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Engineering

Software Engineer Resume Example

A software engineer resume needs to pass ATS keyword filters AND impress technical hiring managers. Here is how to write one that does both.

Software Engineer Resume Sample

A complete, recruiter-approved example you can use as a starting point. Open it in the builder to edit every line.

Software Engineer resume example rendered in the Competency template
Built with the Competency template

DAVID CHEN

Senior Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · d.chen@email.com · (555) 123-4567

Summary

Senior software engineer with 8+ years building scalable web platforms. Specialised in distributed systems, React front-ends, and cloud-native services on AWS. Shipped features used by 2M+ monthly users.

Experience

Senior Software Engineer · Stripe

2020 - Present

  • Led migration of the payments API to a microservices architecture, cutting p99 latency by 42%
  • Designed and shipped an idempotency layer that eliminated duplicate charges across 12 services
  • Mentored 5 engineers and drove adoption of a CI/CD pipeline that reduced deploy time from 30 to 6 minutes
  • Owns the on-call rotation for 9 payment services, holding uptime at 99.98% across 2 regions
  • Drives quarterly system-design reviews that cut a Kafka event backlog from 4M to under 50K

Software Engineer · Airbnb

2016 - 2020

  • Built a React component library adopted by 40+ product teams, cutting UI build time ~30%
  • Optimised a GraphQL data layer, reducing average page load from 3.1s to 1.4s
  • Migrated 60+ legacy JavaScript modules to TypeScript, removing 1,900 runtime type errors
  • Automated image resizing on AWS Lambda, trimming CDN bandwidth costs by $210K annually

Junior Software Engineer · Zendesk

2014 - 2016

  • Built REST endpoints in Node.js for the ticketing API, serving 400+ requests per second
  • Automated regression suite with Jest and Selenium, raising code coverage from 38% to 72%
  • Resolved 220+ production bugs in a Ruby on Rails monolith, cutting support escalations by 18%

Education

B.S. Computer ScienceUC Berkeley · 2016

Skills

Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, GraphQL, CI/CD, System Design

Certifications

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate, Amazon Web Services

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD), Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Professional Cloud Developer, Google Cloud

Projects

Ledgerlite - open-source double-entry ledger in Go, 3.2K GitHub stars

QueryLens - PostgreSQL query profiler used by 400+ engineers across 3 companies

Languages

English (Native), Mandarin (Fluent), Spanish (Conversational)

Interests

Open-source maintenance, distributed systems reading group, trail running, chess

Must-Have Keywords for Software Engineer Resumes

These are the keywords ATS systems and recruiters search for. Include them naturally in your Skills, Summary, and Experience sections.

PythonJavaScriptReactNode.jsSQLAWSDockerGitREST APIsAgileSystem DesignCI/CD

The Right Resume Structure for Software Engineer Roles

ATS systems parse your resume top to bottom. The order of your sections matters — here is the order that works best for Software Engineer applications:

  1. 1Contact Information (name, email, phone, LinkedIn, GitHub)
  2. 2Professional Summary (2–3 sentences, role-specific keywords)
  3. 3Technical Skills (grouped: Languages | Frameworks | Tools | Cloud)
  4. 4Work Experience (reverse chronological, achievement-focused bullets)
  5. 5Projects (especially for freshers — name, tech stack, impact)
  6. 6Education (degree, institution, graduation year)
  7. 7Certifications (AWS, GCP, Azure certs are ATS gold)

ATS Optimization Tips for Software Engineer Resumes

  • Lead every bullet with a strong action verb: Built, Designed, Optimized, Shipped, Reduced, Scaled.
  • Quantify every achievement: "Reduced API response time by 40%" beats "Improved performance".
  • List your tech stack in a dedicated Skills section — this is where ATS keyword matching happens most.
  • Tailor your stack to the job description: if they want "Node.js", do not just say "server-side JavaScript".
  • Include your GitHub URL and any significant open-source contributions.
  • For senior roles, emphasize system-design decisions, team impact, and architectural trade-offs.
  • For entry level, lead with projects, internships, and coursework — shipped class projects still count.

Ready to Build Your Software Engineer Resume?

Start from this pre-filled Software Engineer example — it already has the right keywords, format, and structure. Edit every line in the builder.