I worked remotely for Lucid Modules from Taiwan for about four years. The team was distributed. So were the problems we solved.
People imagine remote work as laptops on beaches. My version was stable internet, clear writing, and learning when a Loom beats a long paragraph that everyone misreads.
What actually mattered
Written specs that do not lie. If it is not written, it will be debated forever in chat.
Overlap hours are gold. I blocked time for calls with people six to twelve hours away. The rest was deep work.
Respect for maintenance. Remote teams fail when nobody owns the boring fixes. I tried to be the person who fixed the boring things.
Where you live vs who you serve
I am in New Taipei. My clients and teammates were not. That is normal now. What matters is whether you reply, whether you document, and whether you ship.
Freelancing later made the same pattern clearer: the owner might be in California, London, or down the street in Taipei. The work is still listen, build, hand off, support.
If you are hiring a remote engineer, skip the take-home titled "build Twitter." Look at how they write, how they ask questions, and what they do when production is awkward on a Friday night.