How Zapier hires globally — without the compliance guesswork, manual data entry or administrative friction.

Zapier is an AI orchestration platform that helps businesses build and automate workflows, deploy AI agents, and connect systems across 9,000+ apps. It has always been an all-remote, distributed company, founded on the principle that geography shouldn't determine who gets hired. If the right engineer was based in Poland, Zapier wanted the freedom to hire them there, or wherever they are.

The challenge: Compliance risk across borders

Turning Zapier's hiring philosophy into reality required recruiting outside the few countries where it already had legal entities. Each new market brought distinct employment laws, tax requirements and compliance obligations, and mistakes could create genuine legal exposure. As Laura Del Gaudio, Zapier's Associate General Counsel for Global Employment, puts it, "It's really hard to understand compliance globally across hundreds of countries." Zapier chose an Employer of Record model to close that gap and lower the risk of misclassification when hiring beyond its own entities.

The payroll function faced the same issue. As Zapier entered new territories, entities sometimes went live faster than its small payroll team could develop the necessary local know-how, leaving them exposed to unfamiliar local rules and regulations.

The solution: One partner for EOR, payroll, and HR data

Zapier didn't want another standalone vendor to manage; it needed a partner that would scale with them. They found that in Remote, which now supports three connected layers of Zapier's employment stack: Employer of Record, Global Payroll, and a native BambooHR integration.

"What we were looking for was a true partner, not just a vendor-customer relationship."

Laura Del Gaudio, Associate General Counsel, Global Employment

Remote Employer of Record

Remote's EOR lets Zapier hire compliantly in markets where it has no legal entity, with Remote taking on the contractual responsibility of the employer relationship. The confidence that this brings to Zapier enables them peace of mind as they hire in more countries.

Remote Global Payroll

In countries such as India and Spain—where Zapier had no payroll experience—Remote's local teams handle the payroll function directly, steering them through unfamiliar obligations. A built-in upload tool also manages Zapier's variable payments each month, replacing the previous manual entry process.

BambooHR integration

Zapier uses BambooHR as its system of record for HR data, so a native Remote integration was essential. With it in place, changes now flow automatically between systems: new hires, terminations, address updates and salary changes all sync without anyone touching a spreadsheet.

The impact: Faster hiring, leaner payroll, deeper automation

With Remote handling EOR, payroll and HR integrations, the benefits appear across different teams in distinct ways.

Global hiring: from research to reassurance

Where compliance questions once meant hours of solo research, Zapier's legal team can now get a clear reply quickly from Remote’s responsive team. "Normally, I would have to spend several hours researching; working with Remote, it was less than a half an hour of my time, and I was confident in the information I was getting," Laura says. That assurance comes not only from speed: because Remote is contractually the employer of record, Remote also holds accountability for getting it right.

"As an solicitor, I like to see that stuff in writing. They took that on. That is their role. That's why you use a provider like Remote."

Laura Del Gaudio, Associate General Counsel, Global Employment

The result: in the last six months alone, Zapier has hired into eight new countries through Remote's EOR, with further entities, including Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, now moving onto the platform.

Payroll: manual entry replaced, local expertise trusted

On payroll, the upload feature that removed manual data entry has delivered a clear time saving: Zapier's team estimates it saves up to 80% of the time previously spent on variable payments each month. "We don't have to do anything manually anymore, which is great," the team says.

That efficiency is paired with greater reliance on Remote's local payroll specialists, especially in markets Zapier was entering for the first time.

"I speak to Remote’s local teams on a regular basis and get so much help and support from them that I would be truly lost without them."

Fiona Wilson, Senior Global Payroll Specialist

The blend of automation and local expertise has removed payroll as a bottleneck for Zapier's future expansion.

Integrations: Remote is built to be built on

The BambooHR integration manages the primary HR data sync automatically, but Zapier went further. Their People Ops team built a series of Zaps, using Remote’s open API, to automate the expense workflow in days. From review to approval to posting expenses in Remote, the end-to-end flow now runs without manual steps.

"Our people ops team have built a number of Zaps and agents, which allow us to review expenses with a one-click approval. And once they're approved, they automatically sync to Remote with the API. And that means they're automatically in payroll without having to review them."

Fiona Wilson, Senior Global Payroll Specialist

"It's honestly been a true pleasure to work with the Remote team. Just being able to have that confidence is great for our team’s day to day. That's why we wanted Remote, and they've come through for us on that."

Laura Del Gaudio, Associate General Counsel, Global Employment

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