Resume template · Updated October 2026
Senior resume template with a two-page sample
Short answer
Catalyst suits a senior resume because it skips the summary and opens on your current job, where the size and difficulty of your recent work does the talking. The fictional sample is a senior structural engineer with fourteen years and a P.E. license in the headline, four employers in shrinking detail and a selected projects section. It runs onto a second page, which is normal at this level.
Download the senior sample
Daniel is a fictional senior structural engineer. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Catalyst suits a senior resume
Catalyst prints no summary and starts with work experience, the layout described for senior individual contributors whose latest job carries the application. Projects print right after skills and before education, so the signature buildings come ahead of a degree earned years ago, and the teal headings in IBM Plex Sans keep a two-page document easy to scan.
Second choice: Leslie. Leslie keeps experience ahead of skills but adds a summary; choose it if your specialty changed recently and needs two lines of explanation.
What goes in each section, in Catalyst's order
Catalyst prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Work Experience. The headline does the summary's work here, so it carries title, license and specialty. Below it, the current role should show scope a mid-level engineer would not have: projects you are engineer of record for, construction value, the people whose work you check. Each older job gets fewer bullets than the one above it.
- Skills. Senior skills are areas of judgement as much as software: lateral system design, peer review, retrofit assessment. Keep the analysis programs that postings name and drop the ones everyone learned in school.
- Projects. A selected projects list lets a senior candidate show defining work without stretching job bullets. Name the building type and size, your role and one technical decision; three projects are plenty.
- Education. Degrees with school and year. A related master's stays in full; thesis titles and honors are no longer needed.
- Certifications. Catalyst prints the license near the end, which is why the sample also puts P.E. in the headline. Give the discipline, the state and the year, and leave exam scores out.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Daniel Okonkwo
Senior Structural Engineer, P.E., Healthcare and Mid-Rise Buildings
Portland, OR | daniel.okonkwo@example.com | (503) 555-0161 | linkedin.com/in/sample-daniel-okonkwo
Experience
Senior Structural Engineer, Halvard & Pierce Engineers, Portland, OR (04/2020 to Present)
- Engineer of record for healthcare and mid-rise residential projects with a combined construction value of about $310 million.
- Lead structural design for teams of two to four engineers and drafters, setting the analysis approach and checking every calculation package before issue.
- Designed the lateral system for a six-story hospital addition, coordinating seismic joints with the existing 1970s building.
- Review shop drawings and answer RFIs during construction, keeping the structural response time under five working days.
- Started a monthly design review session where junior engineers present their calculations to the group.
Project Engineer, Cascade Structural Group, Seattle, WA (06/2015 to 03/2020)
- Designed steel and concrete framing for schools, laboratories and parking structures up to five stories.
- Prepared seismic evaluations of four existing school buildings and the retrofit drawings for two of them.
- Supervised two engineers in training on drawing checks and site observation reports.
- Moved the office's gravity design from spreadsheets to RAM Structural System on two pilot projects.
Structural Engineer, Cascade Structural Group, Seattle, WA (07/2012 to 05/2015)
- Ran gravity and wind analysis for low-rise commercial buildings and produced framing plans in Revit.
- Carried out site observations during construction and wrote the field reports.
Engineer in Training, Ridgeline Civil Associates, Tacoma, WA (06/2011 to 06/2012)
- Drafted details and checked quantities for small commercial and municipal projects.
Projects
Willamette Valley Medical Center, East Tower addition: Six-story hospital addition, about 140,000 sq ft, engineer of record, completed 2024.
- Chose buckling-restrained braced frames to meet the seismic performance goals within the architect's floor plan.
- Coordinated the seismic separation joint and new foundations next to an occupied building.
Alder Street Apartments: Seven-story mixed-use building, wood frame over a concrete podium, completed 2022.
- Designed the podium transfer slab and led value engineering that kept the original unit count.
School seismic retrofits, Seattle area: Two 1960s school buildings, retrofit design, 2018 to 2019.
- Added steel braced frames and diaphragm ties, phased so both schools stayed open while summer work went on.
Education
Master of Science, Structural Engineering, Northwest Polytechnic University (06/2011)
Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, Northwest Polytechnic University (06/2010)
Certifications
- Professional Engineer (PE), Civil, Oregon, Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying (2019)
Skills
Lateral system design, Seismic evaluation and retrofit, Steel and concrete design, Peer review of calculations, Construction administration, ETABS, RAM Structural System, SAP2000, Revit, Bluebeam, Mentoring engineers in training, Coordinating with architects and contractors
How to make the sample yours
Write the headline like a one-line summary
Title, license or credential, and specialty, as in "Senior Structural Engineer, P.E., Healthcare and Mid-Rise Buildings". With no summary printed, this is the first line read after your name.
State your scope in the first bullet
What separates senior from mid-level is what you are trusted with alone. Put the size of the work and who relies on your sign-off in the opening bullet of the current job.
Let the oldest roles shrink
The sample gives its first job a single bullet. Anything over fifteen years old can be a title, employer and dates; keep the dates so the timeline has no holes.
Choose projects that show range
Pick three that differ: a new build, a retrofit, a tight or occupied site. Three versions of the same building type show less than one strong example.
Show the engineers you develop
Checking calculations and training engineers in training are senior duties. One bullet about either shows the level without a management title.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- structural design
- engineer of record
- lateral force-resisting systems
- seismic design
- seismic retrofit
- ASCE 7
- steel and concrete design
- peer review
- construction administration
- ETABS
- RAM Structural System
- Revit coordination
- P.E.
Mistakes to avoid
- Squeezing fourteen years onto one page by cutting every result. Two full pages beat one crowded page.
- Describing the current job with the same tasks you listed at year three. If a bullet could belong to a mid-level engineer, rewrite it around scope and sign-off.
- Typing a profile paragraph into this template: Catalyst does not print one, so the text never reaches the page. Move the key line into the headline.
- Naming every project you touched. A reader remembers three well-described buildings, not a list of fifteen.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 5 of 5 | 16 of 16 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 5 of 5 | 16 of 16 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 5 of 5 | 16 of 16 |
Frequently asked questions
Can a senior resume be two pages?
Yes. With ten or more years of relevant work, two pages are common. Fill the second page with recent detail and selected work rather than every early task.
How many old jobs should a senior resume keep?
All of them on the timeline, but not in detail. Roles from the last ten to fifteen years get bullets; older ones can be one line each or grouped under "Earlier experience".
What makes a resume read as senior rather than mid-level?
Scope and sign-off: the size of the work you are responsible for, whose work you check, and the decisions you make without approval. Years alone do not do it.
Where do I put a professional license on a senior resume?
After your title in the headline (for example "P.E.") and in full, with discipline and state, in the certifications section.
Should I add a selected projects section if my jobs already describe the work?
It helps when a few projects define your reputation. Keep job bullets about your role and scope, and use the projects list for the details of the work itself.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Catalyst PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 5 section headings and all 16 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.
Guides and templates for this resume
Sources, checked 29 October 2026
We opened every page below on that date. Pay, rules and requirements change, so check the source before you rely on a detail.
- Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering & Land Surveying: Obtaining a license (official name of the Oregon board that issues Professional Engineer licenses, used as the issuer in the sample)
More in resume templates by experience level.