How Fuse Finance Built Its Latin American Team With Lupa

Fuse Finance was growing from a small founding team into a full product organization.

The New York-based fintech was building an AI-native loan origination platform for U.S. credit unions and lenders. To scale, Fuse needed senior talent with technical expertise, strong English, a startup mindset, and the ability to work closely with a U.S. team.

With Lupa, Fuse built a Latin American hiring engine that developed alongside the company.

The Challenge

Fuse needed senior Latin American talent without turning its founders into full-time recruiters.

In late 2023, Fuse was moving beyond its founding team and building out its product organization.

The priority was engineering. Fuse needed senior backend engineers, a tech lead, and DevOps talent who could work directly with a U.S. fintech team.

The requirements made the search difficult. Candidates needed strong technical skills, fluent English, a startup mindset, and the ability to meet the quality bar expected of a fintech serving U.S. credit unions and lenders.

Fuse had been handling recruiting internally through founder networks, referrals, and job posts. Every résumé and first interview still went through the founders.

That worked when the company was small. It didn’t scale.

Fuse’s existing network was concentrated in Colombia, while the talent it needed was spread throughout Latin America. Finding one qualified candidate meant screening many more.

The company needed someone else to own that work so its founders could focus on building the business.

Why Fuse Chose Lupa

The first candidates were already qualified, informed, and interested.

Two things stood out to Fuse in its first searches with Lupa.

First, Lupa spent time to understand the role before sourcing.

Candidates reviewed Fuse’s methodology, working hours, and contract model before meeting the company.

Second, Lupa completed much of the screening work upfront.

Finalists had already completed a short asynchronous video interview, and Lupa collected references from a former manager and former peer.

That meant Fuse’s team wasn’t spending its interviews checking the basics.

Within the first couple of weeks, Fuse was interviewing a shortlist for its tech lead search. It signed its first two senior backend engineers before the end of December.

“The first people we met were qualified, informed, and genuinely interested. That’s why the first searches closed in weeks, not months, and why we kept giving them roles.”

Daniel Ruiz, Fuse Finance

From Engineering Hires to a Latin American Team

As Fuse changed, so did the roles Lupa recruited for.

The relationship started with senior engineers.

Fuse next needed solutions and integrations engineers, QA, and frontend talent.

As Fuse took on more credit union clients, Lupa expanded the search to product management and client-facing Client Product Specialists.

By 2026, Fuse’s biggest hiring need had moved again, and implementation became a central constraint on growth.

Implementation had become a central constraint on growth.

At Fuse, a signed client contract doesn’t generate live revenue until the customer has been successfully implemented. That made implementation capacity directly tied to how quickly the company could grow.

Since June 2026, Lupa has added eight Implementation Managers, plus Forward Deployed Engineers, product engineers, a Product Manager, and a Senior Field Marketing Manager.

As the roles kept on evolving, Fuse began recruiting for a position that didn’t exist a year ago: Agentic Deployment Manager, combining implementation leadership, product thinking, and the ability to direct AI agents.

Fuse is now recruiting for a position that didn’t exist a year ago: Agentic Deployment Manager, combining implementation leadership, product thinking, and the ability to direct AI agents.

Recruiting for Roles That Barely Exist

Fuse didn’t just need more candidates. It needed unusual skill combinations.

Fuse's Implementation Manager became one of its hardest positions to fill.

The role requires someone who understands lending concepts such as credit policy, underwriting rules, and decisioning.

They also need to manage a complex implementation end to end, communicate confidently in English with a U.S. credit union's leadership, and understand the product's technical side.

Most candidates are strong in some of those areas, but not all.

When Fuse redesigned its implementation process around AI agents, the requirements shifted again, and the Implementation Manager profile became an Agentic Deployment Manager: part project lead, part product person, and comfortable directing AI.

Fuse’s Implementation Manager profile became an Agentic Deployment Manager: part project lead, part product person, and comfortable directing AI.

Lupa adjusted the search alongside Fuse.

Within two weeks, more than 70 candidates were in the pipeline.

The same flexibility applied when priorities shifted. Searches could pause, while ranked shortlists stayed ready to restart when Fuse needed them again.

How Lupa Works With Fuse

Lupa handles the recruiting work before Fuse needs to make the decision.

By the time a candidate reaches Fuse, Lupa has already checked their English, experience, and adequacy for the role.

Candidates have completed Fuse’s video interview, Fuse has collected references, and they understand how Fuse works and what the contract looks like.

Fuse and Lupa also share a Slack channel.

Every week, Fuse receives candidate-by-candidate updates across every open search: who is waiting for feedback, who is completing references, and who comes next.

Feedback is incorporated into subsequent candidates.

The result is a recruiting process where Fuse’s interviewers spend their time deciding who they want to hire rather than sourcing and screening candidates.

“Working with Lupa feels like having an extension of our team, not a vendor.”

