Which responsibilities should a US company keep domestic when hiring a professional in Latin America?
Keep a task with a local owner when physical presence or a confirmed location, license or named-person requirement makes that necessary. Review access, working hours, decision rights, manager time, escalation and measurable output for every other task. One on-site duty does not make the whole role domestic. Use the eight-dimension matrix on this page; do not add up passes.
Start with the work you will assign
Engineering, finance, RevOps and customer-facing roles each contain several kinds of work. A controller might own the monthly close while another person retains a particular approval. A platform engineer might own deployments while local support handles physical hardware. Write down those responsibilities before deciding where the whole job should sit.
This guide is for US leaders designing professional roles across growing companies, PE portfolio businesses, family offices and holding companies. It helps the hiring manager decide how to organize work. It does not assess individual candidates or establish legal eligibility. Employment arrangements, worker classification and country-specific obligations need their own review.
Once the work is defined, use the internal recruiting versus partner worksheet to decide who will source candidates. That worksheet addresses recruiting capacity; this one addresses the work itself.
The eight-dimension task matrix
Apply each row to one task. Record the requirement, the evidence and the person responsible for resolving it. Do not add up passes: one binding restriction can matter more than several easy answers.
| Dimension | Question | What to record or resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Physical presence | Does this task require someone at a specific site, such as a warehouse, client office or data center? | Name the site and the activity that cannot be performed remotely. Keep that activity with someone who can attend; the rest of the role may be separable. |
| Customer or regulatory requirements | Does the task carry a contractual or regulatory requirement for location, residence, a license or a named person? | Have the responsible owner identify the exact requirement. A license and a residence requirement are different. An unresolved requirement needs review before assignment. |
| System and data permission | Can the person access the required systems and data from the proposed country, network and device under your policies? | Ask the security owner to confirm permitted access and required controls. A task being screen-based does not establish permission to perform it remotely. |
| Working-hour overlap | Which calls, decisions or release windows must happen live? Which tasks can use a written handoff? | State the US reference time zone, live window and seasonal clock changes. Confirm the actual schedule; a country name alone does not establish availability. |
| Decision rights | What can the hire decide independently, and which decisions remain with another owner? | Assign authority explicitly. Keep a reserved approval with its named owner and give the hire the information and authority needed for their own responsibilities. |
| Manager availability | Who can review the work, unblock the person and give feedback on the cadence this task needs? | Name a manager and confirm available time. Missing management capacity needs fixing for a domestic hire too; it is not a reason to label the task US-only. |
| Handoff and escalation | When work changes hands or something goes wrong, who responds and by when? | Define the next owner, response window and urgent escalation path. Resolve high-stakes gaps before handing over the task, wherever the hire works. |
| Measurable output | What would completed, correct work look like, and who can judge it? | Write the deliverable, acceptance criteria and reviewer. Judgment-heavy work can be remote; it still needs a shared understanding of quality and authority. |
Choose a next action for each task
- Keep with a local or designated owner. A verified site, contract or authority requirement fixes who can perform the task. State the requirement, rather than applying it to every task with the same job title.
- Consider for the LATAM role. The relevant owners have resolved the requirements and the proposed working arrangement covers them. Carry those requirements into the role brief and candidate assessment.
- Resolve before assigning. Access, management time, acceptance criteria or another requirement is unknown. Assign an owner and a due date. Unknown does not mean US-only, and it does not mean ready.
A split role needs enough coherent work for the person to own. If approvals consume every decision, reconsider the authority you are giving the hire. If only one task requires a site visit, consider whether a local colleague can own it without breaking the rest of the role.
Fictional examples by function
These examples illustrate work design. They are not client results or blanket rules for a profession. In each example, the company has reviewed access, working hours, management support and the relevant task requirements.
Engineering: system ownership and physical hardware
A growth-stage company assigns production deployment and rollback decisions to a LATAM platform engineer during an agreed on-call window. The engineer has approved system access and explicit authority to roll back a release. A physical hardware swap at the company's US data center stays with local support. That site task does not prevent the engineer from owning deployment reliability.
For a detailed working-hours brief, use the engineering guide to overlap, decision rights and handoffs. Separate the normal collaboration window from on-call coverage.
Finance: close ownership and a reserved sign-off
A PE portfolio company assigns monthly close, reconciliation and variance reporting to a LATAM controller. It defines the chart of accounts, ERP access and the evidence required to accept the close. In this fictional company, a particular filing has a confirmed requirement for a named US-based signer; that person keeps the sign-off while the controller prepares the supporting work.
