The 13 Best Digital Nomad Jobs (And How to Find Them)

Remote jobs that allow for travel provide the opportunities many workers are looking for: flexible schedules, ditching high fixed costs like rent or a mortgage in an expensive city, and the chance to make a big life change.

In our ultimate guide to the best digital nomad jobs, we’re covering the best digital nomad jobs for beginners just looking to get started in the digital nomad lifestyle, and opportunities for those with more experience who are looking to add additional streams of income.

While you’ll find digital nomads working in nearly every field you can imagine, these remote jobs are some of the best you’ll find, and will help you go remote even faster and easier than you might expect. 

Digital Nomads Jobs

Working as a Digital Nomad

For those that are considering digital nomad life, there can be so many benefits that make the digital nomad lifestyle worth any of the challenges that can come with finding a proper digital nomad job. 

Digital Nomad Benefits

Travel

An office job – even one with a generous or unlimited vacation policy – just  won’t allow the freedom to travel that a full digital nomad lifestyle can.

Lower fixed expenses

Many digital nomads are able to completely ditch costly fixed expenses like rent or a mortgage. Others set up a home base in a more affordable city or country.

Another option is renting your home while you travel. No matter what you choose, being a digital nomad can be a money-saving choice, even when factoring in the cost of travel.

Freedom to make your own schedule

Not all digital nomads can make their own schedule – some work typical 9-5 jobs or must stick to some typical working hours with their digital nomad jobs.

However, many are able to create their own schedule, which is can be incredibly freeing, especially after years of clocking in and out of work. 

Of course, you’ll find drawbacks with digital nomad life, as you would with any lifestyle choice. It can be hard not feeling settled anywhere if you move around a lot. Not having a traditional office setting could create challenges to job growth or permanence and team-building.

Some digital nomads find it challenging to build friendships or romantic relationships. However, many find that the benefits far out-weight the drawbacks, and find ways to tailor the experience to them.

Top-Paying Digital Nomad Jobs

Some of the top-paying digital nomad jobs aren’t jobs at all – they’re businesses that digital nomads have launched remotely. Interested in starting your own digital nomad business? Check out list of the 15 best digital nomad business ideas. 

If you’re not interested in starting your own company, the top-paying jobs for digital nomads typically correspond with top-paying jobs for workers that go into the office every day.

Those with significant technical skills and specialties like web developers, lawyers, engineers, and experts in their fields can generally make quite a lot of money even while working as digital nomads.

What Are the Best Jobs to Work Remotely?

Most fields and types of jobs have some way to work remotely these days. This means that there isn’t one best job to work remotely – the best job for you to work remotely is the one that combines your interests, skills, and passions with the lifestyle that you’re looking for.

Do you want a job you can entirely do on your own time? Do you want to start your own business? Or do you want a typical 9-5, but from a desk in your own home or from a beach in Ecuador?

Knowing what you’re looking for and finding it in a remote job will help you find YOUR best job to work remotely, no matter the field or job title.

What Jobs Can You Do As a Digital Nomad?

Most jobs that you can think of today have digital nomads working them! Of course, some may be more challenging to do as a digital nomad than others.  Even in fields you wouldn’t normally consider – the medical field, the restaurant business, etc. – there are more and more ways to take jobs remote than ever before.

Up next are some of the most common digital nomad jobs, and the easiest digital nomad jobs for beginners just looking to get started as digital nomads.

However, don’t get discouraged if you can’t think of a great fit for you just yet.

A great way to get started is by seeking out digital nomads in your field – you’ll find inspiration and specific tips you can apply in your field to get started.

Best Digital Nomad Jobs

1. Remote Worker

The easiest digital nomad job to find might just be the one that you already have. Taking your current position remote, if possible, can be a great way to start digital nomad life.

Alternatively, if your current position won’t allow for fully-remote work, can you find a similar position at a competitor? Or in a related field? Working a standard 9:00 – 5:00 job while as a digital nomad is often the easiest way to get started with long-term travel and work.

It is important to be aware that many companies have restrictions on workers that prevent them from working remotely from certain destinations, most often from other countries.

