— Working with US businesses
Senior engineering from Canada, for US businesses.
SetKernel Digital Inc. is a senior engineering firm in Halifax, Nova Scotia — an hour ahead of New York, in English, with a business culture you will recognize. US companies hire us for the work that is hard to staff for one project: websites and software, production AI, Cloudflare, DevOps, security reviews, and remote IT. Our costs are in Canadian dollars, which often makes a US budget go further. The work is built to be owned by you when we are done.
— Why a Canadian team
Nearshore, without the gaps nearshore usually means.
Canadian-dollar costs
Our salaries, overheads, and suppliers are paid in Canadian dollars. When the US dollar is strong against the loonie, the same senior team costs a US client less than a comparable domestic firm would. Exchange rates move, so we do not advertise a percentage; we quote a fixed price for an agreed scope, and that number does not drift with the market during the engagement.
Your working day, not a night shift
Halifax runs on Atlantic time, one hour ahead of US Eastern all year — both countries change clocks on the same dates. East Coast teams get a full working day of overlap. West Coast teams get our afternoon in their morning, which is where standups and reviews tend to land anyway.
Same language, familiar habits
We work in English, write the way your team writes, and run projects the way North American businesses expect: a scope agreed in writing, dates that mean something, and bad news delivered early. No translation layer, no cultural guesswork about what “done” means.
Senior people, the whole way through
The engineers who scope the work are the ones who build and operate it. There is no sales team handing a signed deal to a junior bench, and no subcontracting chain between you and the person writing the code.
— Time zones, concretely
What our working day looks like from your side.
A 9-to-5 day in Halifax, translated into US time zones. Where our hours fall outside your day, the work carries on asynchronously with a written trail — you wake up to progress notes rather than a blocked ticket — and we book calls into the overlap.
- Eastern
- 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Full-day overlap
- Central
- 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. Most of your day
- Mountain
- 6 a.m. – 2 p.m. Your morning and midday
- Pacific
- 5 a.m. – 1 p.m. Your morning
Arizona and Hawaii do not observe daylight saving time, so the gap there shifts by an hour through the year. Tell us where your team sits and we will propose a meeting rhythm in the written reply.
— What US clients buy remotely
The work that travels well across the border.
Everything below is delivered fully remotely. Managed IT and device management for US clients is remote-only — monitoring, patching, Microsoft 365 administration, and a helpdesk your staff can reach — because our on-site support covers Atlantic Canada.
- Web development Fast, accessible sites your team can publish to.
- Custom software Internal tools, integrations, APIs, automations.
- App development Web and mobile applications, whole-stack.
- AI engineering RAG, agents, and MCP servers built for production.
- AI readiness sprint A fixed-scope audit with quick wins and a roadmap.
- Cloudflare engineering Workers, Access, and edge-native products.
- DevOps CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability.
- Cybersecurity reviews Assessments, hardening, and a written findings report.
- Cloud infrastructure US-region cloud, designed and operated.
- Infrastructure & Linux Proxmox, bare metal, and VMware exits.
- Server management Linux and Windows servers, kept healthy.
- Managed services Remote monitoring, patching, backups, helpdesk.
- Device management Intune, Autopilot, and Microsoft 365, remotely.
- SEO & AI-search visibility Found in search and cited by answer engines.
— Data handling
Your data stays where your requirements say.
US-region hosting when it matters
Being a Canadian firm does not mean your data moves to Canada. When a contract, a customer, or your own policy calls for US residency, we build in US regions of AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or on Cloudflare with the controls your plan supports, and document where each piece of data lives.
HIPAA and regulated data
If you are a covered entity or business associate, say so in the brief. We will discuss what HIPAA requires of the specific work, whether a business associate agreement is involved, and whether we are the right fit. We do not claim a compliance status on a web page; requirements get settled in writing before any protected data is in scope.
State privacy laws
California and a growing number of other states have their own consumer privacy statutes. Your counsel defines the obligations; we build the consent flows, data maps, retention rules, and access controls that meet them, and keep them documented.
Access from outside the US
Our engineers work from Canada, so they access your systems from Canada. For most work that is a non-issue. If your contracts restrict access to US persons — some export-controlled or federal work does — tell us early, because that may rule us out, and it is better to know on day one.
— Contracts and invoicing
Plain terms, confirmed in writing.
You contract with SetKernel Digital Inc., a Canadian company. Engagements are scoped per project with a fixed price agreed before work starts — never open-ended hourly billing. We can quote and invoice in US dollars. We will confirm currency, payment, and contract terms in the written reply to your brief, so there is nothing to guess at before you decide.
— Questions
What US businesses ask first.
Why hire a Canadian firm instead of a US agency?
Three practical reasons: our costs are in Canadian dollars, which often stretches a US budget; Halifax is one hour ahead of US Eastern, so there is no overnight lag; and the people who scope your project are the senior engineers who build it. You still get English-language communication, North American working norms, and written scopes.
How much cheaper is it?
It depends on the exchange rate at the time and on the scope, so we do not publish a percentage. What we can say is that our costs are in Canadian dollars and the price you agree to is fixed for the agreed scope. Send a brief and you will have a concrete number to compare.
Do you invoice in US dollars?
We can quote and invoice in US dollars. Currency, payment method, and the contract itself are confirmed in the written reply to your brief.
Can you provide managed IT for a US office?
Yes, remotely: monitoring, patching, Microsoft 365 and device management, backups, and a helpdesk. We do not provide on-site support in the United States, so it fits best where a local contractor or your own staff can handle anything that needs hands on hardware.
Are you HIPAA compliant?
We do not make blanket compliance claims. If your project touches protected health information, tell us in the brief and we will discuss the specific requirements, whether a business associate agreement is involved, and whether we are the right fit before any protected data is in scope.
How does a project start?
Send a short written brief: what you are building or running, what is in the way, and what done looks like. We reply in writing within one business day with a fit or no-fit answer and, if it is a fit, the next step toward a fixed scope and price.
— Engage
An hour ahead of New York. Write us a brief.
Two paragraphs is enough — what you want built or running, and what done looks like. We reply in writing within one business day.