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 Manager, Strategic Marketing

Outerbiosciences · Malden, MA

Company Overview

Outer Biosciences’ mission is to improve human skin health by discovering and developing novel bioactives that are more effective and safer than anything available today. Founded by a scientific team with deep experience in engineering advanced organ systems, our fully-integrated technology platform combines complex, long-lasting, clinically-relevant ex vivo skin models with multimodal data analysis and predictive machine learning. Brief company overview here. 

Role Overview

Outer Biosciences is seeking a Senior Manager, Strategic Marketing to support and execute a global marketing roadmap in alignment with our strategic objectives. Success in this role requires a combination of creative thinking, understanding scientific concepts, willingness to learn new scientific concepts, and analytical rigor to execute marketing programs that resonate globally.  

The overarching goal is to help highlight Outer Biosciences' scientific innovations and support the company's position as the leading developer of biotech active ingredients. This role requires data-driven decision making, strong strategic thinking, creative storytelling, attention to detail, exceptional communication skills. This person will report directly to the Chief Business Officer.

Key Responsibilities

Marketing Execution

  • Execute a forward-looking global marketing strategy aligned with business objectives to ensure successful commercialization.
  • Ensure consistent messaging across marketing materials and programs.
  • Collaborate with R&D teams and provide guidance to Sales on growth initiatives.
  • Track performance of marketing initiatives and recommend improvements.

Marketing Operations

  • Contribute to the development of sales materials and tools that reinforce our value proposition and enable effective market engagement.
  • Establish and maintain marketing processes and protocols that enable efficiency and alignment across the company.

Market Analysis & Monitoring

  • Identify unmet market needs that inform product positioning and product development, including gathering customer insights and translate into actionable recommendations for marketing, commercial, and business strategy.
  • Analyze and monitor market trends, shifts, and report on unmet needs, implications for positioning, and growth opportunities globally.
  • Support the development of business cases for commercialization opportunities and partnership discussions. 

Qualifications

  • Minimum Education: Bachelor’s degree in life science, business, marketing or related discipline. Equivalent experience considered.
  • Minimum of 5 years’ of marketing experience within the beauty actives, specialty ingredients/chemical or personal care industry.
  • Proven success executing marketing strategies.
  • Proven experience in new product launches and innovative ideas from concept to commercialization.
  • Established network within specialty ingredients, personal care and beauty industries.
  • Competency in developing and maintaining marketing processes and protocols.
  • Strategic thinker with an entrepreneurial mindset and results-driven.
  • Continuous learner, meticulous, and thrives in dynamic environments.
  • Highly productive, agile, and resilient with exceptional troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
  • Excellent and persuasive written, verbal, and interactive communication skills.
  • Strong teamwork and collaboration skills with the ability to work effectively both independently and in a group.
  • Preferred Skills - Strong analytical and financial acumen for building business cases and ROI models.

We are deeply committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion in all its forms and practices. As a company we promote inclusion and desire to work with people from all walks of life. As we grow our team, we strive to be the change we want to see. If your experience is somewhat different from what we've described and you believe you can bring value and contribute in the role, we'd be honored to learn more about you.

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