How we engage talent outside of the US

Being an all-remote company without entities outside of the US yet, we adopt different ways of engaging talent across the world. Here we outline the different ways we do this outside of the US, and the considerations and limitations associated with each type, for hiring managers and referring teammates to be aware of.

Employees of Sourcegraph subsidiaries (once available)

Once we form them, we will be able to hire teammates outside the US as employees of Sourcegraph subsidiaries within available countries.

Contracts

Sourcegraph subsidiary employees will sign an employment agreement with the Sourcegraph subsidiary as required by local employment laws.

Benefits

Sourcegraph subsidiary employees will receive employee benefits in accordance with our handbook and local employment laws.

Payments

The Sourcegraph subsidiary will pay these employees directly in their local currency.

Onboarding

Sourcegraph subsidiary employees go through team-specific onboarding.

Employees of PEOs/EORs (if available)

In countries where we don’t have a subsidiary, we will see if our current partner and third-party PEO (Professional Employer Organization) or EOR (Employer of Record), Deel/), is available to employ a teammate outside the US as a PEO employee.

The Talent team and hiring managers carefully assess these exceptional cases where a PEO/EOR may be required, and engage the People Ops team to chat about the merit of the case early on, as our current partner, Deel, may not be able to support us in all countries.

Read more about Deel here.

Contracts

Teammates who are employed via EOR or PEO will receive an employment agreement directly from the EOR/PEO. The EOR/PEO will act as the direct employer as they are incorporated in the particular country where we are hiring the teammate.

Benefits, allowances and expenses

PEO employees will receive employee benefits in accordance with local employment laws.

Payments

The PEO will pay these employees directly in their local currency via direct deposit and in accordance with local employment laws. The Sourcegraph Finance team is responsible for determining the FX rate that is used when PEO contracts are generated. This FX rate will be applied to base salary and bonuses/commission.

To determine a fair and reasonable FX rate, and in order to ensure that all teammates are paid consistently, the Sourcegraph Finance team will review FX rates on an annual basis, and the FX rates that are determined at these intervals will be used for all pay adjustments, and all new hires, for the 12 months following this review.

The FX rate is calculated by using the trailing 12-month average.

Onboarding

Employees via PEO/EOR are marked as hired in Greenhouse, have a start date that aligns with the cohort calendar (2021 & 2022 ), have a profile in Bamboo, and enjoy the same thorough general or team-specific onboarding enjoyed by all other teammates.

Contractors

We engage contractors for certain projects on an as-needed basis.

We also engage teammates outside the US as contractors. If appropriate, Sourcegraph may convert these contractors to employees of Sourcegraph subsidiaries or PEOs once available or after a certain period of time.

Contracts

Contractors sign consulting agreements with Sourcegraph. The agreement depends on the contractor’s country of residence, length and type of engagement, and whether the contractor signs as an individual or on behalf of an entity. Some contractors choose to bill their services through an entity for various reasons, such as tax benefits.

Benefits

Full-time, indefinite term contractors receive the same compensation as full-time US teammates, regardless of the contractor’s location. We want to give teammates the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world, and contracting is the only structure that fully allows us to offer that. We have kept all offers and roles on a US salary rather than adjusting for cost of living by location. The intention is that this difference would allow teammates to cover the benefits we are unable to provide on a contracting structure. Full-time contracting teammates can expense recurring expenses as outlined in our handbook.

Contractors are not eligible for all employee benefits (e.g. healthcare, life insurance). However, contractors may expense certain costs incurred in performing their duties.

Payments

Contractors submit an invoice at the end of each month (including any reimbursable and recurring expenses) via email to our accounting team, ap@sourcegraph.comp. All invoices will be paid through Airbase. You should have it in your Okta dashboard.

Onboarding

Contractors generally don’t go through team-specific onboarding, except for full-time, indefinite term contractors or where the hiring manager flags an exception to the Talent and People Ops teams.

Temporary Contractors (very short-term, likely less than 3 months)

As we’re building a company for the long-term, we rarely take on temporary contractors in any country (including the US) unless under exceptional circumstances, like once-off projects or to cover for an existing teammate on an extended leave. Temporary contractors are independent contractors who supply work or services to us on an “as needed” basis, use their own systems and tools to do so, and invoice us monthly for the work they’ve done. While we strive to make them feel welcome and support their success in their short time with us, they are not considered teammates, and some of their access to our systems, meetings and benefits may be limited.

How to hire a temporary contractor

Temporary contractors must go through our vendor procurement process, which is managed in Airbase, prior to working with any temporary contractors or signing any agreements. During the vendor procurement process, the temporary contractor request will go through all necessary approvals (People Ops, Finance, and Security and Legal if appropriate). Once approved, People Ops will draft and send the contractor agreement via Docusign.

The sooner you submit the request in Airbase, the better!

How to submit an airbase contractor request

Contracts

Temporary contractors receive a generic temporary contractor agreement that specifies a contracting fee, scope of work, a start date and an expiry date, and dates are only extended if agreed in writing and with the approval of People Ops and Finance, no more than one (1) month before the contract expires.

