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 Security Engineer

Otterai · Seattle, Washington, United States

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced Security Engineer to join our team and help secure Otter’s cloud infrastructure and the systems behind our AI-powered meeting products. In this role, you will design and implement security controls, improve detection and response, reduce cloud risk through automation, and partner closely with DevOps and Engineering to ensure secure-by-default cloud deployments.
This is a highly hands-on role for someone who thrives in fast-moving environments, can balance risk reduction with shipping velocity, and enjoys building security capabilities that scale.

Your Impact

  • Design and implement secure cloud architectures and guardrails across our environments (network segmentation, encryption, key management, secure service patterns).
  • Own IAM security: access controls, least-privilege policies, privileged access workflows, and recurring access reviews.
  • Build and scale cloud security infrastructure (logging, monitoring, alerting, vulnerability management, and DLP controls where appropriate).
  • Harden CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code with security automation (secrets detection, dependency scanning, IaC scanning, policy-as-code).
  • Monitor cloud security signals and investigate security alerts; continuously improve detection quality and reduce noise.
  • Lead incident response for cloud security events and help mature playbooks, forensics readiness, and response processes.
  • Conduct cloud security assessments and threat modeling for new architectures and high-impact changes; partner with Engineering to drive remediation.
  • Support compliance requirements and security controls aligned to enterprise needs (e.g., HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR; and security frameworks such as NIST / ISO 27001).

We're looking for someone who

  • 5+ years of experience in cloud security engineering or closely related security engineering roles.
  • Strong knowledge of cloud security architectures, controls, and compliance requirements.
  • Expertise securing public cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure), including multi-cloud networking considerations and designing cloud-agnostic patterns where needed.
  • Solid understanding of container security, network security, and cloud security services.
  • Experience building and operating core security capabilities such as logging/monitoring, vulnerability management, and (bonus) DLP.
  • Strong understanding of security frameworks such as NIST and ISO 27001.
  • Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills, plus strong communication and cross-functional collaboration.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or related field
About Otter.ai 

We are in the business of shaping the future of work. Our mission is to make conversations more valuable.

With over 1B meetings transcribed, Otter.ai is the world’s leading tool for meeting transcription, summarization, and collaboration. Using artificial intelligence, Otter generates real-time automated meeting notes, summaries, and other insights from in-person and virtual meetings - turning meetings into accessible, collaborative, and actionable data that can be shared across teams and organizations. The company is backed by early investors in Google, DeepMind, Zoom, and Tesla.

Otter.ai is an equal opportunity employer. We proudly celebrate diversity and are committed to building an inclusive and accessible workplace.  We provide reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants throughout the hiring process. 

Accessibility & Accommodations 

Otter.ai is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our hiring process.  If you need assistance or an accommodation during any stage of the recruitment process, please contact [email protected] at least 3 business days before your interview.

*Otter.ai does not accept unsolicited resumes from 3rd party recruitment agencies without a written agreement in place for permanent placements. Any resume or other candidate information submitted outside of established candidate submission guidelines (including through our website or via email to any Otter.ai employee) and without a written agreement otherwise will be deemed to be our sole property, and no fee will be paid should we hire the candidate.

Salary range

Salary Range: $185,000 to $210,000 USD per year

This salary range represents the low and high end of the estimated salary range for this position. The actual base salary offered for the role is dependent based on several factors. Our base salary is just one component of our comprehensive total rewards package.
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