helps workers find out whether they are being paid correctly, and gives attorneys a way to identify, organise and assess potential wage claims. We built the whole solution, and its core is the Node.js backend: an earnings calculation engine that turns US labor regulations into numbers a worker and an attorney can rely on, with an emphasis on New York and New Jersey rules while staying applicable across the United States. The engine was built together with the WageWatch team, validated through extensive testing and data simulations, and designed to take new rules as the system grows. The React Native app for workers and the portal for attorneys both sit on top of it.

Vartender lets whiskey collectors scan a bottle's barcode and find it in a database of more than 1,000 whiskeys. We built the iOS MVP and then the Android app on a Node.js backend on AWS, with Strapi for content management and scraping to build and maintain the bottle database, which belongs to the client instead of being licensed.

Shred is a subscription fitness app featured in Business Insider and Goop. We took over a partially written Android app and carried it to release against a Node.js backend shared with the iOS product, covering plan delivery, the progress state that has to survive a phone closed mid-workout, and the subscription flow the business runs on.

StreamWolf lets people track, cancel and resubscribe to their streaming services from one app. Its backend runs on Node.js and Cloudflare Workers, with SQLite for storage, behind a React Native and Expo app released first to a small beta group.

Node.js developers through staff augmentation, a dedicated team or full-cycle product development

Three different products get sold under the same word, "outsourcing". They are not interchangeable and picking the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in this category. Backend work is where the second column pays off most often, because an API serves more than one team.

	Staff augmentation	Dedicated team	Full-cycle product development
Who owns the roadmap	You	You	Shared, we run discovery
Who manages day to day	Your engineering manager	You, with a CodigoDelSur project manager coordinating on our side at no extra cost	Our project manager
What you get	Individual engineers inside your team	A team shaped around your product, staffed and coordinated by us	A product, from discovery to store release
You need to have	Technical leadership with spare capacity	A product owner and a clear roadmap	A budget and a problem worth solving
Node.js work it fits best	Endpoints, integrations and services inside a backend you already run	A backend owned end to end, together with the web or mobile apps that depend on it	A new product, backend and apps, from discovery to launch
Typical size	1 to 4 people	4 to 12 people	Scoped per project
Minimum commitment	Two weeks, one sprint	Two weeks, one sprint	Quoted per project
Best when	The work is defined and you are short on hands	You own a product area and want it staffed and coordinated as one team	You need the thing to exist and you do not have an engineering org

When this page is not your answer

Do not hire a Node.js developer to make an architecture decision that nobody on your side can own. An embedded engineer implements direction, and a backend where nobody decides how services, data and clients fit together grows in whatever direction the latest ticket pushed it. If that is your situation, a dedicated team where the most senior person makes the technical calls is the better start. And do not pick Node.js only because the frontend is in JavaScript if the heavy part of your backend is numerical or data work.

Where "taking over a backend" and "short-term work" fit

Neither is a fourth model. If another supplier built your backend, we read it before we change it, keep what is sound and replace what is not, either with engineers embedded in your team through staff augmentation or with a dedicated team taking it over. If the work is short, the two week minimum means one engineer for one sprint, for an integration or a performance problem in one service, is a complete engagement.

Frequently asked questions

Do your Node.js developers work in TypeScript?

Yes. TypeScript is part of the stack we staff, and most backends we join mix it with plain JavaScript to some degree. Moving a JavaScript service to TypeScript file by file, while it keeps shipping, is ordinary work and not a rewrite.

Can one Node.js backend serve both our web and mobile apps?

Yes, and that is the setup we work in most. At Shred the Android app and the iOS product shared one Node.js backend, and at WageWatch the same backend serves the worker app and the attorneys' portal. What changes is versioning: an app on someone's phone cannot be forced to update, so older versions of the API have to keep working longer than they would for a website.

Should we hire a Node.js developer or a full-stack JavaScript developer?

Hire for where the risk is. If the backend holds the rules, the data and the integrations, hire a Node.js developer and let them own it. If most of the work is screens with a thin API behind them, a React developer who can also touch the API is the better fit, and we tell you which profile your backlog needs on the first call.

What time zone do your engineers work in, and how much overlap will I get?

Our engineers work 10:00 to 19:00 Uruguay time, which is UTC minus 3. That covers the entire US East Coast working day, five to six hours of live overlap with the West Coast, and an afternoon overlap with Europe. The schedule is set that way deliberately: shifting the day an hour later widens the Pacific overlap without asking anyone to work nights, and it is the reason this arrangement is still working in month twelve rather than quietly falling apart in month three.

How fast can you actually start?

Five business days from signed agreement to first day is the standard, and if the engineer is already on our bench and your side is ready to receive them, they can start as soon as the next business day. What varies is finding the right person, not starting them: if the profile is on our bench you get CVs one business day after you sign off the role brief, and if the role has to be recruited, first CVs take about five business days. We tell you which of the two you are in on the first call, before you have signed anything, because that is what actually moves your start date.

What happens if the engineer is not working out?

You tell your account manager and we replace the person at our cost. There is no charge for the search and no penalty for asking. The outgoing and incoming engineers overlap for ten business days so that context, access and work in progress transfer inside the engagement instead of landing back on your team, and those ten days are not billed: during the handover you keep paying exactly what you were paying for one engineer. We would rather absorb that than have you carry a bad fit for a quarter, and a company that will not put a replacement policy in writing is telling you something.

Who owns the code and the intellectual property?

You do, exclusively. Everything created for you as part of the work is assigned to you with full title guarantee: source code, application logic, APIs, integrations, data models, configurations, UI and UX designs, documentation and any derivative works. The assignment covers the deliverables as they are created, it is not conditional on final payment, and it is not a licence back to you, it is ownership. We also warrant that what we deliver does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, and where third party material is involved we secure the consents for both sides first. For our own pre existing components that were not written specifically for you, you get a non exclusive, irrevocable, royalty free licence to use, copy and modify them, so nothing we bring with us can be used to lock you in later. Every CodigoDelSur employee signs a non disclosure agreement and an intellectual property assignment as a condition of employment. In practice we also work inside your repositories and your cloud accounts, so in most engagements the code never lives anywhere else to begin with.

Will the engineer work only for us?

A full time engineer works for one client only. If you take someone full time they are on your product and nothing else: your standups, your sprint planning, your Slack, and for practical purposes they are part of your team, with the difference that their employment, payroll and career are our responsibility. If you only need part of a person we do offer part time engineers, and a part time engineer is assigned to a maximum of two projects, never more. We tell you which of the two you are getting before you sign, because "dedicated" is a word this industry uses loosely.

Tell us what your backend has to do

Tell us what runs on your backend today, which apps depend on it and what the first month should ship, and we will tell you on the same call whether the engineer is on our bench or has to be recruited, and what that means for your start date.