The day this actually buys you
A Tuesday in Lisbon, working with a New York team.
Until 1pm, nobody needs you. The market, the gym, a long lunch, your kids' school run. Deep work if you want it — inbox silence because New York is asleep.
1pm to 9pm, you're in the room. Eight hours of real overlap — a full working day — calls, deals, decisions, in the accent the buyer trusts. This is the part they pay the premium for.
Dinner is still dinner. You close the laptop at nine, with the New York day already behind you. Nobody sane gives this back.
The money, straight
More than the local market pays. Less than San Francisco.
Base salary, tech, 2026. The bands we actually place into.
A European employer pays European. A US employer hiring here pays above local market and below their domestic number — that gap is the reason the job exists.
We ask what you earn now, what you’d move for, and what you’d turn down. Then we tell you the range before you spend an hour on an interview.
If the number doesn’t work, we say so and stop. Nobody’s time is worth wasting on a role that ends in a no.
Against the street you live on
The premium exists because the buyer is American and you're the one who can sell to them. Indicative — your number depends on the role and the city.
These aren't San Francisco numbers. They're better: San Francisco money math with your rent, your groceries, your August.
How the money reaches you
Three structures. We settle which one before you meet anyone.
Option one
Local employment
You join on the same contract as everyone else: monthly payroll, statutory benefits, holiday, notice period, pension where it exists.
Option two
Contract
You invoice monthly as a registered freelancer or through your own company. Higher headline number; tax, insurance and holiday are yours to manage.
Option three
Employer of record
A third party employs you locally and bills the company. A compliant local contract without the company opening an entity where you live.
Gross pay is not take-home, and the three structures don't tax the same. We tell you which one an offer uses before you spend an evening on the interview.
Who we place
You live in Europe and you can work here without sponsorship.
You’ve operated inside or into the US market and can show it — how you sold to American buyers, the hours you held, the pace you worked at, what you delivered.
Go-to-market
account executives, SDRs, demand-generation marketers, customer success leads, RevOps, fractional commercial leads.
Engineering and technical
software engineers, tech leads, engineering managers, solutions and sales engineers, forward-deployed engineers, developer relations.
If you’re an engineer, the question isn’t whether you can code — your interviewer decides that. It’s whether you’ve shipped inside American engineering culture, or built for a US-regulated market: HIPAA, SOC 2, US payments, US payroll and tax.
We don’t require a US passport. Most people we place have one. It isn’t the qualification. A dual national who ran US enterprise sales for six years qualifies. So does a Brit who spent a decade inside an American company.
One thing we test for
Some people move to Europe to slow down. That’s a good reason to move.
It isn’t compatible with an American employer paying American-market money for American-market hours, and we’d rather find that out in a twenty-minute call than three months into a job you didn’t want.
We’ll ask. Answer straight and we’ll place you accordingly — including into roles that don’t need US hours at all. RevOps and most engineering work are the easiest: nobody needs you online at 3pm New York time.
Sales and customer-facing roles are the opposite. Those need your afternoon and evening, and we’ll say so before you interview.
What happens
We talk.
Twenty minutes. What you've done, where you are, what you'll accept.
We're straight about fit.
If we don't have something for you, we say so. If we think you're a fit for something later, we'll say when.
We pitch you the role before you apply to anything.
The company, the money, the structure, the hours. You decide whether it's worth your time.
We prepare you.
What the company cares about, who you're meeting, what they'll press on.
We debrief you within 24 hours.
Both directions. You'll know where you stand.
We carry the money conversation.
You never negotiate your own salary against the employer. That's our job, and we're better at it because we know their ceiling.
Who's paying the premium
Two kinds of company, one reason.
European companies
Selling into the US for the first time.
Series A and B tech companies with a product that works at home and nobody who can open an American conversation. You'd be the first person in the building who knows how that buyer thinks — hired locally, on the same contract as everyone else.
Often employee one for the US market, with the founders in the room.
US companies
Building in Europe without losing their culture.
American startups that want someone in European hours who still writes and works like the team in New York. No relocation, no sponsorship, no offshore experiment — you're already there and already legal.
Usually the first hire on the ground, reporting into a US leader.
Roles we run
Live where you want. Work when it counts.
Hours a day live with Eastern Time.
Why we say no
We turn down more candidates than we place.
You'll hear it from us directly, with the reason, usually inside a week. Nobody benefits from being kept warm.
You need sponsorship where you live
We place people who already have the right to work. If your status depends on a company sponsoring you, we are the wrong route and we will tell you in the first ten minutes rather than the ninth week.
You moved to Europe to slow down
That is a legitimate choice and we are not going to argue with it. It is also incompatible with a role that pays an American premium for American pace, and putting you in one ends badly for you first.
The role needs your night, not your afternoon
Central Europe to a West Coast team is a 5pm-to-1am shift. Almost nobody holds it past month seven. When the geography does not work we tell the company, not you, that the search is wrong.
You are already leaving
If you are eighteen months from moving home, say so. Some roles genuinely will not care. A company hiring its first person in your country will, and we would rather find you something honest than something short.
Questions
What candidates ask us first.
We work with Americans and dual citizens already living in Europe with the right to work where they live. If you hold that right through descent, a spouse, permanent residence or long-term registration, you're in scope. We don't sponsor visas and we don't place people who need one.
Compared with a US base in San Francisco or New York, usually yes. Compared with the local rate for your title where you live, it is normally a raise of a quarter to two-fifths. We show you both numbers on the first call and let you decide which one is the honest comparison for your life.
Depends on the structure. A local employment contract pays in local currency with local benefits and contributions. A contract or employer-of-record arrangement can pay in euros, dollars or pounds. We tell you which one an offer uses before you interview.
Almost always your afternoon and early evening — the overlap with your buyer's day. From Lisbon, Dublin, Madrid or Porto that is roughly 1pm to 9pm local with a New York team — a full eight-hour working day together. Central Europe runs an hour later. We don't place people into 5pm-to-1am shifts; nobody sustains them.
No, ever. Companies pay a fixed fee for the search. That is also why we won't pad your CV to get you hired: our reputation is with both sides.
It stays with us. We name the company to you and agree the role before anything is sent, and we brief you on who you're meeting and what they're nervous about. No mass submissions, no CV databases.
Tell us. Some roles genuinely don't mind, and for those it changes nothing. For a company hiring their first person in Europe it matters a great deal, and putting you there anyway would waste a year of your life and all of our credibility.