Technical Skills for a Resume: By Role, With Examples

Q: What are the best technical skills to put on a resume?

The best technical skills depend entirely on the role. For software engineers: Python, JavaScript, SQL, AWS, Docker, React. For data analysts: SQL, Tableau, Python, dbt, A/B testing. For product managers: Jira, Figma, Amplitude, SQL, OKRs. For security: Splunk, NIST 800-53, CISSP. Always tailor the list to the specific job description you are targeting.

Q: Where should I put the technical skills section on my resume?

For technical roles (engineer, data, security, devops), place technical skills high on page 1, directly below the summary. For senior and executive roles, place it after experience so the career narrative leads. For any role with a long tools list in the job description, place technical skills high so recruiters see the keyword match immediately.

Q: What is the difference between technical skills and hard skills?

Technical skills are a subset of hard skills. Hard skills are any specific, teachable, verifiable abilities (including technical skills, languages, certifications, and methodologies). Technical skills specifically refer to tools, programming languages, frameworks, platforms, and systems. Most technical skills are hard skills; not all hard skills are technical.

Q: Should I use skill bars or proficiency levels for technical skills?

No. Graphical skill bars, star ratings, and proficiency icons are misread or dropped by roughly 30% of enterprise ATS parsers, according to Jobscan 2024 testing. They also signal early-career template user to senior recruiters. Use plain text, grouped labeled lists. Let the interview handle proficiency conversations.

Technical skills are the largest source of ATS keyword matches on a modern resume. They are also where most candidates fail: they either list too few, list generic buzzwords, or mix technical skills with soft skills in a way that breaks parsing. LinkedIn's 2024 Workforce Report found that technical skill keywords account for roughly 62% of the terms recruiters search for on platforms like Workday, Greenhouse, and iCIMS. Getting the technical skills section right is often worth more than any other single edit you can make to your resume. This guide breaks down exactly what to list by role, how to format the section, and what ATS systems actually match.

What Counts as a Technical Skill

A technical skill is any specific, teachable ability that has a name a recruiter can search for: a programming language, a software tool, a framework, a methodology, a certification, a platform. The test is simple: if a recruiter could paste the skill into a Boolean search on LinkedIn Recruiter, it is a technical skill. "Python" passes. "Great communicator" does not. "SOC 2 compliance" passes. "Attention to detail" does not.

Technical skills are the counterweight to soft skills. For the full breakdown of the difference, see our hard skills for a resume guide, our soft skills vs hard skills comparison, and the broader skills to put on a resume hub.

The working definition: a technical skill is a specific, named ability (tool, language, framework, methodology, or certification) that appears verbatim in job descriptions and can be matched by an ATS.

Technical Skills by Role

The right technical skills depend entirely on the role. A data analyst and a cloud architect both work "in tech" but share almost no overlapping skills. The tables below list the 10 highest-frequency technical skills by role, based on analysis of job postings from LinkedIn Talent Insights and Jobscan's 2024 keyword database. Use them as a starting list, then cross-reference the specific job description you are targeting.

Software Engineer / Developer

Category	Top skills to list
Languages	Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, Go, C#, SQL
Frameworks	React, Next.js, Node.js, Django, Spring Boot, .NET Core
Cloud & DevOps	AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, GitHub Actions, CI/CD
Data	PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Snowflake

Data Analyst

Category	Top skills to list
Query	SQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, dbt
Viz & BI	Tableau, Looker, Power BI, Mode, Metabase
Scripting	Python (pandas, NumPy), R
Stats & methods	A/B testing, regression, cohort analysis, forecasting

Data Scientist / ML Engineer

Category	Top skills to list
Languages	Python, R, SQL, Scala
ML frameworks	PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, XGBoost, Hugging Face
MLOps	MLflow, Kubeflow, Weights & Biases, SageMaker, Vertex AI
Methods	Supervised learning, NLP, LLM fine-tuning, time-series forecasting

Product Manager

Category	Top skills to list
Product ops	Jira, Linear, Productboard, Aha!, Figma, Confluence
Analytics	SQL, Amplitude, Mixpanel, GA4, Heap
Methods	A/B testing, user research, roadmapping, JTBD, OKRs
Technical literacy	REST APIs, GraphQL, basic Python or SQL

