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

Zapier provides an AI orchestration platform that helps businesses design and automate workflows, deploy AI agents, and connect systems across 9,000+ apps. From the beginning it has operated as a fully remote, distributed organisation built on the idea that geography shouldn't determine who can be hired. If the right engineer was based in Poland, Zapier wanted the flexibility to employ them there, or wherever they might be.

The challenge: Compliance risk across borders

Putting that principle into practice meant hiring beyond the small set of countries where Zapier already had legal entities. Each market brought its own employment laws, tax requirements and compliance steps, and mistakes carried real 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 to close that gap and reduce the misclassification risk that comes with hiring outside its own entities.

The payroll team faced a similar problem: as Zapier moved into new territories, legal entities sometimes went live faster than the small payroll team could develop local know-how, leaving them exposed to unfamiliar local rules and the risks that follow.

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

Zapier didn't want another vendor to manage; it needed a partner to grow with. It found that partner in Remote, which now supports three linked 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. That assurance gives Zapier the confidence and peace of mind to hire in more countries.

Remote Global Payroll

In territories such as India and Spain, where Zapier had no prior payroll experience, Remote's in-country teams work directly with Zapier's payroll function to navigate unfamiliar rules and regulations. A built-in upload feature also processes Zapier's variable payments each month, replacing the previous manual entry work.

BambooHR integration

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

The impact: Faster hiring, leaner payroll, deeper automation

With Remote handling EOR, payroll and HR systems, each part of Zapier's business sees different, measurable benefits.

Global hiring: from research to reassurance

Where compliance queries once meant hours of solo research, Zapier's legal team can now get a clear answer swiftly from Remote's responsive teams. "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 is not just about speed: because Remote is contractually the employer of record, the responsibility for accuracy rests with Remote too.

"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 produced a clear time saving: Zapier estimates up to 80% of the time formerly spent on monthly variable payments has been cut. "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 experts, especially 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 mix of automation and local knowledge has removed payroll as a barrier to where Zapier can expand next.

Integrations: Remote is built to be built on

The BambooHR integration takes care of the core HR data sync automatically, but Zapier didn't stop there. Its People Ops team extended the setup by building a series of Zaps using Remote's open API to automate their expense workflow in days. From review and approval through to posting expenses in Remote, the whole process 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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