When the job description explicitly says “individual contributor,” “no people management,” or “hands-on, no direct reports” — and your résumé reads at director altitude — you’ll be rejected before the first bullet is read.
The fix is altitude, not history.
Step 1 — Match title altitude to role
If the role posts as “Senior Software Engineer” and your title is “Engineering Lead,” retitle for this submission. Same scope, different label.
Step 2 — Compress the senior role to 2 bullets max
Long-form bullets on a leadership role read as “this is the centerpiece.” Two bullets max. Both should mention hands-on work, not strategy.
Step 3 — Expand the prior IC role
This is the level the role wants. 4–5 bullets, leading with execution verbs (ship, write, deploy, query). Include specific tools and metrics.
Step 4 — Cut team-size signals
“Led 8-person team” → “Owned the sprint cadence on a 4-engineer pod.” “Managed 3 direct reports” → drop entirely or reframe as “partnered with.”
Run the diagnostic to verify
Run a diagnostic on the edited version. The seniority indicator should flip from Risk → Warn or Good. If it doesn’t, one of the four edits wasn’t deep enough — the diagnostic tells you which.