How Zapier hires globally – avoiding the compliance guesswork, manual data entry and administrative friction.

Zapier is an AI orchestration platform that enables businesses to build and automate workflows, deploy AI agents, and connect systems across 9,000+ apps. The company has always operated fully remotely on the belief that geography shouldn't determine who can be hired. If the right engineer was based in Poland, Zapier wanted the flexibility to recruit them there, or anywhere they happen to be.

The challenge: Cross-border compliance risk

Putting that philosophy into action required recruiting outside the small number of countries where Zapier already had legal entities. Each new jurisdiction brought its own employment laws, tax regimes and compliance obligations; getting any of it wrong posed 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 to lower the misclassification risk when hiring beyond its own entities.

The payroll function faced a similar problem. As Zapier entered new markets, entities sometimes went live faster than the compact payroll team could accumulate the necessary local know‑how, leaving the team exposed to unfamiliar local rules and regulations.

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

Zapier did not want another vendor to manage; it needed a partner to grow alongside its team. They found that partner in Remote, which now underpins three integrated components 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 lets Zapier hire compliantly in markets where it has no legal entity, with Remote assuming the contractual employer responsibility. That contractual accountability gives Zapier greater confidence as they expand their hires into additional countries.

Remote Global Payroll

In markets such as India and Spain, where Zapier had limited payroll experience, Remote's in‑country teams directly support Zapier's payroll operations, guiding them through unfamiliar regulations. A built‑in upload feature also processes Zapier's variable payments each month, replacing what had been 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 the integration active, updates flow automatically between the two systems: new hires, terminations, address updates and salary changes all sync without anyone touching a spreadsheet.

The impact: Faster hiring, leaner payroll and deeper automation

With Remote managing EOR, payroll and HR data, the benefits appear in different ways across the organisation.

Global hiring: from research to reassurance

Where compliance enquiries once required hours of independent research, Zapier's legal team can now obtain concise answers 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 speed is backed by substantive accountability: because Remote acts as the contractual employer of record, 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 being onboarded to the platform.

Payroll: manual entry removed, local expertise relied upon

On payroll, the upload feature that removed manual data entry translates into a measurable time saving: Zapier estimates it at up to 80% of the time previously spent on variable monthly payments. "We don't have to do anything manually anymore, which is great," the team says.

That operational efficiency comes together with a stronger dependence on Remote's local payroll experts, particularly in markets Zapier is 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 removes 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 pushed further. Its People Ops team constructed a series of Zaps, using Remote’s open API, to automate the complete expense workflow in days. From review and approval through to posting expenses in Remote, the end‑to‑end process now runs 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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