Chemist Resume: Free Example (2026)

Start with a clear header that includes your name, contact information, LinkedIn URL, and city.
Follow with a short professional summary or title line that states your role and core strengths in one to two sentences.

After the summary, add sections in this order, unless you are a recent graduate: Work Experience, Education, Technical Skills, Certifications, and Publications or Presentations when relevant.
Keep each section distinct and use consistent formatting for dates, job titles, and institutions to make scanning easier.

Write a concise headline that matches the job title, such as Analytical Chemist or Research Chemist, then follow with a two-sentence summary that highlights your specialization and most relevant results.
Use the job posting language for the headline but be honest about your level of experience.

Example summary: Experienced analytical chemist with three years of HPLC and GC method development, focused on improving assay precision and reducing run time.
Seeking to apply method validation skills and QA collaboration to support release testing in a regulated environment.

List roles in reverse chronological order and include the employer, location, dates, job title, and 3 to 6 bullet points per position that show impact.
Each bullet should start with a strong action verb and include a specific outcome or metric when possible.

Sample bullets: Developed and validated HPLC assay for drug substance, decreasing analysis time by 20 percent while maintaining ±2 percent assay precision.
Led stability study sample preparation and documentation for IND submission, coordinating with QA to meet regulatory deadlines.

Place your highest degree first, including the degree type, major, school, and graduation year if within the last ten years.
Add relevant coursework only if you are early career or if it directly supports the role, such as instrumental analysis or organic synthesis.

List certifications that matter for your target job, such as OSHA lab safety training, GLP, GMP, or specialized instrument vendor certifications.
If you have publications or patents, include a short citation line or a link to a personal repository.

Create a skills section that mixes techniques, instrumentation, and software, for example HPLC, GC-MS, NMR, titration, method validation, LIMS, and MATLAB.
Use exact phrases from the job description to increase ATS match rate but avoid repeating the same phrase verbatim in every line.

Group skills by category if you have many, such as Analytical Techniques, Instrumentation, Regulatory and Quality, and Software.
This helps hiring managers locate key qualifications quickly and shows you understand lab priorities.

Use a clean, sans serif font with 10 to 12 point body text and clear section headings to improve readability.
Save as PDF unless the application system requests a Word document, because PDF preserves layout across devices.

Avoid complex tables, text boxes, and headers or footers that some applicant tracking systems cannot parse.
Use standard date formats and spell out acronyms the first time, for example Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), then use the acronym thereafter.

Translate routine lab duties into results by adding numbers, time saved, yield improvements, throughput increases, or compliance outcomes.
Even small percentage changes or sample throughput numbers make your contributions concrete and easier to compare.

Example rewrites: Instead of writing "performed HPLC analyses," say "executed 50 to 80 HPLC analyses weekly to support QC release, achieving >95 percent on-time reporting.
" Instead of "maintained equipment," write "spearheaded preventative maintenance schedule that reduced instrument downtime by 30 percent over 12 months.

Open each bullet with a past-tense action verb for prior roles and present-tense verbs for current roles.
Prefer verbs that show ownership and outcome, such as developed, validated, optimized, reduced, or documented.

Avoid weak phrases like "responsible for" and focus on what you changed, measured, or ensured.
Keep bullets concise and lead with the result when possible, for example "Validated assay resulting in 15 percent faster run time and improved reproducibility.

Below are two short formatted examples you can adapt to your experience.
Entry-level example: Graduate with B.

S.
in Chemistry, completed internship developing UV-Vis assay, and supported stability testing for three projects.

Include two to four bullets for the internship that show technical tasks and any measurable outcomes.
Mid-level example: Analytical Chemist with four years of pharmaceutical lab experience, led method transfer and validation for three APIs, and improved chromatography throughput by 18 percent.

Include bullets that document collaboration with QA, submission contributions, and ownership of specific instruments.