Daniel Ruiz, Fuse Finance

Traditional Recruiting vs. Lupa

The Results

More than 35 hires. And some now run departments.

In nearly three years, Lupa has run +30 searches for Fuse and evaluated thousands of candidates.

Lupa has hired more than 35 people across engineering, product, implementation, and go-to-market.

Today, more than one in five people at Fuse came through Lupa.

Some of those hires have developed alongside the company. Two Client Product Specialists hired in late 2024 are now Implementation Managers.

One team member joined in mid-2025 as a Senior Product Manager and now leads LOS Deployment, overseeing teams responsible for taking credit unions live.

Another joined in early 2025 as a Technical Implementation Specialist and now leads Client Growth, where the team reduced client discovery from roughly two months to three weeks.

Implementation is perhaps the clearest example of how the partnership has evolved.

Nine of Fuse’s current Implementation Managers came through Lupa. Because clients generate live revenue only after implementation is complete, those hires directly support Fuse’s ability to bring customers live and grow.

“At first we knew Lupa could fill seats, but then we started seeing some of their hires now run departments.”

Daniel Ruiz, Fuse Finance

Hiring in Weeks, Not Quarters

Fuse has also changed how it plans hiring, and timing now follows the business more closely.

When the company opened searches for Implementation Managers and Forward Deployed Engineers on May 19, 2026, candidates accepted the first offers on June 4 and 5.

That’s roughly two and a half weeks from opening the searches to accepted offers.

Fuse now plans hiring in waves around incoming clients rather than opening individual roles reactively.

For example, the company can hire a group of Implementation Managers ahead of a corresponding group of customer go-lives.

And starting a search no longer requires a lengthy internal recruiting process.

“We have such a polished process that now opening a role with Lupa is a Slack message, not a briefing project.”

Daniel Ruiz, Fuse Finance

Why the Partnership Is Successful

Context compounds.

After almost three years working together, Lupa already understands what a strong candidate at Fuse looks like.

The team knows Fuse’s interviewers, its hiring bar, its culture, and the characteristics that tend to make employees successful.

That means Fuse doesn’t have to explain the company again every time it needs someone.

Lupa can scale recruiting when Fuse signs new clients, pause searches when priorities change, maintain pipelines for future needs, and challenge requirements when a profile doesn’t make sense.

“A recruiting partner who already knows your business is the difference between a role that closes in weeks and one that drags on for a quarter.”

Daniel Ruiz, Fuse Finance

Takeaway: What Fuse Would Tell Other Fintech Companies Hiring in Latin America

Daniel’s advice is simple: don’t treat your recruiting partner like an agency.

Give them a difficult role. Let them learn the business. Then let that context compound.

For Fuse, that approach has produced more than 35 hires in under three years, including employees who have grown into leadership positions.

For U.S. fintech companies specifically, hiring in Latin America requires more than finding someone with the right technical skills.

They need people who can operate across both environments.

“If you’re a US fintech building with talent in Latin America, find people who work well in both worlds: strong English, comfortable in front of US clients, and used to owning outcomes. They make hiring feel like part of building the company, not a distraction from it.”

Daniel Ruiz, Fuse Finance

FAQs

Can fintech companies hire senior technical talent in Latin America?

Yes. Fuse has hired senior engineers, product engineers, implementation talent, product managers, and other specialist roles across Latin America. The challenge is finding candidates who combine technical ability with strong English, a sense of ownership, and experience working with U.S. teams.

How quickly can Lupa fill fintech roles?

Timelines depend on the role. In one 2026 hiring wave for Fuse, searches opened on May 19, and the first offers were accepted on June 4 and 5, approximately two and a half weeks later.

What fintech roles has Lupa recruited for Fuse?

Lupa has supported Fuse across engineering, DevOps, QA, frontend, product, solutions and integrations, implementation, client-facing, and go-to-market roles.

Does Lupa only recruit engineers in Latin America?

No. Fuse initially worked with Lupa primarily on technical hiring, but the partnership expanded into product, implementation, client-facing, and go-to-market positions as the company grew.

How does Lupa screen candidates before sending them to Fuse?

Lupa screens candidates for appropriate experience and English before they reach Fuse. They also complete Fuse’s asynchronous video interview, learn how Fuse works and its contract model, and provide references before the final stages of the process.

Build Your Fintech Team in Latin America

Fuse went from founder-led recruiting to hiring 35+ people with Lupa across engineering, product, implementation, and go-to-market.

Building your own team in Latin America?

Talk to Lupa about the roles you’re hiring for.

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About Fuse Finance

Fuse Finance builds an AI-native loan origination platform for U.S. credit unions and lenders.

About Lupa

Lupa is a recruiting, staffing, and RPO partner that helps US companies hire exceptional remote talent in Latin America. Lupa’s approach emphasizes deep consultation, pre-search research, carefully vetted candidates, curated shortlists, fast communication, and long-term partnership.