Software Engineer

Bustem.com \| $140k–$180k \+ 0\.25%–1\.0% equity \| On-Site NYC

About Bustem:

Bustem helps e-commerce brands find and take down copycats, counterfeiters, scammers, and unauthorized sellers stealing their revenue.

We scan marketplaces, websites, ads, and domains to detect brand abuse and shut it down.

In under 12 months, we’ve grown to $3M\+ in revenue, partnered with 150\+ brands, and stayed profitable without raising outside capital.

We’re still early.

Which means the systems, product, and engineering culture are all still being shaped.

About the Role:

We’re looking for a

Founding Engineer

to build core systems that directly power customer outcomes.

This is not a maintenance role.

You’ll be building the technical backbone of Bustem — the systems that detect infringers faster, automate enforcement, and help our team operate at scale.

You probably:

• like ownership and autonomy
• move fast without needing a lot of process
• can turn messy problems into shipped systems
• think in architecture, tradeoffs, and outcomes
• want to build real products at a profitable company with traction

Your job is simple:

Build systems that help Bustem find and stop infringers faster and at scale.

Main Job Responsibilities:

Build and improve Bustem’s detection and enforcement infrastructure.

Own projects end to end:

• architecture
• implementation
• deployment
• iteration

Work across two core areas:

Real-time infringer detection

• Build and scale AI-powered scraping and detection systems across marketplaces, social platforms, and the open web.

Autonomous enforcement \& reporting

• Build workflows and agents that report infringers at scale and improve enforcement speed, accuracy, and throughput.

Also:

• design and maintain scalable internal APIs and backend systems
• work primarily with Next.js, Postgres, and modern backend infrastructure
• use LLMs and automation to reduce manual work and move faster
• collaborate closely with product, ops, and customer-facing teams
• make pragmatic technical decisions that balance speed, reliability, and scale
• continuously improve system performance and maintainability

Ideal Candidate:

• You ship quickly and independently
• You can handle ambiguity without getting stuck
• You build systems, not just tickets
• You make smart tradeoffs without overengineering
• Your work directly improves speed, output, and customer value

Reqirements:

• 3–7 years of software engineering experience
• strong experience with Next.js and Postgres
• experience building backend systems and internal APIs
• comfortable operating with high ownership and low oversight
• able to take vague ideas and turn them into production-ready solutions
• strong judgment, speed, and product sense
• adept with LLMs and AI tools

Preferred Qualifications:

• experience with scraping, data pipelines, or distributed systems
• experience with high-scale systems
• experience in e-commerce, marketplaces, or platform integrations
• startup experience

Why Join Bustem:

• Build core systems that directly drive revenue and customer outcomes
• Work directly with the founders
• Shape the engineering culture from the ground up
• No legacy codebase
• No bloated process
• No endless meetings
• Profitable company
• Real traction
• Still early enough to matter a lot

Compensation \& Benefits:

• Base:

$140k–$180k

• Equity:

0\.25%–1\.0%

• Location:

New York City, in office