While sometimes restrictions are just for the sake of having rules in place, often this is due to tax liabilities the company might face from having workers based in other nations (even if it is as a digital nomad). 

It is important to be honest with your employer about working remotely and your plans to work while traveling. While being a digital nomad might not impact the quality of your work, being honest is certainly the right thing to do, for what that is worth.

2. Photographer / Videographer

Photographers and videographers are made for the digital nomad life. While you’ll need to seek out clients, long-term travel is a great way to find clients from the travel and tourism industry.

Even wedding and portrait photographers can market their services wherever they travel.

Alternatively, working as a photojournalist, Youtuber, starting a photography blog, or a similar line of work can take you around the world.

In addition to working with clients as a photographer or videographer, there are plenty of options for making additional money as a photographer or videographer. You can consider some of these additional income streams from this work:

• Selling photo or video editing presets for Lightroom
• Selling stock photography or videography
• Creating and selling online course, guides, and tutorials on shooting, editing, and other relevant skills you know well

3. Social Media Marketer

One of the most common digital nomad jobs is as a social media marketer, a job that by definition takes place behind a computer screen.

You’ll find plenty of companies of all sizes looking for social media marketing professionals or those that work in niches like Facebook and Instagram ads management, content creation, or branding.

Alternatively, plenty of social media marketers go it on their own, and work as freelancers with a variety of clients. This style of work certainly has less job security, but can provide more freedom to travel and work from different time zones.

4. Virtual Assistant

If you want to work online but aren’t cut out for being a social media marketer, you’ll find plenty of other positions working as a virtual assistant in different fields. Common job responsibilities for virtual assistants include the following:

• Copywriting, editing, or SEO writing
• Traditional assistant roles like scheduling meetings, taking notes, etc.
• Business development and client outreach
• Public relations

You can find virtual assistant positions on standard job sites like Monster, Idealist, and others, but I love FlexJobs, as it is more specifically for remote workers and has countless listings. Upwork and Fiverr are also great platforms, though it seems to be harder to build a consistent clientele with the type of limited-scope project work you’ll often find on these two platforms. 

The options are endless, and while most virtual assistants generally specialize in offering one area of support, this wide range of virtual assistant jobs means you’ll have plenty of opportunities to find what you like best.

A common concern of virtual assistants is that this work can be pretty challenging to scale and grow without working more hours.

Establishing a small virtual assistance agency and bringing on other virtual assistants is a great way to grow in this field as you build your clientele.

5. Copywriter

One of the most popular digital nomad jobs, copywriting is a great digital nomad job for beginners. Copywriting is great option for digital nomads looking to work from anywhere, and with the flexibility to make their own schedules.

While you’ll have deadlines to meet as a copywriter, you’ll also generally be able to work offline much of the time, meaning you won’t be so tied to a strong internet connection.

While most copywriters work freelance and face the challenge of finding regular clients, the demand for good copywriters is great, and with some clever marketing and networking you can build a great client base.

6. English Teacher

One of the most common ways to move abroad and secure a job has long been to work as an English teacher, but teaching English has become one of the most popular digital nomad jobs within the past 10 years. There are hundreds of companies that connect teachers with students who want to learn English via video calls, online classrooms, messaging apps, and more.

The market for teaching English online has changed drastically within the last year or so – the Chinese government imposed strict regulations on English lessons online for children, shuttering some of the largest tech companies dedicated to teaching English to Chinese students.

However, you can still find positions with companies that serve Chinese adults, or students of all ages in other countries.

Teaching English online is a hard digital nomad job to scale, but popular options for growth include taking on private clients (cutting out the middleman), working with businesses looking to train staff, or writing and selling curriculum. 

You’ll need to find online students on your own, but this can be a great way to increase your earnings over time. 

With some basic English teaching experience, you can also find positions locally wherever you plan to travel. How about teaching for 3 months at a school in Thailand? Or South America?

Taking a short-term position could be a great way to beat digital nomad burnout, and engage with students face-to-face.

7. Web Designer / Developer

In a job that has long required sitting behind a computer screen for hours at a time, it is easy how to imagine how a web designer or developer position is the perfect digital nomad job.

