Ask HN: How to hire sysops/devops guys in US?

I'm working for an IT operations consultancy in Germany and we want to hire skilled personell (full employment, half, or contract all possible) in the US. I don't know the US market that well, though.

Therefore I would like to ask you for some tips. On which websites do you look for people in the US? Which kind of meetings do IT guys use here? I'm in Atlanta (GA) now, and meetup is a little empty in all areas that are interesting to us. Every topic has a group but there are no meetings planned in any of them. Otherwise I only know that one can post jobs in Stackoverflow.

And where would you investigate what reasonable living costs and income would be?

Last but not least, taxes. Do you think to gain US employees one would need to open a company here? Would people worry to get a German contract (language can be English, but the contract 'location' and applied laws would be German)? How much would be reasonable to handle tax topics by professionals in the US for handling 1-3 US based employees?