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

Mechanicalorchard · Poland (Remote)

Mechanical Orchard builds Imogen, a modernization platform for rewriting the most critical and complex business applications—the systems that quietly run the world as we know it—so they can continue operating reliably while adapting to new challenges and opportunities. These are business-critical systems where reliability, safety, and correctness are paramount.

Delivery at Mechanical Orchard is where Imogen meets reality. Delivery teams work directly with customers and system integration partners in real production environments to modernize mainframe systems using Imogen. This work delivers customer outcomes while also shaping how the platform evolves, ensuring Imogen is grounded in real-world constraints, risks, and opportunities.

Our Delivery team operates in complex, ambiguous environments with high stakes. We balance long-term modernization outcomes with incremental, production-ready delivery; validate functional equivalence, performance, and operational readiness; and work closely with partners to enable durable handoff and long-term ownership. We value strong fundamentals, pragmatic use of AI, and close collaboration across roles and organizations. Our values are simple: Do the right thing. Do what works. Be kind.

The Role

As a Software Engineer in Delivery, you work hands-on with Imogen in complex, real customer environments—often where there is no established playbook. You help modernize production systems, validate approaches, and shape how Imogen is used, adopted, and improved.This is a collaborative, client-facing role. You’ll pair daily with teammates, work directly with customer engineers and partners, and contribute to systems that must be reliable, operable, and ready for long-term ownership.
Mechanical Orchard builds Imogen, a modernization platform for rewriting the most critical and complex business applications—the systems that quietly run the world as we know it—so they can continue operating reliably while adapting to new challenges and opportunities. These are business-critical systems where reliability, safety, and correctness are paramount.

Delivery at Mechanical Orchard is where Imogen meets reality. Delivery teams work directly with customers and system integration partners in real production environments to modernize mainframe systems using Imogen. This work delivers customer outcomes while also shaping how the platform evolves, ensuring Imogen is grounded in real-world constraints, risks, and opportunities.

Our Delivery team operates in complex, ambiguous environments with high stakes. We balance long-term modernization outcomes with incremental, production-ready delivery; validate functional equivalence, performance, and operational readiness; and work closely with partners to enable durable handoff and long-term ownership. We value strong fundamentals, pragmatic use of AI, and close collaboration across roles and organizations. Our values are simple: Do the right thing. Do what works. Be kind.

The Role

As a Software Engineer in Delivery, you work hands-on with Imogen in complex, real customer environments—often where there is no established playbook. You help modernize production systems, validate approaches, and shape how Imogen is used, adopted, and improved.This is a collaborative, client-facing role. You’ll pair daily with teammates, work directly with customer engineers and partners, and contribute to systems that must be reliable, operable, and ready for long-term ownership.
Mechanical Orchard, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Mechanical Orchard, Inc. are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. encourages applicants of all ages. Mechanical Orchard, Inc. will provide reasonable accommodation to employees who have protected disabilities consistent with local law.

We look forward to reviewing your application. Thanks!

What You’ll Do - As a Software Engineer in Delivery, you will be expected to:

  • Work with Imogen to modernize production mainframe systems in collaboration with customers and partners
  • Work as part of small, cross-functional XP teams, pairing daily and collaborating closely with product managers, designers, client engineers, partners, and internal platform teams
  • Lead and facilitate technical discovery sessions and workshops, including on-site with customers, to understand existing systems, align on risks, and shape delivery approaches
  • Apply XP engineering practices such as pair programming, TDD, refactoring, and CI/CD
  • Use and experiment with LLM-assisted coding tools, contributing to evolving best practices for AI use in software engineering at MO
  • Design and operate production systems with a focus on durability, operability, and eventual client and partner ownership, including participating in team on-call rotations
  • Execute delivery work in a way that enables partner engineers to independently deliver modernization efforts using Imogen over time
  • Collaborate closely with partner engineers through pairing, mentoring, and shared problem solving, and help codify reusable technical and operational patterns
  • Work flexibly across time zones when collaborating with partners based in the US and India
  • Things to Consider Before Applying

  • This role is client-facing and partner-facing; communication, facilitation and collaboration are core parts of the work
  • Much of the work involves legacy mainframe systems, often written in COBOL and JCL
  • Our technology organization has an on-call rotation essential to operating the systems we deliver
  • Pair programming is a foundational practice and may involve a learning curve
  • This role may include occasional international travel to client sites—typically a few times per year—to support kickoff, scoping, and collaborative workshops
  • Collaboration across time zones is part of the role, particularly with partners based in the UK and India
  • The Ideal Candidate

  • The ideal candidate is an experienced software engineer who enjoys solving complex, real-world problems in collaborative, delivery-focused teams. They are comfortable working hands-on in unfamiliar domains, learning legacy systems, and contributing to production software that must be reliable, operable, and ready for long-term ownership.
  • They bring experience working directly with customers or partners and are comfortable leading technical discussions, facilitating workshops, and navigating ambiguity in high-stakes environments. They value practices like pair programming, test-driven development, and continuous improvement, and enjoy working closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers.
  • They are excited about AI-assisted development and interested in operating at the bleeding edge of evolving best practices for LLM-based coding tools, while exercising sound engineering judgment. Strong communication skills, empathy, and a collaborative mindset are essential, as this role involves close partnership with teammates, customers, and external delivery partners.