Cybersecurity Analyst

Category	Top skills to list
SIEM & EDR	Splunk, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft Sentinel
Frameworks	NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, MITRE ATT&CK, PCI DSS
Tools	Nessus, Burp Suite, Wireshark, Metasploit
Certifications	CISSP, Security+, CEH, GIAC

Marketing Manager / Growth

Category	Top skills to list
MarTech	HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce, Pardot, Braze, Iterable
Paid media	Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads
Analytics	GA4, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Looker, SQL
SEO & content	Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, WordPress, Webflow

Accountant / Finance

Category	Top skills to list
ERP & GL	NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct
Analysis	Advanced Excel (XLOOKUP, pivot, PowerQuery), SQL, Power BI
Standards	US GAAP, IFRS, SOX, ASC 606, ASC 842
Certifications	CPA, CMA, CFA

Designer (UX, UI, Product)

Category	Top skills to list
Design tools	Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop
Prototyping	Figma Prototype, ProtoPie, Principle, Framer
Research	Maze, Dovetail, UserTesting, Optimal Workshop
Methods	Design systems, accessibility (WCAG 2.2), user research, wireframing

How to Format the Technical Skills Section

Formatting matters as much as content for ATS parsing. The most ATS-safe pattern is a simple labeled list, grouped into 3 to 5 subcategories. Avoid tables, multi-column layouts, icons, and proficiency bars. Jobscan's 2024 ATS testing found that graphical skill bars and icons are misread or dropped entirely by 30% of enterprise parsers.

Do: grouped, parseable

TECHNICAL SKILLS
Languages: Python, JavaScript, SQL, Go
Frameworks: React, Next.js, Django, FastAPI
Cloud: AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda), Docker, Kubernetes
Data: PostgreSQL, Redis, Snowflake, dbt
Tools: Git, GitHub Actions, Terraform, Datadog

Don't: graphical bars

Proficiency bars, star ratings, icons, and multi-column skill clouds are misparsed by roughly 30% of ATS systems. They also signal "early-career template user" to senior recruiters. Keep it plain text.

How Many Technical Skills Should You List?

The sweet spot is 12 to 20 technical skills, grouped into 3 to 5 subcategories. Fewer than 10 looks thin for technical roles. More than 25 looks like a keyword dump and trips pattern-matching filters on sophisticated ATS deployments. Workday's 2024 documentation specifically flags "excessive keyword density" as a downranking signal.

12-20

Target count of technical skills on a single resume

3-5

Subcategories to group the skills into

62%

Share of recruiter keyword searches that are technical skills

Tailoring to the Job Description

Your technical skills list should be re-ordered (and partly rewritten) for every application. Here is the 3-step process:

Extract the JD's technical terms. Copy every named language, tool, framework, and cert from the job description. Our keywords in your resume guide has a worked example.
Match to your real experience. List only skills you can defend in an interview. Padding the list with tools you used once is the fastest way to fail the technical screen.
Mirror the JD's exact wording. "JavaScript" and "JS" do not always match. "CI/CD" and "continuous integration" do not always match. Use the exact string the JD uses.

5 Common Technical Skills Mistakes

1. Mixing hard and soft skills

"Python, SQL, teamwork, communication" in one list confuses parsers and wastes space. Keep technical and soft skills in separate sections.

2. Listing versions that don't matter

"Python 3.11" and "React 18.2" are over-precise. Use the plain name unless a specific version is named in the JD.

3. Keyword stuffing

Listing 40+ skills, especially ones you barely used, trips ATS density filters and signals low quality to recruiters.

4. Missing the exact JD string

If the JD says "Microsoft Azure," do not just write "Azure." ATS exact-match rules still miss partials on older systems.

5. Skipping the technical skills section entirely

Common on executive and leadership resumes, but a mistake even there. A short, grouped technical skills section provides ATS keyword density that bullets alone cannot.

Next Steps

Rewrite your technical skills section using the role-specific tables above, then paste your resume into our free ATS resume checker against the actual job description. The checker will tell you exactly which JD skills are missing from your resume and which are present but ranked low. For the broader skills conversation, see our skills to put on a resume guide, hard skills for a resume, and how to list skills on a resume.