Remote Cover Letter 2026: 6-Line Template That Gets Replies

Most remote cover letters in 2026 are still written like it is 2014. Three paragraphs of corporate filler, a sentence about being "passionate", and zero actual evidence the candidate can work async. Recruiters spend 6-8 seconds on it before deciding. No cap, that is the bar.

This post is the exact cover letter shape we have seen work — both as hiring managers reviewing WFA applications and as candidates landing remote roles. Six lines. No fluff. Built for the way remote hiring actually scans.

What does a remote cover letter need to do in 2026?

It has to do exactly three things, in order: prove you can work async, prove you can do the job, prove you are not a flake. Anything else is filler that gets skimmed past.

Hiring for a remote role is fundamentally different from hiring locally. The recruiter cannot grab coffee with you. They cannot read your body language in a casual chat. They get one document, plus your CV, and they need to decide if you are worth a 30-minute call. So your cover letter has to compress signal hard.

We have seen literally thousands of these as part of building the WFA Jobs board. The good ones share a structure. The bad ones share filler. Here is the structure.

The 6-line remote cover letter template

Use this exact shape. Replace the bracketed parts. Do not add paragraphs.

``` Hi [Hiring Manager Name],

I am applying for the [Role Title] role at [Company]. I have [X years] doing [the closest thing you have done to this job] and have worked fully remote since [year], most recently across [your timezone] with teammates in [their timezones].

The reason I am writing: [one specific thing about this company you actually like, in one sentence — not "your mission inspires me"].

Three quick proof points:

• [Concrete result, with a number]
• [Concrete result, with a number]
• [Concrete result, with a number]

I am available for a call between [your work hours, in their timezone]. CV attached.

Thanks, [Your name] ```

Six lines of prose, three bullets, a sign-off. That is the whole thing. If it is longer, you are adding filler.

Why every line earns its place

Let us walk through it.

Line 1: the greeting

Use the hiring manager's first name if you can find it. Use "Hi" not "Dear" — "Dear" reads as a 2008 LinkedIn template. If you cannot find a name, "Hi hiring team" is fine. "To whom it may concern" is not.

Line 2: the role and your remote receipts

This is the most important line. It says three things at once: which job you are applying for, what you have done, and that you have been remote long enough to know what it actually requires. The timezone overlap is the signal recruiters specifically scan for in remote applications. If you have shipped across three timezones, say so. If you have only ever worked +/- 2h from your team, say that — it is still a signal.

Line 3: the why

Pick one specific thing. Their changelog. A specific product decision. The fact that they publish their hiring criteria openly. Avoid mission statements ("your mission to democratise X resonates with me"), avoid the company size ("a Series A is the perfect stage"). Generic enthusiasm reads as automated. One specific observation reads as a human who looked.

Lines 4-6: the bullets

Numbers, not adjectives. "Cut onboarding time from 14 days to 5" beats "improved onboarding significantly". Three bullets, max. If you do not have numbers, use scope: "owned the migration of X to Y across 6 services". If you have neither numbers nor scope, you are interviewing too early for this role.

Line 7: availability

This is the line everyone forgets. Recruiters scheduling across timezones love it. Two specific windows in their timezone, e.g. "available Tue/Thu 14:00–18:00 CET, which is 08:00–12:00 ET". Saves an email round-trip.

Line 8: sign-off

"Thanks" then your name. Not "Best regards". Not "Warmly". Not "Yours sincerely". Keep it human.

What to cut

Most remote cover letters bury the signal under boilerplate. Cut all of this:

Strip every one of these. You will lose 40% of the word count and not a single point of signal.

Three real-world examples

Here are three condensed examples we have seen work. Names changed, numbers real.

Example 1: senior backend engineer, US-EU role

