Engineer
Skills near the top, columns for tools, square bullets.
Best for: Software, DevOps, Hardware
ATS excellentUse this template
Software Engineer Resume Example and Writing Guide
Hiring managers for engineering roles look for three things in the first scan: the stack you work in, the scale you have worked at, and what you improved. A good software engineer resume makes all three obvious in a few seconds.
Paste a software engineer job posting and get a tailored resume in about 30 seconds.
Tailor my resume freeResume summary example
Replace everything in [brackets] with your own details. Keep it to three or four lines and make every claim one you can back up.
Software engineer with [X] years of experience building and running [web / mobile / backend] systems in [languages]. Strong in [area, e.g. API design, performance, testing]. Most recently at [company], where I [one concrete result].
Skills to put on a software engineer resume
Hard skills
- ✓Programming languages relevant to the role
- ✓Frameworks and libraries
- ✓System design
- ✓APIs and databases
- ✓Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- ✓CI/CD and testing
- ✓Version control with Git
- ✓Monitoring and debugging
Soft skills
- ✓Code review and collaboration
- ✓Mentoring
- ✓Communicating trade-offs
- ✓Estimating and planning
- ✓Working with product and design
Only list skills you genuinely have, and put the ones the job posting asks for first.
Keywords recruiters and ATS look for
Use the exact wording from the job description where it is true for you. These terms come up often in this field:
REST APIsmicroservicesunit testingCI/CDagilecloudscalabilitycode reviewSQLperformance optimisation
Bullet point formulas
Start with a strong verb, say what you did, and finish with the result. Fill in your real numbers. If you do not have a number, describe what changed instead.
- Reduced average API response time from [X] ms to [Y] ms by [change], improving [user-facing outcome].
- Led migration of [system] to [technology], cutting deploy time from [X] to [Y].
- Built [feature] used by [number] users, working with [teams] from design to release.
- Introduced [testing practice], reducing production incidents by [percentage].
Tips
- →Put your strongest technologies in a skills line near the top.
- →Link to GitHub or a portfolio if it shows real work.
- →Tie every project to a result, not just a stack.
- →Match the job description’s technologies where you genuinely have them.
Mistakes to avoid
- ✕Listing every technology you have ever touched
- ✕Describing duties instead of impact
- ✕Leaving out the scale of the system (users, requests, data)
- ✕Two-column layouts that scramble in applicant systems
Best CV templates for a software engineer
ATS Clean
Centred header with ruled sections. Neutral and parser-safe.
Best for: Any role, Corporate
ATS excellentUse this template
Data Scientist
Dates in the margin, skill columns and projects up front.
Best for: Data science, Analytics, Research
ATS goodUse this template
Frequently asked questions
How long should a software engineer resume be?
One page for up to about ten years of experience. Two pages are acceptable for senior engineers with a lot of relevant history.
Should I include side projects?
If they are relevant and you can say what they do and for whom, yes. They matter most early in your career or when changing specialisation.
Do I list every programming language?
No. List the ones you can use productively and that the role asks for. A long list reads as shallow.