Benefits, allowances and expenses

Due to their classification as temporary contractors, they are not eligible for benefits and allowances as per our handbook, and we are unable to reimburse any expenses related to these. Costs incurred in performing the duties of the role may be considered.

Payments

Temporary contractors submit an invoice at the end of each month (including any reimbursable and recurring expenses) via email to our accounting team, ap@sourcegraph.comp. All invoices will be paid through Airbase. You should have it in your Okta dashboard.

Onboarding

Temporary contractors are marked as hired in Greenhouse, have a start date that aligns with the cohort calendar (2021 & 2022 ), and have a temporary profile in Bamboo, but typically they do not gain access to the thorough general or team-specific onboarding enjoyed by permanent teammates. Their onboarding usually includes a welcome email with information for their first day, and the onboarding checklist and resources, but excludes activities like being introduced in the company meeting, meet & greets, lunch & learns, buddies and feedback milestones. Access to Slack is also limited to “multi-channel guests” and specific channels requested by the hiring manager.

Hiring managers should consult the Talent and People Ops team early if an exceptional situation requires a different onboarding process for reasons critical to the role, or if the role is expected to become a full-time role in the near future. Alternatively, it’s up to hiring managers to set up introductions and provide information as needed for the purpose of the temporary contract.

To read more about Temporary contractors and how they are defined visit this page

Visa sponsorship and immigration assistance

Visas

Since our teammates can generally work from anywhere in the world, we sponsor visas for only roles that require the presence in a particular country as part of the job responsibilities. In such cases we will work to support teammates as much as possible, but if our PEOs do not sponsor the visa, an alternative solution may take multiple months to implement. We encourage hiring managers to let the Talent and People Ops teams know as early as possible, before the role is even opened, if such requirements exist.

We collect all active visa types in our HRIS, Bamboo, to help People-Ops better support teammates who need support with their visas. This ranges from employment support letters, sponsorship documents or working with our external immigration team. Please be sure to complete this field within your Bamboo profile.

note: We post all required LCA postings here

For role-required reasons

In cases where a candidate or teammate’s role within Sourcegraph would require their presence in a particular country, we will cover the costs of immigration assistance and work to support the candidate as much as possible. However, it is dependent on whether we, or our PEO partner, have the ability to sponsor the particular visa or immigration process. We encourage hiring managers to let the Talent and People Ops teams know as early as possible, even before the role is opened, if such requirements exist. To be eligible for consideration, the role must at a minimum have requirements for L5 or M4 level scope.

*** Note: If the role has not been pre-approved for Visa sponsorship, the Recruiter will inform the candidate that the role is not eligible for Visa sponsorship as per our company policy and that we will not be able to continue the interview process.

For personal reasons

Since our teammates can generally work from anywhere in the world, we do not cover sponsorship and visa assistance costs for candidates and teammates who plan to move to or remain in a country where they require sponsorship or immigration assistance. However, if there is a role that is considered difficult to fill and a person possesses a unique skillset and/or particular experience level that is needed, the People Team, Talent Team, and Hiring Manager will make a decision on a case by case basis and may consider covering costs in some cases.

Current visa holders

For candidates or teammates that currently hold a visa and prefer to keep their status in a particular country for personal reasons, Sourcegraph may be able to sponsor the visa depending on whether we or our partner PEO have the ability to support it. The candidate or teammate would carry the cost of transferring and sponsoring the visa.

Active visa process

For candidates or teammates that do not currently hold a visa or permanent residency for the country they plan to live in or move to, but have an existing or in-process case, Sourcegraph may be able to transfer and take over the case (depending on the visa, the country, and whether we have the ability to support it directly or via our PEO partner). The candidate or teammate would carry the cost of transferring and sponsoring the case.

Countries where we cannot currently support employment or contracting

We cannot support or employ candidates or teammates in any of these countries due to U.S. embargoes and sanctions.

  • Cuba
  • Iran
  • North Korea
  • Sudan
  • Syria
  • Crimea
  • China (case by case - notify People Ops)
  • Russia (case by case - notify People Ops)
  • Ukraine (case by case - notify People Ops)

Sourcegraph will not consider initiating new petitions prior to teammates 1-year mark

For candidates in need of sponsorship that require a new visa, we will agree to sponsor new visas for teammates so long as they have worked at Sourcegraph a minimum of 12 consecutive months prior to initiating a visa petition and given that we have the ability to sponsor said visa.

Sourcegraph does not have the ability to support F-1 extensions (OPT).

Any visas sponsored by Sourcegraph must be compatible with an all-remote work setting.

Any questions? Contact the People team in #ask-people-team in Slack or people-ops@sourcegraph.com via email!

Citizenship

Sourcegraph collects all teammate’s citizenship & visa type during onboarding. The reasons being we want to support you with Merge or team travel, as well as remain compliant with employment laws and our customer contracts.

People Team Resources

Internal process doc