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 .

Technical Engineering Manager

Ironcladhq · San Francisco

Ironclad is the leading AI contracting platform that transforms agreements into assets. Contracts move faster, insights surface instantly, and agents push work forward, all with you in control. Whether you’re buying or selling, Ironclad unifies the entire process on one intelligent platform, providing leaders with the visibility they need to stay one step ahead. That’s why the world’s most transformative organizations, from Rivian to the World Health Organization and the Associated Press, trust Ironclad to accelerate their business.


We’re consistently recognized as a leader in the industry: a Leader in the Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contract Lifecycle Management, a Fortune Great Place to Work, and one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Workplaces. Ironclad has also been named to Forbes’ AI 50 and Business Insider’s list of Companies to Bet Your Career On. We’re backed by leading investors including Accel, Y Combinator, Sequoia, BOND, and Franklin Templeton. For more information, visit www.ironcladapp.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

This is a hybrid role. Office attendance is required at least twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for collaboration and connection. There may be additional in-office days for team or company events.

Ironclad is looking for a Technical Engineering Manager to lead the team responsible for the team building the Workflow Metadata Extraction Agents within our Core Apps pillar. In this role, you will lead the engineers responsible for Agentic Extraction, the AI-driven experiences that ensure contract metadata stays perfectly in sync with the legal document throughout the entire negotiation lifecycle.

We are looking for a leader who stays close to the code. You should expect a split of roughly 60-70% Leadership/Strategy and 30-40% Technical Contribution (design reviews, prototyping, and hands-on coding). You are an AI-forward thinker who doesn't just manage AI projects but uses AI daily to accelerate your own and your team's output.

Responsibilities

  • Team Leadership: Manage and grow a high-performing team of engineers. Foster a culture of technical excellence, high agency, and pragmatic delivery.

  • Agentic Product Delivery: Lead the execution of our Intake, Review, and Archive agents. These agents are responsible for the automated extraction of contract-relevant metadata, eliminating manual data entry and ensuring data integrity for Ironclad customers.

  • Technical Contribution: Actively participate in the codebase. You will help spec, design, and build front-end agentic interfaces and the orchestration layers that interface with LLMs.

  • System Ownership: Beyond AI, you will own and improve the existing core systems that power these workflows, ensuring they are scalable, reliable, and maintainable.

  • AI-Forward Operations: Lead by example in adopting AI tooling (Cursor, Claude Code, LLM-based automation) to improve engineering velocity and code quality.

  • Strategic Roadmap: Partner with Product and Design to define the "Why." You will manage cross-team dependencies and ensure the team is building the right solutions for complex legal use cases.

  • Operational Excellence: Work with Quality Engineering to define testing strategies for non-deterministic AI outputs, ensuring our agents are production-grade.

What We’re Looking For

  • Experience: 5+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of shipping production-grade web applications.

  • Leadership: 2+ years of experience in engineering management or technical leadership (TLM), with a proven ability to mentor and grow engineers.

  • AI/LLM Fluency: Hands-on experience building applications that interface with LLMs. You understand the nuances of prompt engineering, agentic loops, and handling LLM latency/reliability.

  • Technical Stack: Proficiency in TypeScript, React, and Node.js. Experience with Docker/Kubernetes and Google Cloud Platform is a plus.

  • High Agency: You thrive in the "zero-to-one" phase of a project. You are comfortable navigating ambiguity and can pivot quickly when technical constraints change.

  • Product Mindset: You care deeply about the user experience. You aren't just building a "cool" AI feature; you are solving the "tedious work" of legal professionals.

The Technical Engineering Manager at Ironclad

We believe the best leaders in AI are those who stay hands-on.

  • The Build: You will shape the technical roadmap, participate in architecture decisions, and contribute code to unblock the team or prototype new agentic behaviors.

  • The Lead: You will manage performance, mentor engineers on their career growth, and represent your team’s vision to the broader Product Engineering organization.

Base Salary Range: $220,000 - $235,000

The base salary range represents the minimum and maximum of the salary range for this position based at our San Francisco headquarters. The actual base salary offered for this position will depend on numerous factors, including individual proficiency, anticipated performance, and the location of the selected candidate. Our base salary is just one component of Ironclad’s competitive total rewards package, which also includes equity awards (a new hire grant, along with opportunities for additional awards throughout your tenure), competitive health and wellness benefits, and a commitment to career growth and development.


US Full-Time Employee Benefits at Ironclad:

  • 100% health coverage for employees (medical, dental, and vision), and 75% coverage for dependents with buy-up plan options available

  • Market-leading leave policies, including gender-neutral parental leave and compassionate leave

  • Family forming support through Maven for you and your partner

  • Paid time off - take the time you need, when you need it

  • Monthly stipends for wellbeing, hybrid work, and (if applicable) cell phone use

  • Mental health support through Modern Health, including therapy, coaching, and digital tools

  • Pre-tax commuter benefits (US Employees)

  • 401(k) plan with Fidelity with employer match (US Employees)

  • Regular team events to connect, recharge, and have fun

  • And most importantly: the opportunity to help build the company you want to work at

**UK Employee-specific benefits are included on our UK job postings

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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