MANY Hired

Operations resume keywords

We counted the skills in 2,031 open operations job postings from 263 employers, including ALO, Gopuff and DoorDash USA. The ones employers ask for most are compliance (32% of postings), sales (31%) and automation (26%). 48% of the postings mention AI, though often in the company's description rather than as a skill the job needs.

Top skills and tools in operations postings

#KeywordShare of postings
1compliance 32%
2sales 31%
3automation 26%
4inventory management 23%
5retail 20%
6process improvement 19%
7logistics 16%
8marketing 14%
9go-to-market 13%
10dashboards 13%
11onboarding 13%
12analytics 13%
13audit 12%
14product roadmap 12%
15KPIs 12%
16sales operations 11%
17customer experience 11%
18budgeting 10%
19supply chain 10%
20customer service 10%
21business operations 9%
22communications 9%
23forecasting 9%
24manufacturing 8%
25Salesforce 8%
26SQL 8%
27warehouse operations 8%
28project management 8%
29visual merchandising 8%
30troubleshooting 7%

Share of the 2,031 postings whose description names the skill (plurals and common spellings, such as “JS” and “JavaScript”, count as one).

Soft skills employers mention

reporting · 23%leadership · 23%cross-functional · 18%communication · 12%ownership · 10%documentation · 8%attention to detail · 8%collaboration · 5%

Show these through results in your bullets (“led a team of six”) rather than listing them as adjectives.

How to use these keywords on your operations resume

  1. Start with the posting, not this list. These are averages across 2,031 jobs; the one you're applying for has its own priorities. Use this page to spot common gaps, then match the specific posting.
  2. Name skills the way employers do. If you use “compliance”, “sales” and “automation”, write those exact words. Applicant tracking systems and recruiters search for them, and a close synonym can be missed.
  3. Put each skill in a bullet that shows a result. Naming inventory management inside a bullet about what you achieved with it, with a number where you can, is stronger than listing it alone in a skills section.
  4. Add only what's true. If you've worked with “inventory management”, “retail” and “process improvement” but your resume doesn't say so, add it. If you haven't, leave it out: interviews expose padded resumes quickly.

More about operations jobs

Resume keywords for other jobs

How these numbers are calculated

Every figure comes from open operations job postings on MANY Hired, imported from employers' own career pages. For each posting we pick out the skills, tools, certifications and qualifications its description names, then count how many postings ask for each one. A job counts as operations by its title. Updated October 28, 2026.