Software Engineer resume template
The Best Resume Template for Software Engineers
The Modern template suits software engineers because it keeps technical detail dense and scannable: a compact skills grid near the top, clear company and period lines, and bullet points that survive both ATS parsing and a six-second recruiter skim. It leaves whitespace for readability without the graphics that confuse older parsers.
How the herald template is structured for a software engineer
On the built resume, your summary states specialisation, years, and stack in two lines. The skills grid follows immediately, grouped into languages, frameworks, and cloud or infrastructure, using the job posting's own vocabulary.
Experience entries lead with company, title, and period on one line, then two to four bullets that put the metric in the first eight words. Education and certifications close the document once you have professional experience; for new graduates they move above the work history.
Customise the structure to your level. New graduates lead with education, projects, and internships and keep the summary honest about scope; senior engineers compress older roles to two bullets and give their recent flagship system a full entry. If you contribute to open source, that block belongs above education. And whichever template you pick, keep the PDF text-based — a designed two-column resume that parses as gibberish has cost more engineering jobs than any typo.
Layout advice for software engineers
Lead with a two-line summary naming your specialisation and stack, then a skills grid grouped by languages, frameworks, and cloud/infra.
Use one bullet per achievement with the metric in the first eight words; group freelance and contract work under one entry per client industry.
ATS notes for software engineer applications
Spell out technical terms at first use — "Continuous Integration (CI)" — because ATS keyword matching is literal.
Avoid tables and text boxes for the skills grid; plain bullets parse reliably across Workday, Greenhouse, and Lever.
Live preview: Software Engineer example in the herald template
Ready to build your software engineer resume?
Start from the herald template with this example filled in — free, no signup required.
Use this template