We are hiring
Remote work, with businesses on the other side of the world.
Nira places South African professionals into support roles with companies abroad. The work is remote, the clients are international, and the hours are agreed before anything starts.
This page is what we would tell you over a coffee before you applied: what the work actually is, what is expected, and how matching runs.
The work
What you would actually be doing.
Roles are placed in five broad shapes. Most people arrive through administration and specialise once they know which part of it they are good at.
Administrative support
The daily running of a business — calendar, inbox, documents, follow-ups. The broadest category and where most people start.
Executive support
Running one or two people’s working lives rather than a business’s administration. More judgement, more access, more discretion required.
Customer support
Being the person a business’s customers actually deal with, in writing and on calls. Patience under pressure matters more here than speed.
CRM and sales support
Owning the system a business tracks its revenue in — records, pipeline hygiene, follow-ups, appointment setting and reporting.
Operations support
Scheduling, suppliers, fulfilment, reporting, and the coordination between people who do not sit in the same room.
It is not a call-centre job and it is not a junior one. Within a few months the person doing it well is trusted with an owner’s diary and their correspondence, which is a great deal of access to hand to somebody you have never met in person.
The hours
What your working day would look like.
It depends entirely on where the client is, so here is the arithmetic rather than a promise about flexibility. South Africa runs on UTC+2 and has not observed daylight saving since 1944 — so an overlap agreed in January is still the overlap in July.
Seven hours of shared working day — six once their clocks change.
An ordinary day here — 09:00 to 17:00 South African time — lands almost on top of a London one. You would start when you normally start, and the client is at their desk for all but the first hour of it.
When British clocks go back at the end of October the shared band drops to six hours until late March. Ours have not moved since 1944, so the hour that shifts is always at their end.
Both columns are in South African time. Your day would be 09:00 to 17:00 here; the client keeps an ordinary 09:00 to 17:00 where they are.
South Africa is 1 hour ahead of London through British Summer Time, 2 hours ahead the rest of the year — and Dublin, Lisbon and the Canaries, which share the offset.
Six hours of shared working day — five once their clocks change.
A New York client is at their desk from 15:00 to 23:00 South African time. Covering the bulk of that means a 13:00 start here and a 21:00 finish — an evening job rather than a night shift, and the morning stays yours.
When American clocks go back in November the band drops to five hours until March. Ours do not move, so if anything is adjusted it is your start time rather than the shape of the week.
Both columns are in South African time. Your day would be 13:00 to 21:00 here; the client keeps an ordinary 09:00 to 17:00 where they are.
South Africa is 6 hours ahead of New York through Eastern Daylight Time, 7 hours ahead the rest of the year — and Toronto, Montreal, Miami and Atlanta, which share the offset.
Five hours of shared working day — four once their clocks change.
Chicago is an hour further west again: a client’s working day is 16:00 to midnight here. The same 13:00 to 21:00 day covers their morning and their lunch, and what happens after that happens without you.
When American clocks go back in November the band drops to four hours until March. Starting an hour later buys one of them back — which is a conversation worth having before the role begins rather than in month three.
Both columns are in South African time. Your day would be 13:00 to 21:00 here; the client keeps an ordinary 09:00 to 17:00 where they are.
South Africa is 7 hours ahead of Chicago through Central Daylight Time, 8 hours ahead the rest of the year — and Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis and Winnipeg.
Six hours of shared working day, every working day of the year.
Dubai runs two hours ahead of us, so a client’s day is already underway — 07:00 to 15:00 South African time — before yours begins. An ordinary 09:00 to 17:00 here covers six hours of it, and the last two are your own.
This is the one market on this chart with no hatched hour, because neither country changes its clocks. Six hours in January, six in July, and no message in October explaining that the times have moved.
Both columns are in South African time. Your day would be 09:00 to 17:00 here; the client keeps an ordinary 09:00 to 17:00 where they are.
Dubai is 2 hours ahead of South Africa, and neither observes daylight saving — and Abu Dhabi and Muscat.
Five hours of shared working day — four once their clocks change.
Sydney is the hard one. A client’s working day is 01:00 to 09:00 here, so five hours of cover means starting at 04:00 and finishing at midday.
Australian daylight saving runs October to April and moves them further from us, so the band is four hours across their summer and five the rest of the year. This is the only market on this list where the hours are genuinely difficult, and that is worth knowing before you take the role rather than after.
Both columns are in South African time. Your day would be 04:00 to 12:00 here; the client keeps an ordinary 09:00 to 17:00 where they are.
Sydney is 8 hours ahead of South Africa outside Australian daylight saving, 9 hours ahead during it — and Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.
