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 .

Staff Platform Engineer

Opengov · US | Massachusetts | Boston

OpenGov is the leader in AI and ERP solutions for local and state governments in the U.S. More than 2,000 cities, counties, state agencies, school districts, and special districts rely on the OpenGov Public Service Platform to operate efficiently, adapt to change, and strengthen the public trust. Category-leading products include enterprise asset management, procurement and contract management, accounting and budgeting, billing and revenue management, permitting and licensing, and transparency and open data. These solutions come together in the OpenGov ERP, allowing public sector organizations to focus on priorities and deliver maximum ROI with every dollar and decision in sync. Learn about OpenGov’s mission to power more effective and accountable government and the vision of high-performance government for every community at OpenGov.com.

Job Summary:

As a Staff Platform Engineer at OpenGov, you'll build best-in-class multi-tenant SaaS solutions that enable efficiency, transparency, and accountability within government agencies. You'll be a key member of our engineering team, writing software, delivering new cloud infrastructure, and automating CI/CD processes in a fast-paced, agile environment using modern technologies, including GitHub Actions, Terraform, Kubernetes, Azure/AWS, ArgoCD, ArgoWorkflows, and Grafana.

In this role, you'll have the opportunity to collaborate closely with engineering leadership and application engineers. Your strong collaboration skills and ability to execute quickly will be key to your success. A typical day would involve optimizing deployment processes, building, upgrading, and re-architecting infrastructure, fine-tuning resource utilization, and ensuring monitoring and alerting are configured for all aspects of the application.

At OpenGov, we value natural self-starters who can effectively communicate ideas and contribute to our respect, dedication, and fun culture. If you have a passion for good deployment design and solid cloud architecture and love clean code, principles over dogma, and making the world a little better every day, you'll find a perfect alignment with our values.

Responsibilities:

  • Architect, deploy, and maintain a highly available and scalable multi-tenant SaaS environment in AWS.

  • Implement and manage infrastructure as code using tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.

  • Optimize AWS services for cost-efficiency, performance, and reliability.

  • Ensure high reliability and disaster recovery readiness across all AWS services.

  • Enforce security policies, procedures, and standards to protect sensitive data.

  • Implement best practices for securing AWS resources, including VPC configurations, IAM roles, security groups, and network ACLs.

  • Work with compliance teams to ensure adherence to regulations and industry standards such as SOC2 and StateRamp.

  • Design, build, and maintain robust CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Argo CD, Argo Workflows or CircleCI.

  • Facilitate seamless integration and continuous deployment processes to ensure rapid and reliable delivery of new features and patches.

  • Set up and manage comprehensive monitoring and alerting systems using tools like CloudWatch, Prometheus, or Grafana.

  • Develop and implement incident response protocols; lead incident investigations and post-mortems.

  • Provide mentorship and training to junior engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define technical requirements and deliver high-quality solutions.

Requirements and Preferred Experience:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

  • 8+ years of experience in software engineering with a deep focus on cloud operations, security, and DevOps.

  • 4+ years of running Kubernetes at scale and in production on public clouds

  • Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (e.g., Python, Java, Go, or Javascript).

  • Proven track record in designing and managing AWS infrastructure for SaaS applications.

  • Extensive experience with infrastructure as code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.

  • Strong knowledge of AWS services, including EC2, RDS, S3, VPC, IAM, and Lambda, among others.

  • Expertise in CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Argo Workflows, CircleCI, or equivalent.

  • Advanced skills in monitoring and logging tools such as CloudWatch, Prometheus, or Grafana.

  • In-depth understanding of cloud security practices, including encryption, identity and access management (IAM), and network security.

  • Strong problem-solving skills with a proactive approach to identifying issues and delivering solutions.

  • Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across various teams.

Compensation:

Boston, MA: $183,100 - $227,000

On target ranges above include base plus a portion of variable compensation that is earned based on company and individual performance.

The final compensation will be determined by a number of factors such as qualifications, expertise, and the candidate’s geographical location.

Why OpenGov?

A Mission That Matters.

At OpenGov, public service is personal. We are passionate about our mission to power more effective and accountable government. Government that operates efficiently, adapts to change, and strengthens public trust.  Some people say this is boring.  We think it’s the core of our democracy.

Opportunity to Innovate

The next great wave of innovation is unfolding with AI, and it will impact everything—from the way we work to the way governments interact with their residents. Join a trusted team with the passion, technology, and expertise to drive innovation and bring AI to local government. We’ve touched 2,000 communities so far, and we’re just getting started.

A Team of Passionate, Driven People

This isn’t your typical 9-to-5 job; we operate in a fast-paced, results-driven environment where impact matters more than simply clocking in and out. Our global team of 800+ employees is united in our commitment to challenge the status quo. OpenGov is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Dubuque, Plano, and Pune.

A Place to Make Your Mark

We pride ourselves on our performance-based culture, where every employee is encouraged to jump in head-first and take action to help us improve. If you have a great idea, we want to hear it. Excellent performance is recognized and rewarded, and we love to promote from within.

Benefits That Work for You

Enjoy an award-winning workplace with the benefits to match, including:

  • Comprehensive healthcare options for individuals and families

  • Flexible vacation policy and paid company holidays

  • 401(k) with company match

  • Paid parental leave, wellness stipends, and HSA contributions

  • Professional development and growth opportunities

  • A collaborative office environment with weekly catered lunches.