Home Chemical Engineer Resume template
Chemical Engineer resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what chemical engineers actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most chemical engineers should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Chemical engineer with experience designing and optimising process plants across manufacturing, energy and water treatment. Skilled in material and energy balance calculations, process simulation and hazard analysis, with a track record of improving yield and reducing waste on commercial-scale operations. Comfortable working across operations, quality and maintenance teams to solve production problems.
Key skills
- Process design and plant layout
- Material and energy balance calculations
- Hazard analysis (HAZOP) and process safety
- Process improvement and troubleshooting
- Project engineering and delivery
- ASPEN Plus and Hysys/Pro-II simulation
- AutoCAD
- MATLAB and Excel-based data analysis
- Stakeholder management across operations and quality teams
Experience: example bullet points
- Designed process flow diagrams and plant layouts for a production upgrade using Hysys, cutting downstream bottlenecks identified in the original layout
- Ran material and energy balance calculations to lift reactor yield, reducing raw material consumption per batch
- Led a hazard analysis for a new process line, developing safety protocols that met WHS and site licensing requirements before commissioning
- Scaled a laboratory formulation to commercial production, resolving three separate fouling issues during trial runs
- Worked with maintenance and quality teams on a waste reduction project, cutting scrap rate on an existing production line
Education
Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical), accredited by Engineers Australia; many engineers go on to Chartered status (CPEng) or postgraduate study in process or environmental engineering.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- Engineers Australia
- CPEng
- HAZOP
- process safety management
- P&ID
- PFD
- ASPEN Plus
- Hysys
- Pro/II
- AutoCAD
- MATLAB
- WHS Act
- EPA licence
- Standards Australia AS/NZS
- mass and energy balance
- plant commissioning
- continuous improvement
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.