Every job can define what a strong applicant looks like, and Recruitera's AI scores each applicant against it. You set this up in Screening and matching candidates, on the job's Workflow tab, just below the pipeline stages. Candidates never see it — it only powers the AI match score you see internally.
Who can set it up
Editing the scoring profile needs the AI-Score Weight Adjustment feature (available on the Enterprise plan) and a role with the manage job permission. Without the plan feature you can still open and read the profile, but the controls are disabled and a note explains why. Without the permission the card is read-only.
The six scoring sections
Every job scores on the same six sections. What you tune per job is how much each one is worth and what criteria sit inside it:
Skills
Keywords
Achievements
Work experience
Education
Relevance to job description
Set the weights (must total 100%)
Each section has a Score %. The six are a split of one total, so they must add up to exactly 100%. The running total shows as a Total pill at the top of the card, and you can't save until it reads 100%.
Give more weight to what matters most for the role — for a senior engineer you might weight Skills and Work experience heavily and Education lightly.
Add criteria to each section
Expand a section to add the specific things the AI should look for. Every section needs at least one criterion — a section with none blocks saving.
Click Add criterion.
Describe the criterion (for example, "5+ years building distributed systems").
Choose how it counts:
Fully met — the candidate must satisfy this in full.
Partially met — it counts towards the score but isn't required.
Add as many criteria as you need; each section keeps at least one.
Let AI suggest criteria
Don't want to write them from scratch? Click Suggest criteria and Recruitera drafts criteria based on the job. Review the suggestions and confirm to apply them — you can edit or remove any afterwards.
Save your changes
Like the rest of the job editor, changes are staged until you publish. Saving is blocked until the weights total 100%, every criterion has a description, and every section has at least one criterion — the card spells out anything still outstanding.
Frequently asked questions
Does the AI score automatically accept or reject candidates?
No. The match score is there to inform your team — it never advances or disqualifies a candidate on its own. You decide what to do with it. (To auto-disqualify at the application stage, use knockout questions on the Application form instead.)
Where do I see the AI score once it's set up?
Each applicant gets an AI match score in the pipeline. You can filter and sort by it on the job's Filters tab — see How to Filter and Sort Candidates by AI Score and Evaluation Score.
Can candidates see the criteria I set?
No. Screening and matching is internal only — applicants never see your sections, weights, or criteria.