What ATS Do US Companies Use? Workday, Greenhouse, Lever & iCIMS Explained
Virtually every large US employer, and the majority of mid-size ones, 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 into searchable text. Recruiters then search that text for the terms the posting uses and read what comes back.
The five most common ATS platforms at US companies are Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, and Taleo. Each one parses resumes differently, searches differently, and has specific formatting preferences that decide what gets extracted. 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 optimize 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 stores each application as searchable text, and recruiters search it with terms taken from the job description. It does not rank applicants by a keyword score; what it tracks closely is application source and pipeline stage. The practical effect is that a resume missing the terms of the posting does not come back when a recruiter searches for them.
How to optimize for Greenhouse
- ✓Mirror the exact language of the job description — recruiters search Greenhouse for literal terms
- ✓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 combines full-text search with recruiter tagging: recruiters search candidate profiles and tag the ones they want to move forward. A very short resume that names few of the tools in the posting gives a search little to match, even if the candidate is qualified. Lever also pulls in LinkedIn profiles, so an incomplete LinkedIn profile gives a recruiter less to find.
How to optimize 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 optimize for iCIMS
- ✓Put certifications and licenses near the top of the resume — iCIMS healthcare employers often make these required fields
- ✓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. Where it sorts candidates at all, it does so on answers to the screening questions the employer writes into the application, not on a keyword score from the resume. Many Taleo applications require manual re-entry of resume data into form fields — the parsed version may still be incomplete.
How to optimize 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 →Works for Workday, Greenhouse, Lever & iCIMS
The One Thing Every ATS Has in Common
Despite their differences, every major US ATS shares one core behavior: recruiters find candidates by searching resume text for the words in the job description. The candidate who uses the same vocabulary as the posting — exact tool names, exact job titles, exact certification abbreviations — will come back from that search when an equally qualified candidate who describes the same experience in different words does not.
The fastest way to see your score is to paste your resume and the job description into the ATS resume checker. 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 and searches resumes differently. Workday is strict about section headers. Greenhouse search matches literal terms. iCIMS healthcare employers often make certifications required fields. Understanding the platform helps you format and optimize correctly.
How do I check my ATS match score for a US job posting?+
Paste your resume and any US job posting into www.zoevera.com/resume — you get an instant keyword gap analysis and ATS match score in under 30 seconds, free with no signup required.