Operations Manager resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 17 skills, tools and credentials that come up in operations manager job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 13
- Operations management (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Process improvement (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Lean (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Six Sigma (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- KPIs (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Budget management (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Cost reduction (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Inventory management (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Production planning (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Vendor management (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Safety compliance (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- OSHA (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- Root cause analysis (used in Lauren's sample resume)
Tools & software · 2
- Power BI (used in Lauren's sample resume)
- ERP (used in Lauren's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 1
- Certified Six Sigma Green Belt (used in Lauren's sample resume)
Soft skills · 1
- Team leadership (used in Lauren's sample resume)
17 of 17 appear in Lauren's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
Inventory management, Production planning
Weak: Skills: Inventory management, Production planning
Strong: Raised on-time shipments from 89% to 97% by redesigning pick paths, inventory management and daily production planning
Lean, Vendor management
Weak: Skills: Lean, Vendor management
Strong: Cut operating costs by $1.1M a year through overtime controls, a carrier rebid with vendor management support from procurement, and Lean waste reduction
Six Sigma, Root cause analysis
Weak: Skills: Six Sigma, Root cause analysis
Strong: Led a Six Sigma root cause analysis on packaging damage that reduced customer damage claims by 42%
OSHA
Weak: Skills: OSHA
Strong: Cut OSHA recordable injuries from 7 to 2 a year with job safety analyses and a new-hire training program
Strong bullets come from Lauren's sample resume and our operations manager bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If an operations manager post asks for Operations management and you've used it, say Operations management, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If an operations manager post says "Process improvement", write "Process improvement", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Operations management — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Inventory management. A bullet like the one under Operations Manager in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
Which of these does your resume say?
Free ATS score and missing keywords in about 10 seconds.
Applying to one post? Scan its keywords against your resume.
Keep going
/ Questions
Operations Manager keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should an operations manager resume have?
There's no magic number. Lauren's sample resume uses all 17 terms on this page, because each one fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If an operations manager post says "Operations management", write "Operations management" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Lauren's sample, Process improvement, Lean and Six Sigma are in the summary and Inventory management shows up in a bullet under Operations Manager. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on an operations manager resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in operations manager posts include Power BI and ERP. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list Certified Six Sigma Green Belt on my resume?
Spell it the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
All 88 rolesSee which of these your resume already says.
Free ATS check — no sign-up, about 10 seconds.