Get your technical writer resume past ATS screening. Paste any job description below, get your keyword match score, and generate a tailored CV in 60 seconds.
These keywords appear most frequently in technical writer job descriptions. Missing even a few can drop your ATS score below the screening threshold.
Hard and soft skills that technical writer ATS systems look for
Common mistakes that cause technical writer resumes to fail ATS screening
Include 'docs-as-code' as an exact keyword - it appears in 70%+ of modern technical writer JDs at tech companies
List the specific static site generator: 'Docusaurus', 'MkDocs', 'Sphinx' - ATS differentiates between these tools
Add 'developer documentation' and 'API documentation' separately from 'user documentation' - they are different ATS keywords
Include 'OpenAPI' and 'Swagger' separately - older JDs use Swagger, newer ones use OpenAPI, ATS may not normalize
Quantify documentation impact: 'reduced support tickets by 35% after rewriting SDK guides', 'documentation drove 40% of developer sign-ups per quarterly report'
List 'Markdown' AND the markup language for your platform - 'reStructuredText' for Python docs, 'AsciiDoc' for Antora - these are explicit ATS keywords
At tech companies, the highest-weight ATS keywords for technical writers are: 'API documentation', 'docs-as-code', 'Git', 'Markdown', 'developer documentation', 'OpenAPI/Swagger', and the specific static site generator they use. Secondarily: 'information architecture', 'content strategy', 'style guide', and 'developer experience'. These differentiate you from candidates with only traditional documentation backgrounds.
Not always, but they increasingly help. Many tech company JDs list 'Python', 'Bash', or 'JavaScript' as nice-to-have for technical writers who automate doc builds or test code samples. Even basic Git proficiency is now a hard ATS filter at most tech companies (docs-as-code workflow). List any scripting experience and show you can read and verify code samples in the language you document.
Technical writer resumes should emphasize: accuracy and completeness over style, structured authoring, tool-specific experience (Swagger, DITA, Docusaurus), and collaboration with engineering teams. Content writer resumes emphasize: SEO, marketing funnels, editorial calendar, and audience engagement. For technical roles, list programming language familiarity, your docs toolchain, and examples of developer-facing documentation.
Name the API type and tools: 'documented 40+ REST API endpoints using OpenAPI 3.0 spec and Swagger UI', 'wrote SDK reference documentation for Python and Node.js clients', 'built developer portal using Docusaurus with interactive API playground'. Include the keywords: 'REST API', 'GraphQL', 'OpenAPI', 'Swagger', 'SDK documentation', 'reference documentation', 'code samples'. These are the highest-value ATS terms for developer documentation roles.
Always. Include a direct link to published documentation you've written (public developer portal, GitHub docs, or similar). ATS cannot read your writing samples - but hiring managers will. Your ATS score depends on keywords in your resume text. Your hiring decision depends on the quality of your portfolio. Use both: optimize the resume text for ATS, and make sure your portfolio link leads to your strongest developer-facing documentation work.
Guides to help you pass ATS screening faster