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 .

AI Technician - Fury Team

Scoutai · Sunnyvale, CA

The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout AI, we’re developing Fury, the first robotic foundation model for defense, to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.

The Role

We are seeking an AI Technician to join our team. You will play a critical role in supporting AI and machine learning initiatives through data preparation, model training assistance, and ongoing data management. As an AI Technician, you will collaborate closely with our engineering team to contribute to our AI development efforts. This role offers a unique opportunity to be hands-on with real-world AI applications and play a key part in scaling our technical capabilities.

We’re a startup. You’ll be moving fast, context-switching daily, and helping define the culture and process as we go. This is a rare opportunity to come in early and architect the future of defense.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own the data preparation pipeline and curate high-quality datasets—enabling robust training and validation of advanced AI models.
  • Build and maintain dashboards to track dataset composition and training coverage.
  • Monitor and analyze model performance, identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.
  • Leverage lightweight tooling or scripts to assist in data preprocessing, cleaning, and validation workflows.
  • Support internal documentation and versioning of datasets, experiments, and training workflows to ensure reproducibility.
  • Conduct applied research into external datasets, simulation environments, or benchmarks relevant to autonomy and robotics.
  • The candidate will also support recruiting for technical roles, contribute to company-wide data analytics efforts, and assist in shaping future business opportunities.

Required Qualifications

  • 2+ years of professional experience in a technical or research-driven role
  • Strong proficiency with Google Sheets
  • Experience working with large datasets, particularly visual or time-series data (e.g., video logs, sensor logs, etc.)
  • Strong analytical skills and attention to detail
  • Ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines simultaneously
  • Experience working cross-functionally with an engineering team
  • Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities"

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience working in or supporting AI, robotics, autonomy, or defense-related technologies
  • A degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field is preferred but not required
  • Familiarity with computer vision or perception systems is preferred but not required
  • Interest in contributing to a mission-driven, early-stage startup environment

Why Join Scout

  • Work on the world’s most important frontier, ensuring U.S. and allied dominance in the age of intelligent machines
  • Be a core part of a team building the first defense-specific robotic foundation model
  • Collaborate with some of the top engineers in autonomy, AI, and national security
  • See your work deployed on real systems
  • Help define the future of intelligent defense systems
  • Backed by Draper Associates, Booz Allen Ventures, and other top investors

Benefits

  • Generous equity participation in company growth.
  • Meaningful equity
  • Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution
  • Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar
  • Catered lunch daily and fully stocked kitchen
  • EV charging
  • Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)

The stated salary range below represents an estimated base pay only and reflects consideration of multiple compensation factors. Final salary offers may differ depending on factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience or training background, specialized skills, and business needs. Most full-time positions also include highly competitive equity awards, which form part of Scout AI's overall compensation package. In addition, Scout AI provides comprehensive, top-tier benefits to full-time employees.

US Salary Range
$75,000$125,000 USD