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 .

Software Development Engineer III

Gocardless · Lisbon, Portugal

About Us at GoCardless

GoCardless is a global bank payment company. Over 100,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, use GoCardless to collect and send payments through direct debit, real-time payments and open banking. 

GoCardless processes US$130bn+ of payments annually, across 30+ countries; helping customers collect and send both recurring and one-off payments, without the chasing, stress or expensive fees. We use AI-powered solutions to improve payment success and reduce fraud. And, with open banking connectivity to over 2,500 banks, we help our customers make faster, more informed decisions.

We are headquartered in the UK with offices in London and Leeds, and additional locations in Australia, France, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal and the United States.

At GoCardless, we're all about supporting you! We’re committed to making our hiring process inclusive and accessible. If you need extra support or adjustments, reach out to your Talent Partner — we’re here to help! 

And remember: we don’t expect you to meet every single requirement. If you’re excited by this role, we encourage you to apply!

Engineering at GoCardless 

The technical challenges of building GoCardless span from simplifying building banking schemes to optimising the time to render the dashboard. 

You will enjoy being a software engineer at GoCardless if:

  • You’re looking to champion a great engineering culture within GC and in the wider engineering community; 
  • You enjoy collaborating and learning from people from various backgrounds and experiences; 
  • You want to feel proud of the work you’re doing and its impact on real customers.

Our engineers contribute to the engineering culture within and outside of GoCardless: they contribute to Open Source Software projects (see our Github), and share learnings in post-mortems, conferences and on our blog.

Our technologies: We endeavour to build simple, reliable systems and we believe in using the best technologies for each task. Technologies we use across GoCardless include:  JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Ruby on Rails, Golang, Python, Postgres, BigQuery, Kubernetes, Elasticsearch, Prometheus, Google Cloud (GCP).

You’re not expected to have expertise in all these technologies. Members of our team have picked up the tools once they’ve started working with the team. If you’re unsure, please apply.

 

About the Service Management Team

The Service Management team is here to help us move beyond manual tasks by building thoughtful, automated systems. We are not just looking to tweak existing processes. Instead, we want to create technology that handles the heavy lifting. We look at everything from how we scale our internal workflows to how we can use artificial intelligence to make our operations feel seamless and effortless for the people using them.

Working in this team means you will have a chance to see how all the different parts of GoCardless fit together. You will build integrations that connect our big data systems, our core payment product, and our fraud detection engines. This gives you a great deal of variety in your work and ensures you are never stuck in just one corner of the codebase. You will get to see the real-world impact of your code as it helps customers through every stage of their journey on our platform.

We believe that great engineering is a team sport and that we build better things when we include different perspectives and ways of thinking. We are looking for people who are naturally curious and enjoy figuring out how things work. This role is a great fit if you value collaboration, enjoy learning about different technologies, and like the idea of experimenting with new ways to solve a problem.

 

What excites you 

  • You have a growth mindset, motivated by driving concrete business outcomes.
  • You adapt to new technologies and processes quickly.
  • You thrive in a collaborative environment and believe the best products are built through collaboration.
  • You are passionate about building and improving products by experimenting, prototyping and applying an iterative approach to validate ideas and learn.

 

What excites us  

  • You have experience building web products and services, and have an awareness of technologies across the stack.
  • You adapt to new technologies and processes quickly.
  • You thrive in a collaborative environment and believe the best products are built through collaboration.
  • You care about building reliable, well-tested systems.
  • You enjoy solving problems and are happy to take initiative to find better solutions.

 

Base salary range: €49,600 - €74,000

Base salary ranges are based on role, job level, location, and market data.  Please note that whilst we strive to offer competitive compensation, our approach is to pay between the minimum and the mid-point of the pay range until performance can be assessed in role. Offers will take into account level of experience, interview assessment, budgets and parity between you and fellow employees at GoCardless doing similar work.

The Good Stuff!

  • Wellbeing: Dedicated support and medical cover to keep you healthy.
  • Work Away Scheme: Work from anywhere for up to 90 days in any 12-month period.
  • Hybrid Working: Our hybrid model offers flexibility, with in-office days determined by your team.
  • Equity: All permanently employed GeeCees get equity to share in our success.
  • Parental leave: Tailored leave to support your life's great adventure.
  • Time off: Annual holiday leave based on your location, supplemented by 3 volunteer days and 4 wellness days.

Life at GoCardless

We're an organisation defined by our values; We start with why before we begin any project, to ensure it’s aligned with our mission. We make it happen, working with urgency and taking personal accountability for getting things done. We act with integrity, always. We care deeply about what we do and we know it's essential that we be humble whilst we do it. Our Values form part of the GoCardless DNA, and are used to not only help us nurture and develop our culture, but to deliver impactful work that will help us to achieve our vision.

Diversity & Inclusion

We’re building the payment network of the future, and to achieve our goal, we need a diverse team with a range of perspectives and experiences. As of July 2024, here’s where we stand:

  • 45% identify as women 
  • 23% identify as Black, Asian, Mixed, or Other 
  • 10% identify as LGBTQIA+ 
  • 9% identify as neurodiverse 
  • 2% identify as disabled 

If you want to learn more, you can read about our Employee Resource Groups and objectives here as well as our latest D&I Report 

Sustainability at GoCardless

We’re committed to reducing our environmental impact and leaving a sustainable world for future generations. As co-founders of the Tech Zero coalition, we’re working towards a climate-positive future. Check out our sustainability action plan here. 

Find out more about Life at GoCardless via X, Instagram and LinkedIn