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 .

Forward Deploy Engineer

Innovativesol 2 · Remote

At Innovative Solutions, our Solution Architecture team is the front line for helping our customers build out their cloud strategy, helping find the right solution, and aligning Innovative's resources to those solutions as a trusted advisor. The successful Forward Deploy Engineer will have a broad base of knowledge in Amazon Web Services and a love of working directly with customers. Our Engineers at Innovative work in close partnership with our Service Delivery team to ensure a successful cloud journey for our customers.

 

Responsible for:

  • Act as the technical lead in the sales process, working closely with our sales team to identify and qualify opportunities. 
  • Engage with potential customers to understand their current state and applications and design data and analytics solutions that will meet their requirements. 
  • Create and deliver detailed proposals, including timelines, level of effort, cost estimates, and detailed technical guidance for the customer. 
  • Stay up to date with new AWS services and features and be able to articulate their value to customers. 
  • Act as an organizational consultant to customers, guiding them on how cloud-based data and analytics will transform their business. 
  • Provide technical guidance to other members of the Innovative Solutions team on data and analytics-related topics. 
  • Work with the Innovative Product team to refine and create new products for the market. 
  • As a key member of the Account and Go-To-Market teams, ensure success in designing, building, optimizing, transforming or otherwise migrating applications, software, and services on the AWS platform
  • Participate in deep architectural discussions and design exercises to create world-class solutions built on AWS while ensuring solutions are designed for successful deployment in the cloud

 

How you will be successful:

  • Innate ability to understand customer need and pain points 
  • Strong aptitude for modern data architecture 
  • Having a backbone and strong will to get things done 
  • Natural customer obsession and ability to empathize with customer’s business needs 
  • Ability to participate in and lead crucial conversations with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders 
  • Ability to gain instant technical credibility with AWS Solution Architects building maintaining relationships as a channel
  • Ability to thrive a dynamic environment where you’ll work in parallel across customers to understand their business objectives and work backwards to educate, design, scope, estimate, and communicate a cloud-based solution to the customer.
  • How you will be measured:
  • Bookings and revenue goal attainment 
  • Presentation and customer interaction experience, measured by sales team satisfaction scoring. 

 

What experience you need:

  • 5+ years of experience in a delivery or presales role at a cloud consulting or cloud managed services provider. 
  • Experience using the Amazon Web Services platform. 
  • 5+ years of experience in infrastructure architecture, database architecture, applications, and networking
  • Experience in technology/software sales, pre-sales, or technical consulting in customer-facing roles
  • Experience with software development life cycle (SDLC) and agile/iterative methodologies required
  • Experience architecting/operating solutions built on cloud platforms
  • Experience selling and delivering technical solutions and consulting services to SMB and mid-Enterprise customers 
  • Estimated travel for this role is 25% in the United States (twice quarterly visits to our HQ in Rochester, NY, AWS offices, customer meetings, and events)

 

Salary Range  

Salary range for this role is $175,000-$210,000

This position is also eligible for a commission plan. The expected annual OTE for this position is estimated to be between $240,000-$260,000

 

At Innovative Solutions, our Solution Architecture team is the front line for helping our customers build out their cloud strategy, helping find the right solution, and aligning Innovative's resources to those solutions as a trusted advisor. The successful Forward Deploy Engineer will have a broad base of knowledge in Amazon Web Services and a love of working directly with customers. Our Engineers at Innovative work in close partnership with our Service Delivery team to ensure a successful cloud journey for our customers.

 

Responsible for:

  • Act as the technical lead in the sales process, working closely with our sales team to identify and qualify opportunities. 
  • Engage with potential customers to understand their current state and applications and design data and analytics solutions that will meet their requirements. 
  • Create and deliver detailed proposals, including timelines, level of effort, cost estimates, and detailed technical guidance for the customer. 
  • Stay up to date with new AWS services and features and be able to articulate their value to customers. 
  • Act as an organizational consultant to customers, guiding them on how cloud-based data and analytics will transform their business. 
  • Provide technical guidance to other members of the Innovative Solutions team on data and analytics-related topics. 
  • Work with the Innovative Product team to refine and create new products for the market. 
  • As a key member of the Account and Go-To-Market teams, ensure success in designing, building, optimizing, transforming or otherwise migrating applications, software, and services on the AWS platform
  • Participate in deep architectural discussions and design exercises to create world-class solutions built on AWS while ensuring solutions are designed for successful deployment in the cloud

 

How you will be successful:

  • Innate ability to understand customer need and pain points 
  • Strong aptitude for modern data architecture 
  • Having a backbone and strong will to get things done 
  • Natural customer obsession and ability to empathize with customer’s business needs 
  • Ability to participate in and lead crucial conversations with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders 
  • Ability to gain instant technical credibility with AWS Solution Architects building maintaining relationships as a channel
  • Ability to thrive a dynamic environment where you’ll work in parallel across customers to understand their business objectives and work backwards to educate, design, scope, estimate, and communicate a cloud-based solution to the customer.
  • How you will be measured:
  • Bookings and revenue goal attainment 
  • Presentation and customer interaction experience, measured by sales team satisfaction scoring. 

 

What experience you need:

  • 5+ years of experience in a delivery or presales role at a cloud consulting or cloud managed services provider. 
  • Experience using the Amazon Web Services platform. 
  • 5+ years of experience in infrastructure architecture, database architecture, applications, and networking
  • Experience in technology/software sales, pre-sales, or technical consulting in customer-facing roles
  • Experience with software development life cycle (SDLC) and agile/iterative methodologies required
  • Experience architecting/operating solutions built on cloud platforms
  • Experience selling and delivering technical solutions and consulting services to SMB and mid-Enterprise customers 
  • Estimated travel for this role is 25% in the United States (twice quarterly visits to our HQ in Rochester, NY, AWS offices, customer meetings, and events)

 

Salary Range  

Salary range for this role is $175,000-$210,000

This position is also eligible for a commission plan. The expected annual OTE for this position is estimated to be between $240,000-$260,000