What ATS Do US Companies Use? Workday, Greenhouse, Lever & iCIMS Explained
Over 98% of Fortune 500 companies and the majority of mid-size US employers use an Applicant Tracking System to process job applications. Your resume does not go directly to a hiring manager — it goes into a software platform that parses it, scores it against keyword requirements, and ranks you against other candidates before any human sees your name.
The five most common ATS platforms at US companies are Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, and Taleo. Each one parses resumes differently, weights keywords differently, and has specific formatting preferences that affect your score. Knowing which system you are submitting to — and how it works — is a meaningful competitive advantage.
How to Tell Which ATS a Company Is Using
The easiest method is the application URL. When you click "Apply" on a job posting, look at the address bar:
myworkdayjobs.com→ Workdaygreenhouse.io→ Greenhouselever.co→ Levericims.com→ iCIMStaleo.net→ Taleo
If you are applying through LinkedIn Easy Apply, you are usually submitting directly into the company's ATS — the confirmation email domain often reveals which platform processed your application.
Know which ATS you are applying through?
Check your resume score against the specific job posting — see your keyword gaps and get an optimized version tailored to that exact role.
Workday
~35% of Fortune 500Used by: Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Target, Nike, Walmart, Microsoft
Workday parses resumes by section. It expects standard section headers — "Work Experience", "Education", "Skills". Non-standard headers (e.g. "Where I've Been", "My Toolkit") can cause sections to be misread or skipped entirely. It also parses dates strictly, so inconsistent date formats across jobs can break the timeline it constructs.
How to optimise for Workday
- ✓Use standard section headers — "Work Experience", "Education", "Skills", "Certifications"
- ✓Use consistent date formats throughout (e.g. Jan 2022 – Mar 2024 everywhere)
- ✓Avoid tables, columns, and text boxes — Workday extracts text linearly
- ✓List certifications in a dedicated section, not buried in bullet points
Greenhouse
~20% of high-growth tech companiesUsed by: Airbnb, Stripe, HubSpot, DoorDash, Figma, Benchling, Canva
Greenhouse is highly keyword-sensitive. Recruiters configure keyword lists directly from the job description, and the system scores candidates on keyword presence. It also tracks application source and candidate pipeline stage with high granularity, which means keyword scoring happens early — often before a human recruiter reviews the profile.
How to optimise for Greenhouse
- ✓Mirror the exact language of the job description — Greenhouse scores on literal keyword matches
- ✓Expand your Skills section to list every relevant tool individually
- ✓Include the job title from the posting in your resume summary or headline
- ✓Use the job description's preferred terminology (e.g. if it says "product roadmap", use that phrase)
Lever
~10% of mid-size tech companiesUsed by: Netflix, Reddit, Eventbrite, Intercom, Plaid
Lever uses a combination of keyword scoring and recruiter tagging. It scores keyword density — the number of relevant terms relative to total resume length. A very short resume with few keyword matches will score poorly even if the candidate is qualified. Lever also integrates with LinkedIn, so an incomplete LinkedIn profile can hurt your ranking.
How to optimise for Lever
- ✓Aim for a resume length that allows you to include all relevant skills — one page is fine but should be keyword-dense
- ✓Keep your LinkedIn profile fully updated — Lever may pull data from it
- ✓Include keywords in your work experience bullets, not just the Skills section
- ✓Spell out acronyms at least once: "Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)"
iCIMS
~15% of enterprise and healthcareUsed by: Pfizer, UPS, L'Oréal, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, CVS Health
iCIMS is dominant in enterprise, healthcare, and government contractor environments. It is strict about structured data — job titles, dates, and company names need to be clearly delineated. It also has advanced compliance features, which means resumes that look like they might be hard to parse for EEO data can be flagged. For healthcare roles specifically, iCIMS looks for licensure and certification keywords early in the document.
How to optimise for iCIMS
- ✓Put certifications and licenses near the top of the resume — iCIMS healthcare configurations filter on these first
- ✓Use clear company name + job title + date formatting for every role
- ✓Avoid graphics, photos, and icons — iCIMS compliance parsing does not handle them well
- ✓For healthcare roles: include RN, NCLEX, BLS, ACLS, and any state license numbers as text
Taleo
~10% of large enterprisesUsed by: Oracle (owner), US federal contractors, large manufacturing, retail
Taleo (now Oracle Recruiting) is one of the oldest ATS platforms and is widely used by large traditional enterprises and government contractors. It is known for being particularly difficult to parse non-standard resumes. It uses a job requisition matching engine that scores candidates against a skills inventory built from the job description. Many Taleo applications require manual re-entry of resume data into form fields — the parsed version may still be incomplete.
How to optimise for Taleo
- ✓If the application form asks you to re-enter information from your resume, fill every field carefully — that form data is what Taleo actually scores
- ✓Use clean, simple formatting — Taleo is the least tolerant of creative resume layouts
- ✓Include keywords from the specific job requisition, not just general role keywords
- ✓For government contractor roles: include security clearance level (if applicable) as a specific keyword
Check Your Resume Against Any US Job Posting
Paste your resume and any job description — see your ATS match score, the keywords you are missing, and get a fully optimized version tailored to that exact role.
Check My Resume Free →2,800+ job seekers have improved their score · Works for Workday, Greenhouse, Lever & iCIMS
The One Thing Every ATS Has in Common
Despite their differences, every major US ATS shares one core behaviour: they all score your resume against the text of the job description. The candidate who uses the same vocabulary as the posting — exact tool names, exact job titles, exact certification abbreviations — will outscore an equally qualified candidate who describes the same experience in different words.
The fastest way to see your score is to paste your resume and the job description into resume.zoevera.com. You get a keyword gap analysis in under 30 seconds — free, no signup — so you know exactly what to add before you submit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What ATS do most US companies use?+
The most widely used ATS platforms at US companies are Workday (Amazon, Apple, Bank of America), Greenhouse (Airbnb, Stripe, HubSpot), Lever (Netflix, Reddit), iCIMS (Pfizer, UPS, Lockheed Martin), and Taleo. Together these five systems process the majority of US job applications.
How do I know which ATS a company is using?+
Check the application URL — myworkdayjobs.com, greenhouse.io, lever.co, icims.com, and taleo.net are all visible in the address bar when you click Apply on a job posting.
Does it matter which ATS a company uses?+
Yes — each platform parses resumes and weights keywords differently. Workday is strict about section headers. Greenhouse scores on literal keyword matches. iCIMS filters on certifications first in healthcare. Understanding the platform helps you format and optimise correctly.
How do I check my ATS match score for a US job posting?+
Paste your resume and any US job posting into resume.zoevera.com — you get an instant keyword gap analysis and ATS match score in under 30 seconds, free with no signup required.