StaffingSoft | ATS Data Quality Checklist + Skills/Title Normalization

ATS Data Quality Field & Validation Checklist

How to use: Copy this structure into your ATS or a spreadsheet with columns Field, Entity, Required When, Validation/Format, Source/Owner. Turn these into required fields and stage validations.

Candidate Fields

First name, Last name — Create/Edit — Text — Owner: Recruiter
Email — Create/Edit — Email regex — Owner: Recruiter/Parsing
Phone — Pre-submittal — E.164 regex — Owner: Recruiter/Parsing
Location (City, State/Province, Country) — Create/Edit — Controlled picklists — Owner: Recruiter
Work authorization — Create/Edit — Picklist (US Citizen, GC, H1B, TN, EAD, Other) — Owner: Recruiter
Remote/Onsite preference — Create/Edit — Picklist — Owner: Candidate/Recruiter
Availability date — Pre-submittal — Date — Owner: Candidate/Recruiter
Employment type preference — Create/Edit — Picklist (Perm, Contract, C2H) — Owner: Candidate/Recruiter
Primary skills (3–7, normalized) — Pre-submittal — Multi-select — Owner: Recruiter (human review)
Years of experience — Create/Edit — Numeric — Owner: Recruiter
Expected pay/rate — Pre-submittal — Currency/range — Owner: Candidate/Recruiter
Resume updated date — Save — Auto timestamp — Owner: System
Consent status — Save — Picklist (Opt-in, Opt-out, Legitimate Interest) — Owner: System/Recruiter
Linked profiles (LinkedIn/GitHub) — Optional — URL format — Owner: Recruiter/Parsing

Job/Requisition Fields

Title (normalized) — Before publish — Map to controlled list — Owner: Recruiter/System
Client, Hiring Manager — Create/Edit — Lookup — Owner: Sales/AM
Location/Remote eligibility — Before publish — Picklist + City/State — Owner: Recruiter
Contract type — Create/Edit — Picklist (Perm, Contract, C2H) — Owner: Recruiter
Must-have skills (3–7) — Before publish — Normalized multi-select — Owner: Recruiter
Nice-to-have skills (0–5) — Before publish — Normalized multi-select — Owner: Recruiter
Pay/rate range — Before publish — Currency + frequency — Owner: Recruiter
Clearance/Certifications — As needed — Picklist — Owner: Recruiter
Interview steps — Before publish — Picklist — Owner: Recruiter
Target start date — Before publish — Date — Owner: Recruiter
Compliance flags (EEO, background, drug) — As needed — Picklist — Owner: Recruiter/Compliance

Placement/Assignment Fields

Start date, End date — Offer/Placement — Date — Owner: Recruiter/Ops
Bill rate, Pay rate, Markup — Offer/Placement — Currency — Owner: Ops
Time/expense system — Placement — Picklist — Owner: Ops
OT eligibility — Placement — Boolean — Owner: Ops
Redeployment eligibility date — Placement — Date — Owner: Ops

Activity/Outcome Fields

Submittal date — Submittal — Auto — Owner: System
Interview rounds — Stage change — Picklist + date/time — Owner: Recruiter/System
Disposition code — Stage change — Controlled picklist — Owner: Recruiter
Reason code — Stage change — Controlled picklist — Owner: Recruiter
Feedback summary tags — Post-interview — Multi-select — Owner: Recruiter/HM

Validation Rules

Block job publish unless: must-have skills present, normalized title, pay/rate range, interview steps, remote eligibility.
Block candidate submittal unless: email or phone validated, location, availability, primary skills normalized, employment type set.
Enforce disposition and reason codes at every stage transition; keep free-text optional.
Regex: Email; Phone (E.164); URL validation for profiles.
Auto-normalize titles and skills on save; store original free-text for audit.

Deduplication Standards

Possible duplicate if: email matches OR (full name + phone) OR (full name + city + last 4 of phone).
Survivor policy: keep most recently updated record; merge resumes, skills, consents, notes; preserve original IDs.

Governance Cadence

Weekly: run duplicate + incomplete reports; remediate top 50; coach users with highest incomplete rates.
Monthly: review skills/title synonym list; add emerging terms; retire ambiguous codes.
Quarterly: audit disposition usage and reporting consistency; adjust training and picklists.

KPI Dashboard Widgets

Time-to-submit

Submittal-to-interview %

Fill rate %

Candidate completeness %

Job completeness %

Duplicate rate trend

Stale records %

Redeployment rate & time-to-redeploy

Data quality score by recruiter/team

Skills/Title Normalization Starter List

Why it matters: Normalized titles and skills improve search and AI matching, reduce sourcing time, and increase submittal-to-interview rates.