The example assumes an actual location requirement. A US license alone does not establish that its holder must live in the US. Confirm the specific filing and signatory requirements with the responsible legal or compliance owner instead of treating all finance work as restricted.
RevOps: analysis and the final metric decision
A SaaS company gives a LATAM RevOps hire ownership of CRM data hygiene, lead-routing rules and lifecycle definitions. The team agrees on the rules and how changes are approved. When a disputed renewal figure changes a board-reported metric, the finance leader retains final approval under that company's governance policy. The RevOps hire owns the analysis and documents the discrepancy.
The approval follows the company's assigned authority. It is not inherently a US-only task, and the LATAM hire can own decisions explicitly delegated to the role.
Customer-facing: account work and a contract requirement
A midmarket company assigns onboarding calls, usage reviews and renewal-risk reporting to a LATAM customer success hire whose agreed hours cover the accounts. One enterprise contract requires a US-based point of contact. The account owner confirms that the contract permits other team members to deliver day-to-day support remotely, so the named US contact stays in place while the LATAM hire owns the permitted account work.
If the contract also restricts service delivery or data access, that requires a separate resolution. Naming a US contact does not automatically permit the rest of the work to move.
Use the worksheet in a role-planning meeting
Download the blank task worksheet (CSV). Open it in your spreadsheet app and duplicate its eight rows for each task. Add the task name, your answer, supporting policy or evidence, the owner, unresolved action and review date. Keep sensitive company information in your own approved workspace.
Begin with the task that could stop the hire from doing useful work: a restricted system, a site requirement, a reserved approval or a live customer commitment. Resolve it before expanding the role brief. Finish with a clear assignment for each task and the conditions that must be in place before handover.
Copy CSV text
Select and copy the complete CSV below if the download is unavailable.
Task,Dimension,Question,What to record or resolve,Your answer,Evidence or policy,Responsible owner,Unresolved action,Review date,Team decision: local/designated owner; consider LATAM; resolve before assigning ,Physical presence,"Does this task require someone at a specific site, such as a warehouse, client office or data center?",Name the site and the activity that cannot be performed remotely. Keep that activity with someone who can attend; the rest of the role may be separable.,,,,,, ,Customer or regulatory requirements,"Does the task carry a contractual or regulatory requirement for location, residence, a license or a named person?",Have the responsible owner identify the exact requirement. A license and a residence requirement are different. An unresolved requirement needs review before assignment.,,,,,, ,System and data permission,"Can the person access the required systems and data from the proposed country, network and device under your policies?",Ask the security owner to confirm permitted access and required controls. A task being screen-based does not establish permission to perform it remotely.,,,,,, ,Working-hour overlap,"Which calls, decisions or release windows must happen live? Which tasks can use a written handoff?","State the US reference time zone, live window and seasonal clock changes. Confirm the actual schedule; a country name alone does not establish availability.",,,,,, ,Decision rights,"What can the hire decide independently, and which decisions remain with another owner?",Assign authority explicitly. Keep a reserved approval with its named owner and give the hire the information and authority needed for their own responsibilities.,,,,,, ,Manager availability,"Who can review the work, unblock the person and give feedback on the cadence this task needs?",Name a manager and confirm available time. Missing management capacity needs fixing for a domestic hire too; it is not a reason to label the task US-only.,,,,,, ,Handoff and escalation,"When work changes hands or something goes wrong, who responds and by when?","Define the next owner, response window and urgent escalation path. Resolve high-stakes gaps before handing over the task, wherever the hire works.",,,,,, ,Measurable output,"What would completed, correct work look like, and who can judge it?","Write the deliverable, acceptance criteria and reviewer. Judgment-heavy work can be remote; it still needs a shared understanding of quality and authority.",,,,,,
The download contains no scoring formulas, candidate assessment or automated recommendation. Your team makes the work-design decision.
Sources and how they inform the matrix
This is an Opus editorial planning framework, not an occupational certification or a government-approved readiness test. The sources support specific principles; they do not validate the matrix as a whole.
- O*NET Content Model distinguishes job tasks and work context from worker characteristics and requirements. That supports reviewing the work instead of deciding from a job title alone.
- O*NET Physical Work Conditions describes the interaction between a worker and the physical environment. It informs the physical-presence question; it does not classify roles as domestic or LATAM-ready.
- NIST SP 800-46 Rev. 2, published July 2016, addresses securing telework, remote access and devices against identified threats. It informs the security review, rather than granting permission to access a system from a particular country.
- OPM Structured Interviews describes predetermined questions and common evaluation standards. After defining the role, use consistent job-related criteria in candidate interviews. This guidance does not determine where authority or a role must sit.