Cover Remote work promises freedom, but often denies security. This Filipina founder is building a system where global work comes with dignity and protection (Photo: Getty)
Remote work promises freedom, but often denies security. This Filipina founder is building a system where global work comes with dignity and protection (Photo: Getty)
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As global hiring continues to rise, this Filipina CEO is solving the biggest problem no one talks about: remote workers with no safety net
Remote work is usually framed as a story of freedom. Freedom from commutes, from offices, from geography itself. But for Maria Sucgang, that narrative has always been incomplete. From her vantage point inside global organisations, and later, inside Filipino households, she saw something more complicated emerging: a generation of highly skilled remote workers connected to the world, yet unprotected by it.
“People talk about flexibility as if it’s the end goal,” she says. “But flexibility without structure just creates a new kind of vulnerability.”
As co-founder and CEO of Remotify, Sucgang has made it her mission to professionalise the way Filipino talent is hired, employed and supported by global companies. In doing so, she is challenging one of the most celebrated myths of the modern economy: that remote work, on its own, is enough.
Above Maria Sucgang, co-founder and CEO of Remotify, is fixing the hidden inequality of remote work by giving Filipino talent benefits, protection and global credibility (Photo: Wesley Villarica)
Maria Sucgang, co-founder and CEO of Remotify, is fixing the hidden inequality of remote work by giving Filipino talent benefits, protection and global credibility (Photo: Wesley Villarica)
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A global career, a local reckoning
Sucgang never imagined herself as a founder. Her early career was built in international leadership roles, managing teams across Europe and Asia. It was there that she learned how trust is built across cultures and how easily Filipino talent is underestimated within global systems.
Two moments stayed with her. In one place, someone asked how a Filipina could be managing European teams. In another, she overheard a man speaking dismissively about his Filipino helper. “Both moments revealed how often people from emerging markets are seen as less than,” she recalls. “They shaped my desire to prove not just what I could do, but what Filipino talent as a whole is capable of.”
But it was the pandemic that brought those ideas home. For the first time in years, Sucgang was no longer flying between continents. She was home for breakfast, lunch and dinner with her children. “I realised how much of life I had traded away,” she says. And, more pointedly, she realised that millions of Filipinos were trading away something else: security.
Remote work had opened global doors, but it had also left workers standing in a legal and financial grey zone.
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The invisible cost of global work
Above Balancing productivity and presence has become the new standard for remote workers (Photo: Getty)
Balancing productivity and presence has become the new standard for remote workers (Photo: Getty)
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As international hiring surged, many Filipino professionals began working directly for overseas clients—designers, developers, marketers, operations managers. Over 1.5 million Filipinos were working in remote or hybrid roles by 2025, reflecting a structural shift in how work is done.
On paper, they were globally employed. In reality, they had no employer of record.
That meant no health insurance, no social security, no financial documentation to buy a home, apply for a visa or secure a loan. “They were doing real work for global companies,” Sucgang says, “but they were invisible to the systems that protect workers.”
At the same time, companies faced their own constraints. They wanted to hire great people in the Philippines, but formal employment across borders came with legal and regulatory barriers. The result was a fragile workaround economy, one that benefited no one in the long term.
This was the gap Remotify set out to fill.
“What if the workplace wasn’t a place at all,” Sucgang asks, “but a system that makes people feel valued, connected and cared for?”
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Designing dignity into remote work
Remotify acts as an employer of record, providing Filipino remote workers with full-time employment, benefits and legal protection while allowing global companies to hire seamlessly. But Sucgang is careful not to frame the company as a payroll provider. “We set out to be a true HR partner,” she says, “one that treats people as more than numbers.”
Technology makes this possible. Remotify’s platform automates compliance, payroll and HR processes, and is evolving to integrate performance, culture and community. The goal is continuity: a stable employment experience that travels with the worker, even as clients change.
The biggest challenge, she admits, was trust. Clients had to believe the system would work and workers had to believe they deserved it. “We built that trust step by step, by showing up with consistency, care, and excellence,” she says.
The model has scaled quickly. From US$30,000 in 2021, Remotify grew to US$1.3 million in 2023. After a year focused on compliance and operations, the company is back on a growth trajectory in 2025, with US$1.2 million booked by July and on track for more than US$2 million.
Yet Sucgang measures success differently. Remotify now employs people across the Philippines, from Benguet to Sultan Kudarat. Sixty-six per cent are women. Only 24 per cent are based in Metro Manila. Many are former overseas Filipino workers who can now stay with their families. “These are the stories that remind me why we do what we do,” she says.
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From flexibility to futures
Above A remote designer collaborating with clients across continents from her home office (Photo: Getty)
A remote designer collaborating with clients across continents from her home office (Photo: Getty)
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Sucgang describes herself as an experience designer. Her work begins with observing how people live and work, then building systems that serve them better. “A brand isn’t just fonts or colours. It’s what people actually feel when they engage with you,” she says.
That philosophy is shaping Remotify’s next chapter: a platform that brings together AI-driven employability ratings, instant job matching, rapid onboarding, payroll and compliant offboarding into a single operating system for the future of work. Unlike other global employment services, she insists, Remotify is designed to feel like home.
The stakes are rising. With AI accelerating digitalisation, the Philippines has a rare opportunity to move beyond its reputation as the world’s back office and into global knowledge work. “My role,” Sucgang says, “is to help lead that shift while keeping people at the centre.”
At home, she continues to anchor her life in the breakfast table where the idea for Remotify was born. It is a reminder of what work is meant to support, not replace.
“Flexibility gave us access,” she reflects. “But dignity is what gives people a future.”
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Syrah is Tatler Philippines’ Power & Purpose editor, where she spotlights extraordinary journeys shaping the Philippines and Asia. She covers business, innovation, impact, and culture—chasing the people, ideas and forces shaping how we live and think today.