Normalized Titles with Common Synonyms

Software Engineer — SWE, Software Developer, Developer, Engineer I/II/III, Application Developer
Senior Software Engineer — Senior SWE, Sr. Developer, Lead Developer
Frontend Developer — UI Developer, Web Developer, JavaScript Developer
Backend Developer — Server-side Developer, API Developer, Services Engineer
Full Stack Developer — Full-stack Engineer, MEAN/MERN Developer
DevOps Engineer — Site Reliability Engineer, SRE, Build/Release Engineer
Data Engineer — ETL Engineer, Big Data Engineer, Data Pipeline Engineer
Data Scientist — ML Scientist, Machine Learning Scientist, AI Scientist
ML Engineer — Machine Learning Engineer, MLE, AI Engineer
QA Engineer — SDET, Test Engineer, Automation Tester
Product Manager — PM, Product Owner, Technical Product Manager
Project Manager — PM, Program Manager (map separately if needed)
Business Analyst — BA, Systems Analyst, Requirements Analyst
UX Designer — User Experience Designer, UX/UI Designer, Product Designer
UI Designer — User Interface Designer, Visual Designer
Cloud Architect — Solutions Architect, Cloud Engineer
Network Engineer — Network Administrator, NOC Engineer
Systems Administrator — Sysadmin, System Engineer
Cybersecurity Analyst — Security Analyst, InfoSec Analyst
Help Desk Technician — Service Desk, IT Support Specialist

Account Executive — AE, Sales Executive, Sales Rep
Sales Development Representative — SDR, BDR, Inside Sales Rep
Customer Success Manager — CSM, Client Success Manager
Financial Analyst — FP&A Analyst, Finance Analyst
Accountant — Staff Accountant, General Accountant
Bookkeeper — Accounting Clerk, AR/AP Clerk
HR Generalist — Human Resources Generalist, HR Specialist
Recruiter — Talent Acquisition Specialist, Staffing Specialist
Warehouse Associate — Picker/Packer, Material Handler
Forklift Operator — Lift Truck Operator, Reach Truck Operator
Production Operator — Machine Operator, Assembler
CNC Machinist — CNC Operator, Machinist
Electrician — Journeyman Electrician, Industrial Electrician
Maintenance Technician — Industrial Maintenance, Facilities Technician
Registered Nurse — RN, Staff Nurse
Medical Assistant — MA, Clinical Assistant
Phlebotomist — Phlebotomy Technician
Customer Service Representative — CSR, Call Center Agent
Administrative Assistant — Admin Assistant, Office Assistant

Normalized Skills with Common Synonyms

Java — Java SE/EE, Core Java
Python — Python3
JavaScript — JS, ECMAScript
TypeScript — TS
React — ReactJS, React.js
Angular — Angular 2+, AngularJS (separate if needed)
Node.js — Node, NodeJS
.NET — C#, .NET Core, ASP.NET
SQL — SQL Server, T-SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL
AWS — Amazon Web Services, EC2/S3/Lambda
Azure — Microsoft Azure, Azure DevOps
GCP — Google Cloud Platform, Google Cloud
Docker — Containers
Kubernetes — K8s
Terraform — IaC, Infrastructure as Code
Jenkins — CI/CD (keep tool vs category separate)
Git — Version Control, GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket
Linux — Unix, Shell
Salesforce — SFDC, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud
ServiceNow — SNOW
SAP — S/4HANA (modules separate)
Workday — HCM, Recruiting
Tableau — Data Visualization
Power BI — Microsoft BI

Excel Advanced — VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables
ETL — Informatica, Talend
Machine Learning — ML, scikit-learn
Deep Learning — TensorFlow, PyTorch
NLP — Natural Language Processing, spaCy
QA Automation — Selenium, Cypress
Agile — Scrum, Kanban
Scrum Mastery — CSM
REST APIs — Web Services
Microservices — Distributed Systems
PHP — Laravel, Symfony
Ruby — Ruby on Rails
Go — Golang
Swift — iOS
Kotlin — Android
HTML/CSS — CSS3
React Native — Cross-platform Mobile
Snowflake — Cloud Data Warehouse
BigQuery — Google BigQuery
Hadoop — HDFS, MapReduce
Spark — PySpark, Spark SQL
Networking — TCP/IP, Routing/Switching
Cybersecurity — SIEM, SOC, Vulnerability Management
ITIL — Service Management
Forklift — Reach Truck, Sit-Down/Stand-Up
CNC — Computer Numerical Control, G-Code
Blueprint Reading — Technical Drawings
OSHA 10/30 — Safety
EHR — Epic, Cerner
Customer Support — Ticketing, Zendesk
CRM — HubSpot, Zoho

Proficiency Levels: Working Proficient Expert

Implementation Tips

Keep canonical lists lean: start with top 100 roles/skills; expand monthly.
Use alias tables: map synonyms on save; keep original text for audit.
Review search logs: add new synonyms recruiters actually type.
Segment by verticals: add healthcare/industrial titles as you expand.

Quick Wins Checklist

Turn on title/skill normalization at save.
Require 3–7 must-have skills on jobs.
Require availability and primary skills before submittal.
Enable standardized disposition codes.