How to Find Remote Jobs That Let You Work From the US or Australia

"Remote job" is not an occupation. It is a working arrangement attached to a role you would recognise anyway — customer support, bookkeeping, recruitment coordination, software development, marketing, project management, teaching support. What changes is where you sit and how you communicate.

A typical day runs through a few tools: a video meeting app, a chat tool, a shared document or project board, and whatever the role itself needs — a helpdesk queue, a CRM, a code repository, an accounting package. Coordination that would happen by walking across an office happens in writing instead, so clear written communication counts for more than it does on-site.

Shift patterns depend on why the role is country-restricted. If customers or colleagues sit in your time zone, expect business hours and real overlap requirements. If the restriction exists for payroll, tax or data reasons, hours are often more flexible. Support and operations roles most often carry fixed shifts, including evenings or weekends.

Availability varies by occupation. In March 2026, 22.6 percent of U.S. workers teleworked or worked at home for pay (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026), and people in management, professional and related occupations had a telework rate of 34.6 percent in August (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, 2023-08). Outside those groups, expect fewer fully remote postings and more hybrid ones.

In Australia, flexibility is partly statutory. Employees who have worked for the same employer for 12 months can request a change to their working arrangements, including working from home, and flexibility can be negotiated as long as minimum entitlements are still met (Fair Work Ombudsman, Australian Government).

These are the employer categories that routinely post country-restricted remote roles. Check each against your own occupation before spending time on it.

• Government-backed job banks. CareerOneStop's Find a Remote Job tool searches postings in any U.S. location that are not required to be onsite, drawing from state job banks and private employers whose postings use the word "remote" (CareerOneStop, U.S. Department of Labor, 2020).
• Remote-first and distributed companies. They hire wherever they already hold a payroll entity; their careers page usually names the exact countries or states.
• Large employers with hybrid policies. Many on-site employers post a share of roles as fully remote within one country, often in IT, finance, HR and customer operations.
• Staffing and recruitment agencies. They place you with a client while employing or contracting you. Legitimate placement firms and headhunters typically don't charge candidates, because the hiring company pays them (Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Advice, 2023-01-24).
• Outsourcing and contact centre providers. Volume hiring for support, collections, claims and scheduling, usually with fixed shifts and home-office equipment rules.
• Freelance marketplaces. Per-project work rather than employment, with the platform taking a fee and handling payment.
• Public sector and health administration. Agencies and health systems in both countries hire remote or hybrid staff for review, coding and casework roles, advertised on their own recruitment sites.

The structure matters more than any headline number: it decides who withholds tax, who pays for equipment, and whether your hours are guaranteed.

Confirm two things in writing: whether pay is adjusted by geography, and who supplies and pays for your laptop, phone and internet. In Australia, check any flexible arrangement still delivers your minimum entitlements (Fair Work Ombudsman, Australian Government).

1. Decide which country you are applying in, and say so. Put your city, state or territory and your time zone at the top of your résumé or CV, and state that you are already permitted to work there. Country-restricted postings are screened on exactly this.
2. Rewrite for a reader who cannot watch you work. Lead each role with defensible outcomes, name the tools you use daily, and add a line on remote experience — handover notes, async updates, meetings across time zones.
3. Set up the profiles employers search. A professional networking profile, a government job bank account where one exists, and a one-page work-sample page if your field has visible output.
4. Search with location filters, not just the word "remote". CareerOneStop's Job Finder filters to "Remote Jobs Only", and its postings are screened and vetted by the National Labor Exchange, with full details visible without an account (CareerOneStop, U.S. Department of Labor).
5. Sort out payment before you need it. For employment: a local bank account and the tax registration your country requires. For contracting: a business or tax number, invoicing, and record-keeping from day one.
6. Apply with a short, specific note. The role and where you saw it; two sentences on the closest work you have done; a line confirming location, work authorisation and overlap hours.
7. Keep a tracker of company, date applied, contacts, and the independently found details you used to verify them.

• Verify the employer independently. Contact the company using contact information you found yourself, not details supplied by the person who approached you (Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Advice, 2023-01-24).
• Check the business on an official register — the state business registry in the US, the national business register in Australia.
• Watch the listed red flags: interviews conducted only by email or chat, salaries out of line with industry norms, email from personal rather than company accounts, poor spelling and grammar, and early requests for bank account or other personal information (Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Advice, 2023-01-24).
• Never pay to get the job. Honest employers do not ask for payment, and legitimate placement firms are paid by the hiring company (same source).
• Confirm payment method and fees: which entity pays you, in what currency, on what schedule, and what payroll or platform deductions apply. Be wary of gift cards, cryptocurrency or wire transfers.
• Pin down time zone and shift expectations in writing — overlap hours, on-call, and whether hours can change later.
• Read employee reviews on an established employer review site, and search the company name with words like "scam" or "complaint".
• Get the full offer in writing — pay model, equipment, leave, probation, notice, and for Australian roles the award or agreement that applies.
• Check your tax position. A foreign resident for Australian tax purposes must declare income earned in Australia, including employment income, with some exceptions, and has no tax-free threshold and does not pay the Medicare levy (Australian Taxation Office, 2026-06-03).