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Automation Engineer Must-Have Resume Skills and Keywords

Are you interested in improving your job outlook and increasing your salary? How can you demonstrate that you are the most qualified candidate for an Automation Engineer position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as an Automation Engineer may be your best qualification, but there are other ways you can also develop your skills, like continuing education or volunteer opportunities. More immediately, however, you can be ready for your next opportunity or promotion by educating yourself about the duties, responsibilities, and required skills of an Automation Engineer and making sure your resume reflects your experience properly.

We designed the ZipRecruiter Career Keyword Mapper to help you solve this problem and hopefully improve your resume. Using machine learning tools paired with industry research, our Marketplace Research Team helped analyze millions of job postings and resumes to identify the most important keywords related to Automation Engineer jobs. Our goal is to help you discover opportunities to improve your resume or to help you understand what skills and qualifications you need to be an Automation Engineer or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

Top
10
Job Skills
Employers require a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Automation Engineer positions. The top three keywords make up 39.82% of the total set of top terms. Look to the Resume Checklist below to see how Technical, Innovation, and Collaboration shares stack up against the share from resumes. Troubleshooting, Communication Skills and Documentation represent an additionally healthy share of the employer Automation Engineer job postings with their combined total of 29.01%. At 31.17%, Electricity, PLC, Python, and Scripting appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Automation Engineer skills and requirements according to employers.

Top Skills Mentioned in Resumes

Top
10
Job Skills
Job seeker resumes showcase a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Automation Engineer positions. The top three keywords represent 34.94% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how Technical, Java, and SQL match up to employer job descriptions. Database, Selenium, and Jira represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Automation Engineer with 28.95% of the total. At 36.1%, Jenkins, Scripting, Analysis, and HTML appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Automation Engineer skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be an Automation Engineer as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Automation Engineer job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Automation Engineer on their resumes.
Top Automation Engineer Skills
Skills Required by Employers Share
Technical 16.75%
Innovation 11.95%
Collaboration 11.12%
Troubleshooting 11.09%
Communication Skills 9.39%
Documentation 8.53%
Electricity 7.87%
PLC 7.78%
Python 7.77%
Scripting 7.75%
Skills Listed by Employees Share
Technical 12.18%
Java 11.61%
SQL 11.15%
Database 10.23%
Selenium 9.45%
Jira 9.27%
Jenkins 9.25%
Scripting 9.00%
Analysis 9.00%
HTML 8.85%

Automation Engineer Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Automation Engineer positions. Our algorithm helps isolate phrases and patterns to identify the most frequently recurring and reused keywords from each data source, while correcting for uncommon and outlier results. Various heuristic methodologies are then applied to ultimately create two top 20 lists of the most important and significant skills, certificates and requirements found within Automation Engineer job postings and resumes. We then merge the two lists together and use a combination of statistics and rules-based scenarios to create a list that is audited by the Marketplace Research team, and finally turned into the checklist you see below. Our hope is that knowing this information can help you make your best impression with your next potential employer.
Uncommon Keywords on Automation Engineer Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Innovation
Auto Delivery
Communication Skills
Employer job listings often list Innovation, Auto Delivery or Communication Skills as requirements in Automation Engineer job descriptions; however, candidates mention them far less frequently on their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for an Automation Engineer position may help you stand out more to hiring managers.
Common Keywords on Automation Engineer Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Collaboration
Computer Science
Control Systems
Python
Hardware
Troubleshooting
Electricity
Technical
PLC
Documentation
Project Management
Scripting
Software Development
Test Automation
Analysis
Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the position of Automation Engineer tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Collaboration, Computer Science, Control Systems, Python, Hardware, Troubleshooting, Electricity, Technical, PLC, Documentation, Project Management, Scripting, Software Development, Test Automation or Analysis in your background and experience, make sure to highlight the term prominently on your resume. As a candidate you’ll be competing with many others who are bound to have as many as you (or more!) of these common resume keywords highlighted in their application for a job as an Automation Engineer.
Uncommon Keywords on Automation Engineer Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Selenium
Java
SQL
Database
Git
Jenkins
Jira
Employer job listings seldom list Selenium, Java, SQL, Database, Git, Jenkins or Jira as important skills or qualifications in Automation Engineer job descriptions. Nevertheless, candidates mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for an Automation Engineer position may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Automation Engineer Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Automation Engineer job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Collaboration, Computer Science, Control Systems, Python, Hardware, Troubleshooting and Electricity. These skills and requirements are just as likely to be mentioned by employers as well as on resumes of people that held a position as an Automation Engineer, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as an Automation Engineer. Additionally, employer Automation Engineer job descriptions list Innovation as a desirable experience, even though Innovation appears 5.42 times less on resumes, suggesting that it's worth considering including this term if you possess the experience.

What are the least important Automation Engineer job skills to have on my resume?

Although you'd probably love to load up your resume with every possible keyword you can, employers tend to look for the things they specify in the job description. Our analysis suggests that highlighting too prominently terms like Selenium, Java, SQL, Database, Git, Jenkins and Jira may be something to reconsider. These 7 terms appear 2.24, 2.33, 2.69, 2.78, 3.24, 3.33 and 3.82 times less frequently, respectively, than in job descriptions for an Automation Engineer position. This implies that highlighting any of these keywords on your resume may not be a great way to stand out to a potential employer.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for an Automation Engineer position?

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Automation Engineer. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:
  • Collaboration
  • Computer Science
  • Control Systems
  • Python
  • Hardware
  • Troubleshooting
  • Electricity
  • Technical
  • PLC
  • Documentation
  • Project Management
  • Scripting
  • Software Development
  • Test Automation
  • Analysis
Additionally employers frequently list the following as desirable qualities in an Automation Engineer candidate, but they are far less common on most resumes:
  • Innovation
  • Auto Delivery
  • Communication Skills
Finally people who held the position of an Automation Engineer and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Automation Engineer application:
  • Selenium
  • Java
  • SQL
  • Database
  • Git
  • Jenkins
  • Jira

Before applying for an Automation Engineer job

At ZipRecruiter, we understand better than anyone the importance of using the right keywords to describe your experience — it’s crucial to attracting the right employers! We built our business on the ability to effectively match job seekers with employers using AI-technology that understands your resume and how likely you are to be noticed by a potential future employer. Having a ZipRecruiter profile that showcases your most relevant skills and abilities can help you get recruited into a new role as an Automation Engineer. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!