Key Takeaways

  • 75% of U.S. employers use automated applicant tracking systems to screen resumes before a human reviews them (Harvard Business School & Accenture, 2021)
  • The most common ATS failures are missing keywords, incompatible formatting, and incorrect file types
  • ResumeGeni scores your resume across 8 parsing layers — modeled on the same steps enterprise ATS platforms like Workday, Greenhouse, and Taleo use to evaluate candidates

How ATS Resume Scoring Works

Applicant tracking systems parse your resume into structured data — extracting your name, contact info, work history, skills, and education — then score how well that data matches the job requirements. Many ATS rejections happen because the parser couldn't extract critical fields, not because the candidate wasn't qualified.

LayerWhat It ChecksWhy It Matters
Document extractionFile format, encoding, readabilityCorrupted or image-only PDFs fail immediately
Layout analysisTables, columns, headers, footersMulti-column layouts break field extraction
Section detectionExperience, education, skills headingsNon-standard headings cause sections to be missed
Field mappingName, email, phone, dates, titlesMissing contact info is a common cause of immediate rejection
Keyword matchingJob-specific terms, skills, certificationsKeyword overlap affects recruiter search visibility and ATS scoring
Chronology checkDate ordering, gap detectionReverse-chronological order is expected by most ATS
QuantificationMetrics, numbers, measurable outcomesQuantified achievements help human reviewers and some scoring models
Confidence scoringOverall parse quality and completenessLow-confidence parses get deprioritized in results

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ResumeGeni free?
Yes. ResumeGeni is currently in beta — ATS analysis, scoring, and initial improvement suggestions are free with no signup required. Full guidance and saved reports may require a free account.
What file formats are supported?
PDF, DOCX, DOC, TXT, RTF, ODT, and Apple Pages. PDF and DOCX are recommended for best ATS compatibility.
How is the ATS score calculated?
Your resume is processed through an 8-layer parsing pipeline that extracts structured data the same way enterprise ATS platforms do. The score reflects how completely and accurately your resume can be parsed, plus how well your content matches common ATS ranking criteria.
Can ATS read PDF resumes?
Yes, but not all PDFs are equal. Text-based PDFs parse well. Image-only PDFs (scanned documents) and PDFs with complex tables or multi-column layouts often fail ATS parsing. Our analyzer will flag these issues.
How do I improve my ATS score?
Focus on three areas: use a clean single-column format, include keywords from the job description naturally in your experience bullets, and ensure all sections (contact, experience, education, skills) use standard headings.

ATS Guides & Resources

Built by engineers with 12 years of experience building enterprise hiring technology at ZipRecruiter. Last updated .

Founding AI Engineer

Coverbase · Remote

About Coverbase


The foundation of the modern global economy is built on a dense network of counterparty trust and risk. In the past 50 years, companies have evolved from relying on a couple of wholesalers and vendors, to utilizing 100+ SaaS vendors, contract partners, and cloud providers. Since each counterparty has their own idiosyncratic internal processes and risk profiles, businesses end up spending millions of dollars and countless man-hours conducting due diligence.

Coverbase’s mission is to streamline this business-to-business assessment, reducing human toil, and allowing organizations to work together safely and reliably. We employ modern AI techniques to organize vast amounts of unstructured data and compare them against policies to identify key risks to the business.

We serve customers across Fortune 500 companies in insurance, higher education, and finance — including five of the top 25 banks in the US.


Our proven leadership team brings deep experience:

  • Clarence (CEO): Co-founder & former CTO of Unit21, a Series C fraud detection company that has raised ~$92M.

  • Kao (CTO): Previously led the Stripe engineering team that launched Banking-as-a-Service.

We’ve raised $20M from world-class investors and our team of 20 have built important products at Google, Mapbox and Waymo.

Role Expectations

We’re seeking an AI Engineer to develop core AI features that power an AI-native product. We’re looking for:

  • Impact-driven individuals who take pride in shipping delightful products, not just exploring intellectually interesting problems.

  • Teammates who care deeply about both their work and the people around them — building a culture that’s as kind as it is talented.

Responsibilities

You’ll take on some subset of the following:

  • Build LLM features from ideation to production, including scaling.

  • Develop benchmarks to evaluate LLM performance and mitigate hallucinations.

  • Own the full development lifecycle, including infrastructure and front-end work around AI features.

  • Foster a constructive environment through code reviews, mentoring, and knowledge sharing.

Minimum Requirements

  • Experience developing LLM applications.

  • Background in rigorous, quantitative work (e.g., PhD-level research, machine learning modeling, or advanced data science projects).

  • Ability to thrive in a dynamic, early-stage startup environment. While AI is central, this is not a 100% AI role — versatility across the stack is important.

  • High standards for code quality.

Why Join Us?

  • Strong Product, Clear Demand
    Our AI-driven platform is transforming third-party risk management (TPRM) for top financial institutions. Customers describe it as “revolutionary” and “a joy to work with.” We’re just getting started.

    • “This is a revolutionary product… Coverbase is the single biggest step forward in TPRM I’ve seen in my career.”

    • “You’re flipping the entire program upside down, we completed the risk assessment in 1.5 days… would otherwise have taken at least 3 weeks.”

    • “Love how responsive you are, it’s been a joy to work with you guys.”

  • Early-Stage Impact
    Rare opportunity to shape the trajectory of a company at the forefront of AI innovation. Your work will directly influence our success and growth.

  • Collaborative Team
    Join a tight-knit, mission-driven group that values kindness, creativity, and curiosity as much as expertise. You’ll work closely with the founders and exceptional engineers.

What We Offer

  • $140K – $220K base salary (depending on experience and ability)

  • Meaningful founding team equity.

  • Health insurance (100% employee / 80% dependents).

  • 21 days PTO.

  • In-person gatherings within the U.S. (travel covered) every 3-5 months. We’ll give plenty of notice for it, and cover flights and accommodation. We expect you to attend!

  • 401(k) with 4% matching.

Location: Remote from within the Continental US
Reports to: CTO, Co-Founder

Coverbase Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

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