How Zapier recruits worldwide – without the compliance guesswork, the manual data entry or administrative friction.

Zapier is an AI orchestration platform that helps organisations 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 idea that geography shouldn't determine who gets hired. If the right engineer was based in Poland, Zapier wanted the flexibility to employ them there, or wherever they happen to be.

The challenge: Managing compliance across borders

Putting that idea into practice meant hiring beyond the few countries where Zapier already had legal entities. Each market brought its own employment legislation, tax obligations and compliance demands, 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 adopted an Employer of Record model specifically to close that gap and lower the misclassification risk that comes with hiring outside its own entities.

Payroll faced a similar issue. As Zapier moved into new jurisdictions, legal entities sometimes appeared faster than the small payroll team could acquire the necessary local knowledge, leaving them exposed to unfamiliar local rules and regulations.

The solution: A single partner for EOR, payroll and HR data

Zapier didn't want another supplier to manage; it needed a partner prepared to collaborate as the company scaled. It found that in Remote, which now underpins three integrated layers of Zapier's employment stack: Employer of Record, Global Payroll and a native integration with BambooHR.

"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 allows Zapier to hire compliantly in markets where it has no legal entity, with Remote assuming the contractual responsibilities of the employer. That assurance gives Zapier the confidence to expand its hiring into more countries.

Remote Global Payroll

In countries such as India and Spain, where Zapier had little prior payroll experience, Remote's local teams work directly with Zapier's payroll function, guiding them through unfamiliar obligations. A built-in upload feature also manages Zapier's variable payments each month, replacing previous manual entry.

BambooHR integration

Zapier uses BambooHR as its system of record for HR data, so a native integration with Remote was essential from day one. With it active, updates flow automatically between the two systems: new hires, terminations, address updates and salary changes all sync without anyone opening a spreadsheet.

The impact: Faster hiring, leaner payroll and greater automation

With Remote handling EOR, payroll and HR integration, each area of the business experiences different, measurable benefits.

Global hiring: from research to reassurance

Where compliance queries once required hours of independent research, Zapier's legal team can now obtain a clear answer swiftly 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 confidence is not only about speed: because Remote is contractually the employer of record, the responsibility for accuracy rests with Remote as well.

"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 additional entities, including Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, now moving onto the platform.

Payroll: manual entry eliminated, local expertise relied upon

On payroll, the upload feature that removed manual data entry has delivered a measurable time saving: Zapier's team estimates it at up to 80% of the time formerly 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 a heavier 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 mix of automation and local knowledge has removed payroll as a limiting factor for where Zapier can expand next.

Integrations: Remote is built to be built on

The BambooHR integration manages the core HR data sync automatically, but Zapier didn’t stop there. Its People Ops team took matters further by building a series of Zaps, using Remote’s open API to automate their entire expense workflow in a matter of days. From review to approval to posting expenses in Remote, the end-to-end process now runs automatically without manual intervention.

"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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