Marc Alain Bustamante

Senior Software Engineer · Backend & Full Stack

Bacolod City, Philippines · Remote

mrcbstmnte@gmail.comlinkedin.com/in/mrcbstmntegithub.com/mrcbstmnte

Summary

Senior Software Engineer with 9+ years building and hardening full-stack production systems across fintech, travel technology, and high-traffic chat infrastructure — industries where reliability, security, and correctness aren't optional. Comfortable end-to-end, from customer-facing front-end flows to backend architecture, with Ruby on Rails and Node.js as primary tools. Deep experience in payment infrastructure, e-commerce platforms, distributed systems, technical architecture, and legacy system modernization. Applies TDD/CI-CD rigor throughout the development lifecycle and uses AI-assisted development tools daily to accelerate delivery.

Skills

  • Languages & Runtimes: Ruby, Node.js, JavaScript, PHP
  • Frameworks & Libraries: Ruby on Rails, Vue.js, React.js, Next.js
  • Data & Storage: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch
  • Infrastructure & Messaging: AWS, Google Cloud Services, Kafka
  • DevOps & Tooling: Git, GitHub Actions (CI/CD), Docker
  • Engineering Practices: RESTful API Design, Microservices Architecture, TDD/BDD, Performance Optimization, Code Reviews
  • AI-Assisted Development: Claude, Generative AI tooling

Experience

Full-Stack Ruby on Rails Developer | Jul 2023 – Oct 2026

Montani International Inc. | Remote | valore.com

  • Helped build and maintain Valore (valore.com), a multi-storefront, white-label e-commerce platform supporting an unlimited number of branded storefronts from a single shared codebase, cutting the time to launch a new storefront to days rather than weeks.
  • Worked as one of 3 engineers who built the platform from the ground up, taking it from concept to production and supporting live e-commerce operations for new and used books.
  • Led migration of the platform's payment gateway from a legacy third-party implementation to an internally integrated solution, improving maintainability and reducing production incidents.
  • Developed core customer-facing flows — customizable storefront pages, transactional email templates, sign-up, checkout, and order confirmation — directly improving conversion and reducing support tickets tied to a confusing legacy flow.
  • Applied TDD, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), and Git-based workflows throughout the development lifecycle to keep releases fast and reliable.
  • Used Claude and other AI-assisted development tools daily for coding, debugging, technical research, and documentation, measurably speeding up delivery.

Senior Software Engineer (Interim Technical Lead) | Jan 2023 – Jul 2023

PayMongo Philippines Inc. | Remote | paymongo.com

  • Acted as Interim Technical Lead, leading technical design and architecture decisions for Direct Online Banking (DOB) payment infrastructure supporting ~₱10 million in monthly payment volume.
  • Spearheaded the initial implementation of QR Ph payment processing, expanding the company's supported payment rails.
  • Built and maintained payment services processing online banking transactions through major Philippine banks, including BPI and UnionBank.
  • Partnered with engineers, product managers, and stakeholders to design and ship payment features from architecture through launch.
  • Ran code reviews and set testing standards that raised code quality and maintainability across the team.

Software Engineer II | Feb 2022 – Jan 2023

PayMongo Philippines Inc. | Remote | paymongo.com

  • Developed and maintained Direct Online Banking (DOB) payment services powering transactions through Philippine banks.
  • Built integrations with BPI and UnionBank as part of the company's core online banking payment infrastructure.
  • Mentored junior software engineers on best practices, clean code, and rigorous code review standards.
  • Improved reliability of backend services supporting a high-volume, business-critical payment path.
  • Translated product requirements into technical implementations in close collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Full-Stack Node.js Developer | Apr 2021 – Feb 2022

Rakuten Travel Xchange | Remote | solutions.travel.rakuten.com

  • Developed and maintained backend services for a travel booking platform supporting property search and reservations in Japan, including accommodation bookings, experiences, and tours.
  • Reduced technical debt by raising test coverage from near-zero to 95% on every file touched during development, cutting regressions in a legacy codebase.
  • Enforced rigorous code review standards — going beyond rubber-stamping to actively raise coding standards across the team.
  • Partnered with project leads and stakeholders to plan and implement product enhancements.

Back-end Node.js Developer | May 2019 – Mar 2021

tawk.to | Remote | tawk.to

  • Helped build a Knowledgebase service and Contacts CRM from scratch as part of a small team with the CTO — both still active in production today, serving the #1 most-used live chat application in the world.
  • Worked on the team that designed and built an event-driven service on Apache Kafka, decoupling core workflows and enabling reliable communication between distributed services.
  • Helped build a real-time data pipeline combining MongoDB Change Streams with Kafka, streaming data changes to downstream services with minimal latency.
  • Maintained 100% test coverage across owned services, keeping regressions out of a platform relied on by millions of websites.
  • Implemented Elasticsearch-powered search and filtering, and contributed to architecture discussions within a 4–5 person engineering team.

Full-Stack Ruby on Rails Developer | Dec 2018 – Jul 2019

SplitDragon | Remote

  • Maintained and developed the company's online marketplace platform for sellers.
  • Led front-end development, building customer-facing landing pages that showcased products and services to drive sales.
  • Contributed to technical decisions and development planning for the platform.

Software Engineer | Mar 2017 – May 2019

Akubo Software Philippines Inc. | On-site

  • Built a payroll system implementing Philippine-specific payroll requirements, deductions, and employee benefits across three client companies with differing business rules.
  • Developed and maintained a Ruby on Rails HR management application for small and medium-sized businesses.
  • Took on technical leadership responsibilities, guiding decisions and development efforts for the team.
  • Partnered with clients and internal stakeholders on requirements analysis and development planning.

Education

BS Computer Engineering | 2010 – 2016

University of St. La Salle