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Technology · Two columns · ATS 4/5

Developer CV template

A tinted, bordered sidebar box beside your experience — structure without a colour band.

Built for a document that gets read twice: once by a recruiter matching keywords, once by an engineer who wants to know what you actually shipped. A two-column page without a photo, which buys you room for a long skills or certification list without pushing your experience onto a third page.

Live preview of the Developer template, rendered at full page size with an example CV. The preview is the same code that generates your PDF.

The design

About the Developer layout

Developer keeps the stack, certifications and languages in a bordered, lightly tinted box that floats inside the page margin, so the reference material is visibly separated from your experience without a full-height colour band bleeding off the page. The header runs the full width above both columns, and roles in the main column use a dated left rail that makes a long sequence of short contracts easy to follow. Section headings are marked with a small accent chevron; sidebar headings are set in small caps so the two columns never compete.

Who it’s for

The readers and situations this layout was drawn for.

  • Full-stack and mobile developers
  • Contractors with many short engagements
  • Engineers with a long list of tools and certifications

Key features

What is actually different about this template on the page.

  • Bordered, tinted sidebar box inside the page margin
  • Full-width header above both columns
  • Dated two-column experience entries
  • Small-caps sidebar headings and chevron section markers

ATS score 4/5 · Strong

How this layout behaves in an applicant tracking system

It scores 4 out of 5, which is high for a split page. The main column carries the whole career narrative, so even a parser that mishandles the sidebar recovers the part that matters most.

The narrow column is a second text box. Most current systems read it after the main column; a minority interleave the two, which can drop a skills list into the middle of a job description.

A single column parses more reliably than two, in every system we have tested against. If the application goes through a portal you do not recognise, or the employer is large enough to screen automatically, send a one-column version instead — the ATS CV templates are built for that job, and your content moves across without being retyped.

Parsing checklistATS score 4 out of 5
Reading order
Two blocks
Headings
Real text
Tables
None
Images
None
Selectable text
Yes

Scores are our own assessment of how a parser handles the layout — never a guarantee about one specific employer’s system.

In practice

Three situations Developer is the right answer to

Templates are chosen badly when they are chosen in the abstract. Here is what sending this one actually looks like.
Case 1

A direct application to a mid-sized employer

Small enough that a human opens the file, structured enough that the wide column still parses if it is loaded into a database later — the position most applications actually occupy. The reader it was drawn for: Full-stack and mobile developers.

Case 2

For engineers who ship

The side column absorbs the stack, cloud platforms and certifications, which is exactly what keeps the experience column about what you built and what it did rather than a list of technology names.

Case 3

An application where the work speaks

No photograph means the top third of the page belongs to your name, your title and your profile — the three things a reviewer uses to decide whether to keep reading past six seconds. Developer has no photo slot to remove, so the same file works in every market you send it to.

Make it yours

Customising Developer

The template sets the structure; everything inside it is yours. Colours, fonts, spacing, section order and paper size are all controls in the CV builder, and the preview updates as you change them — nothing is applied blind.

Accent colour

Developer ships with #16a34a as its accent. Cool accents — indigo, teal, slate — suit the type of document. The accent is used at small sizes on labels and rules here, so anything too pale loses contrast against white; test it before you commit.

Fonts and heading style

A clean sans keeps library names, version numbers and acronyms legible at 10pt, which is where a technical CV is actually read. Decorative heading faces make a stack list harder to scan for no gain. Heading case — uppercase, capitalised or as typed — is a separate switch, and it changes the character of the page more than most people expect.

Spacing and density

The column split is fixed, but everything inside it is not: type size, line height, section spacing and page margins all adjust, and on a divided page the margins are the setting that buys you the most room without crowding the rule between the columns.

Sections and order

Skills, projects and certifications matter as much as employment. Promote projects above experience if you are early-career, self-taught or changing track — the work is the evidence in all three cases. Every section can be renamed, reordered or hidden, and Pro adds custom sections for anything the standard set does not cover.

Paper size and export

A4 or US Letter, switched in one control, with the layout re-flowing to the new page rather than being scaled to fit. The PDF is generated from the same code you see in the preview, so what you approve on screen is what downloads.

Developer: common questions

It scores 4 out of 5, high for a split page. The parts a screening system ranks you on sit in the main column and come through intact; a single-column template is still the safest option if the advert names a tracking system.

Alternatives

Related templates

Other layouts worth comparing before you commit — the closest matches from Technology first, then designs with a similar ATS score from other families.

AI Engineer

technology · two columns

Pro

Cybersecurity CV

technology · two columns

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Data Scientist

technology · one column

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DevOps Engineer

technology · one column

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Full Stack Developer

technology · two columns

Pro

IT Professional

technology · one column

Pro

Start your CV with Developer

Open it with the example content already in place, replace it with your own, and download a PDF when it reads the way you want. Switching to another template later keeps every word you have written.

Free to start. A Pro or Lifetime plan unlocks this design and every other one.