Whether working with a firm in a full-time position or working with a group of clients as a freelancer, there are plenty of opportunities in this line of work to make this a fantastic choice as a digital nomad job.

8. Graphic Designer

Being a graphic designer is another career path perfectly suited for digital nomad life. If you have the skills to work as a graphic designer, you’ll have no problem finding work with clients as a digital nomad.

Work with clients you already had relationships with prior to becoming a digital nomad, find new clients on the road, and make even more networking by working from coworking spaces where you travel.

Graphic designers are not limited to making money by working in-house or with a group of clients, however. Here are some of the ways to easily make additional income as a graphic design digital nomad:

• Sell digital assets online to through platforms like Etsy or Creative Market, including fonts, templates, and more.
• Create and sell Canva Pro templates like calendars, workbooks, or fliers for businesses or other designers to use in their creations.
• Create online courses through platforms like Skillshare or for sale on your own website to help budding designers find clients and launch their own businesses

9. Freelancer / Consultant

When ready to make the leap to digital nomad life, many workers ditch their traditional jobs and take the skills they’ve learned over the course of their careers to become consultants or freelancers.

You’ll find digital nomads consulting in every field imaginable and doing great, impactful work in the areas that interest them.

Digital nomad life can be a great way to grow your business as a consultant, especially if you prioritize working from coworking spaces wherever you travel. You’ll meet other digital nomads and local business leaders, and might be able to find new clients this way.

10. Online Business Manager

How about instead of starting your own digital nomad business, you manage someone else’s? For digital nomads that are looking for stable employment and not interested in hustling to find clients, working as an online business manager might be a perfect choice for a digital nomad job.

These jobs generally include managing operations, personnel, and more, like an in-person business manager would. This can be a great job to transition to if you have relevant experience and are just getting started as a digital nomad.

You’ll find online business manager positions on standard job searching websites, but I’ve found more success and more postings with job boards and websites that cater specifically to remote workers, such as these:

• Flexjobs has tons of new postings for positions like this, and other relevant jobs perfect for digital nomads!
• Digital Nomad Facebook groups, especially Female Digital Nomads and location-specific digital nomad groups
• Upwork and Fiverr, though finding work that isn’t project-based on these sites can be challenging

11. E-Commerce

There are tons of e-commerce positions available for digital nomads, no matter your level of experience in the field. You’ll find positions available for e-commerce customer service, managing online stores like successful Etsy shops or Amazon stores, product development… the options and opportunities are truly endless.

Alternatively, there are more and more opportunities in e-commerce for digital nomads to create and sell their own products. This used to be challenging, and would require outsourcing the packaging and shipping while traveling, but with business models like dropshipping, Amazon FBA stores, and others, the options for digital nomads to break into e-commerce while traveling the world are expanding rapidly.

12. Blogger

Gone are the days of blogs being online diaries – successful blogs today provide thorough, helpful content that internet users are looking for, and make a lot of money while doing it.

Starting a blog is easy enough, and is the perfect digital nomad career for those looking for a flexible schedule and the ability to work from any timezone.

If you’re not looking to launch your own blog, how about working on someone else’s? You’ll find plenty of virtual assistant positions with bloggers, which include everything from handling PR and outreach to writing content, creating social media posts, and more. 

Don’t fall for the get-rich-quick type propositions you’ll read on the internet about blogging – blogging can be a long game, and it requires a lot of hard work to make a blog successful.

However, running a successful blog can also provide a flexible schedule and lifestyle that digital nomads are looking for. It can be a great “side-hustle” or primary source of income. Looking to get started? Consider taking a travel blogging course to learn the ins and outs of how to start a blog and be successful in this career.

13. Customer Service

Long a favorite work-from-home job, customer service jobs are some of the most plentiful digital nomad jobs you’ll find on job boards and help-wanted postings.

Typical jobs with companies that provide online customer service or customer service by phone will require specific tech setups or schedules that may be challenging for digital nomads looking to travel to different time zones.

However, since the start of the pandemic there have been more and more different types of customer service positions that have gone remote, and with different requirements for workers’ schedules and interaction with customers.

This is a great time to consider a customer service position as a digital nomad looking for the freedom to travel and make your own schedule.