The same figures, with their sources and the case they make for a client, are on why South Africa. Whatever a role turns out to be, the hours are agreed in writing before it starts.
What is expected
The part worth reading before you apply.
None of this is unusual and all of it is assessed. It is here rather than in a welcome pack because you are owed the list while you are still deciding.
The hours you agreed, on the days you agreed
Hours are fixed in writing before a role starts. Say what is realistic rather than what you think we want to hear — an arrangement you cannot keep is worse for you than one you turned down.
Written English that goes out without correction
Most of what you produce reaches a client’s customers in writing. Consistent punctuation, a tone that matches the business, and nothing that has to be fixed after it is sent.
Your own working setup
A laptop that is yours, a connection you are not sharing with a household, a plan for when the power is out, and somewhere quiet to take a call. You will be asked how long your backup lasts.
Writing down how the business works
Remote support gets materially better in month three than in week one, and only if the way a business runs is recorded as it is learned rather than kept in one person’s head.
Telling us early when something has gone wrong
Every remote arrangement that fails, fails on this. Nobody is watching the clock; what is noticed is whether something that should have happened did, and whether you said so when it did not.
Discretion
You will see a business’s diary, its correspondence and its customers. That access is the job, and it is the first thing a client is deciding whether to trust you with.
How matching runs
From an application to a role.
You apply
One open application rather than a list of vacancies. You tell us the work you are suited to, the hours you can commit to, and send a CV. Everything that arrives is read by a person here.
We come back if there is something to talk about
If your experience matches a role we are placing, someone will be in touch. If it does not yet, your application stays on file rather than being deleted. We cannot promise a reply to every applicant and would rather say so than imply otherwise.
A conversation about the actual work
Not a personality test. What you have run, which systems you have run it in, how you handle the week something goes wrong, and what hours genuinely work for you.
A role, scoped before it starts
Client, scope and hours are agreed in writing before a start date. Roles are arranged at 15, 30 or 40 hours a week, and the hours are set around a working day that has already been drawn rather than assumed.
The first weeks, with somebody behind you
You are placed into a business you cannot see, which is genuinely difficult at the start. The relationship with the client is managed by Nira, so a question about scope is ours to answer, not yours to negotiate alone.
We cannot promise you a role, and we would rather say that on the page than let it be assumed. Nira was registered in March 2026. What we can say is that every application is read by a person here, and that a specific one is a materially better use of an afternoon than a general one sent to thirty places.
Guides
Written to be useful even if you never apply.
Three guides to doing this work, whoever you end up doing it for.
How to become a virtual assistant in South Africa
A practical guide to starting out as a virtual assistant in South Africa — the skills, the setup, where the work comes from and what clients assess.
Virtual assistant pay in South Africa: how rates get set
What actually moves a South African virtual assistant's rate, how a rate gets agreed, and what changes when you work through an agency rather than direct.
Remote jobs with US and UK companies, from South Africa
Where the international remote roles actually are, what those employers are buying, and how to apply so a company several time zones away takes you seriously.
Questions
The ones we are actually asked.
Is this a job board?
No. Nira runs one open application instead of a list of vacancies, because roles here are matched to people, not advertised and filled. Everything sent through the application is read by a person here and kept on file. What we cannot do is promise a role or a reply to every applicant — Nira registered in March 2026 and a page that implied a pipeline it does not have would be the wrong first impression.
What hours would I actually be working?
It depends entirely on where the client is, which is why this page gives you a chart and not a sentence. A UK role sits almost on top of an ordinary South African day. A New York role usually means an afternoon start and an evening finish. Australian roles mean early mornings and they are genuinely hard. Whatever it turns out to be, the hours are agreed in writing before a role starts, so nobody discovers them afterwards.
Do I need to have worked for an overseas company before?
No, and most people have not. What is assessed is whether you have done this kind of work for a business that looks like the client’s — named systems, real responsibilities, and a clear account of something you improved, not a list of duties you were handed. First international roles are placed regularly; the barrier is evidence, not a stamp in a passport.
What does Nira pay?
That is agreed per role and stated in writing before anything starts, and it is not published on this site. What moves it — scope, seniority, the systems involved, the sector, the hours and how unsociable they are — is set out in the pay guide, which carries no figures and explains why on its own face.
Do I need my own equipment and internet?
Yes. A working laptop, a broadband connection you can rely on, a way of keeping both running when the power is not, and a quiet place to take a call. It gets asked early, and it is a fair question, not a slight: a client hiring across a distance has no way of checking it for themselves.
Applications are open
Tell us what you have run.
A few minutes, a CV, and the hours you can genuinely commit to. Everything sent is read by a person here.