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 .

Senior Solutions Architect - West

Expel · Remote

In your world, every call with a potential client is an opportunity to help them overcome daunting challenges. Sometimes you can solve those problems, and sometimes you can't. Either way, the opportunity to act as a trusted advisor and learn something new all within the same conversation is what energizes you.

Do you dive headfirst into complicated challenges balancing organizational politics, security fundamentals, and business impact all with the end goal of making the client successful? If so, the Solutions Architect role at Expel is for you.

At Expel, we've got our eye on the long game. Our clients need to be able to trust us, and that begins with understanding where they currently are, where they want to be, and connecting them to solutions that will help them (even if that solution isn't Expel!). We don't use jargon, replay tired phrases or provide fuzzy answers. We sell with integrity and empathy so our clients feel good about how we treat them during every interaction.

As a Solutions Architect at Expel, you have a deep understanding of the needs of prospects. You set clear expectations around what we can and can’t do, then craft a strategy for the delivery teams to ensure the prospect's success. But don't worry, you'll go deep on the delivery side too! You’ll scope and run PoCs, which includes working with the delivery organization to make sure we’re showing prospects what they need to see in order to make a buying decision.

Success is ensuring that Expel can make the prospect successful. Sometimes, that means showing them we can do what we say we do. Other times, that means leading them to a new vision.

You dig it either way.


What Expel can do for you

  • Connect you with people and organizations who are at vastly different places in their security journey and who want to share their opinions and learn from you
  • Expose you to an environment where you will be challenged but supported, encouraging you to learn and grow
  • Enable you to build relationships and work alongside specialists in their fields, including best-in-class SOC analysts, sales leaders, customer success professionals, and clients of all shapes and sizes

What you can do for Expel

  • Deeply understand prospect challenges that lead them to Expel and set clear expectations around which of these challenges we can help them with and which we can’t
  • Ensure we’re selling with empathy and integrity with each prospect conversation
  • Support sales by collaborating on sales strategy, providing service demos to prospects, and acting as a technical and overall Expel SME
  • Prepare delivery teams for inbound prospects by providing details associated with prospect expectations, opportunities to show value, things to look out for, and technical details regarding their specific environment

What you should bring with you

  • Experience working optimally with multiple teams in an organization by encouraging teamwork, delegating tasks, resolving issues, setting goals, and holding people & teams accountable
  • Translate technical concepts and generic models into something we (including our customers) care about using clear language and visuals
  • Knowledge of and ability to describe: attack vectors, threat tactics, and attacker techniques
  • Ability to ask clarifying questions and seek technical objections' head on
  • Ability to perform data analysis including trending, anomaly identification, and root cause analysis
  • Experience in security operations, incident response, and associated processes
  • 8+ years of relevant professional experience.

Additional notes

While our office is located in Herndon, VA, we are open to those based remotely who can support our clients and sales teams during the Central Standard Timezone. Travel expected for this role will be up to 25%.

We're an Equal Opportunity Employer: You'll receive consideration for employment without regard to race, age, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or on the basis of disability.

We're only hiring those authorized to work in the United States. We do not currently sponsor immigration visas.

#LI-remote

Salary Range
$162,000$175,000 USD