> Hi Priya, I am applying for the Senior Backend Engineer role at [Company]. I have 7 years building payment infra in Go and Postgres and have worked fully remote since 2020, most recently CET with teammates across ET and PT. > > Reason I am writing: your team published the post-mortem on the March double-charge bug and the fact that you publish those at all is a strong signal for me. > > Three proof points: > - Reduced p99 checkout latency from 1.4s to 320ms by re-architecting the idempotency layer > - Owned the migration from a monolith to 5 services across an 11-engineer team > - Built and own the on-call runbook now used across 3 squads > > Available Tue/Thu 09:00–13:00 ET (15:00–19:00 CET). CV attached. > > Thanks, Marcus

This got a reply within 9 hours.

Example 2: marketing lead, no engineering background

> Hi Sam, I am applying for the Senior Lifecycle Marketing role at [Company]. I have 5 years in B2C lifecycle and have been fully remote since 2021, CET with teammates from GMT to PT. > > The reason I am writing: your retention dashboard you shared on the blog last quarter — specifically the cohort-by-channel slicing — is the cleanest version of that I have seen, and I want to work somewhere that thinks about retention that way. > > Three proof points: > - Lifted activation from 31% to 48% via a 6-step welcome series rewrite > - Cut email send volume by 40% while keeping revenue flat (one less unsubscribe driver) > - Built the playbook the team still uses for win-back, contributed 12% of MRR last year > > Available most afternoons 14:00–18:00 CET. CV attached. > > Thanks, Yui

Example 3: support engineer, career switcher

> Hi Daniel, I am applying for the Support Engineer role at [Company]. I switched into tech from teaching 18 months ago and have been fully remote since the switch, GMT with teammates across CET and ET. > > The reason I am writing: your public knowledge base reads like it was written by someone who actually answers tickets, which is rarer than it should be. > > Three proof points: > - Completed the [Company]-style support bootcamp, top 10% on the technical track > - Ran a 60-ticket-per-week queue for 9 months in my current role, CSAT 4.8/5 > - Wrote the macros our team now uses for the 5 most-common Stripe-related issues > > Available weekdays 09:00–13:00 GMT. CV attached. > > Thanks, Liam

All three: under 200 words, no filler, async-receipts in line two, numbers in the bullets.

Common questions

Should I tailor the cover letter to each company?

Yes, but only line 3 and the bullets — the rest of the template stays. The greeting, the role line, and the availability line are reusable. The "why" sentence and the three proof points have to be specific to this company and role. If they are not, the recruiter sees a template and treats it like one.

How long should it be?

Under 200 words. If it goes past 250 you are filling space. Most of the cover letters that get replied to are 130-180 words. The shape of the template above lands in that range.

Do I need a cover letter at all in 2026?

For remote roles, yes — but a specific, async-readable one. Many remote-first companies still require it because it is the cheapest async signal they have about whether you can write clearly. Skipping it on a remote application reads as "this person does not know what working remotely is like." Our remote interview questions piece goes deeper into why companies optimise for written signal.

What about cover letters for fully async companies (no synchronous interviews)?

For pure-async companies (think Doist, Automattic-style), the cover letter is doing even more work — it might be the only synchronous-ish artefact in the pipeline. Add one more bullet: a one-line summary of a written artefact you are proud of (RFC, post-mortem, blog post, doc) with a link if you can.

Do I need to mention salary or location?

If the listing says "share salary expectations", yes — one short line at the end, e.g. "Comfortable with the range posted, happy to discuss." If it does not ask, do not volunteer. For location, the timezone line in the template already covers it.

What recruiters actually scan for

We polled hiring managers across 18 remote-first companies in 2025. The three things they scan for in a remote cover letter:

These three are what land you in the "yes call" pile. Generic enthusiasm, long paragraphs, and CV-restating are what land you in the "skim and skip" pile.

If you only do one thing after reading this, rewrite your existing cover letter into the 6-line template above and cut everything that does not earn its line. You will write fewer cover letters, get more replies, and burn less of your weekend.

When you are ready to send some, the WFA Jobs board and the WFA companies hiring globally guide will point you at roles where this template lands clean.