How Zapier expands global hiring — removing compliance guesswork, manual data entry and 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 operated as an all-remote, distributed company founded on the principle that geography shouldn't determine who can be hired. If the ideal engineer was located in Poland, Zapier wanted the flexibility to recruit them there, or anywhere else they were based.

The challenge: Cross-border compliance risk

Putting that principle into action required hiring beyond the small set of countries where Zapier already maintained legal entities. Each new market brought distinct employment laws, tax obligations and compliance requirements — and errors could create tangible 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 opted for an Employer of Record model specifically to close that gap and reduce the misclassification risk that comes with hiring beyond its own entities.

Payroll faced a parallel problem. As Zapier expanded into new territories, entities sometimes went live faster than the compact payroll team could develop the necessary local expertise, leaving them exposed to uncertainty about rules and regulations they had yet to learn.

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

Zapier didn't want another supplier to manage. It sought a partner ready to work alongside its team as the company scaled and found that partner in Remote, which now supports three connected 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 lets Zapier hire compliantly in territories where it lacks a legal entity, with Remote assuming the contractual responsibilities of the employer relationship. That assurance gives Zapier greater peace of mind as it hires in more countries.

Remote Global Payroll

In countries such as India and Spain, where Zapier had no previous payroll experience, Remote's in-country teams support Zapier's payroll operations directly and guide them through unfamiliar regulations. A built-in upload feature also processes Zapier's variable payments each month, replacing the former manual entry.

BambooHR integration

Zapier uses BambooHR as its system of record for HR data, so a native integration with Remote was essential from the start. Once active, updates now flow automatically between both systems, with new hires, terminations, address updates and salary changes all synchronising without anyone needing to touch a spreadsheet.

The impact: Faster hiring, leaner payroll and deeper automation

With Remote implemented across EOR, payroll and HR systems, the benefits appear differently across each area of the business.

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 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. Because Remote is contractually the employer of record, the responsibility for correctness sits 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 6 months alone, Zapier has hired into 8 new countries through Remote's EOR, with additional 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 measurable time saving: Zapier's team estimates up to 80% of the time previously spent on variable payments each month is now saved. "We don't have to do anything manually anymore, which is great," the team says.

That efficiency is paired with a stronger reliance on Remote's local payroll experts, particularly 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

Automation combined with local expertise has removed payroll as a constraint on where Zapier can expand next.

Integrations: Remote is designed to be built on

The BambooHR integration handles the core HR data sync automatically, but Zapier didn’t stop there. Its People Ops team took it further by building a series of Zaps, leveraging Remote’s open API, to automate their entire expense workflow in 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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