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 Software Engineer

Katapult Labs · Miami

Hybrid Role: 85% remote, but requires 3 nights on-site in Miami or NYC every month. This is NOT a remote position. Candidates must live in these locations, have valid work authorization, and be fully bilingual (English/Spanish). Please apply only if you meet these specific criteria.

About the Company

Our partner is a stealth-stage legal technology company applying AI to plaintiff-side litigation at institutional scale, with eyes toward reinventing the way law is practiced end-to-end. They operate at the intersection of special situations litigation and litigation finance building infrastructure that doesn't yet exist in the legal industry. They raised a seed round that was 75% oversubscribed in February 2026, and they're building the team that will define how this company grows.

Their engineering culture is small, deliberate, and high-stakes. This isn't a place where you hand off tickets and wait for feedback. It's a place where precision matters, where the domain has real consequences, and where the expectation is that you think in systems, not features.


The Role

We're looking for a Founding Builder; the next person to join the core team. This isn't a job description for an engineer slot. It's an invitation for someone who has already proven they belong in the top 1% of their craft and wants to build something that matters.

You'll work across the full stack — backend-first, owning architecture end-to-end, and with taste for elegant and convenient UX/UI while collaborating closely with a product-leaning counterpart. You'll design systems around AI, not just use it. LLM orchestration, agentic workflows, MCP integrations.

The domain is regulated and high-precision. Prior exposure to legal tech, compliance-adjacent data pipelines, or enterprise SaaS in a domain with real stakes is a strong signal. You understand why a wrong output has consequences and you build accordingly.


What We're Looking For

You have Software engineering depth with a backend-first instinct. You're comfortable owning complex platforms and products end-to-end without hand-holding, and you've shipped production-grade systems that you'd stand behind today.

You're AI-native by default. You design systems with and for AI, not around it. You've built with LLMs in production not as a feature, but as infrastructure.

You operate at high autonomy, low maintenance, low ego. You communicate precisely, flag blockers early, ship in fast-moving environments, and don't need structure imposed from above.

You've worked in a domain where precision matters: legal, compliance, healthcare, fintech. You know what it means to be wrong in a regulated context.


Tech Stack

  • Frontend: Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript 5.9, Tailwind CSS 4, shadcn/ui, Radix UI, Recharts, MapLibre GL, Framer Motion, Lucide React

  • AI: Anthropic Claude API (SDK), Server-Sent Events streaming, custom agentic tool system, dynamic skill loading from S3

  • Backend: Next.js API routes, Auth.js (NextAuth v5), Drizzle ORM, PostgreSQL, DuckDB, S3-backed Parquet files

  • Data Pipeline: Python 3.13, Hive-partitioned Parquet on S3, DuckDB analytical engine


Logistics

  • Based in New York or Miami preferred; exceptional candidates in other locations considered

  • Person fluent in English and Spanish

  • 85% remote with monthly in-person meetings in New York and Miami (3 nights)

  • Monster equity: 0.20%–0.99% of the business as of May 2026 — meaningful, early-stage ownership in a well-funded company

  • 4-round interview process: founder screen (25 min) → blind work sample → half-day panel (ethics + adversarial assessments) → social event with the team

  • Founding Builder — New York / Miami

View full listing