A reproducible Org-Mode CV template

I spent the weekend improving my Org-mode/LaTeX CV template and decided it was worth sharing publicly. Its modular, searchable, and designed for reproducibility. I’ve made it easy to maintain and updated the structure to be as ATS-friendly as possible.

I used AI to help document this. I tend to spend more time building than writing about what I built, so it was useful to have something that could map the full picture.

For several years, I’ve been using org-mode to keep my CV up to date. I think I’ve reached a point where the template is good enough to be worth sharing publicly. Here is a PDF with generated placeholder data:

Back in time, I hired a service to help me design and prepare my CV to make it look better and more professional. Engineers are bad at writing CVs that are friendly to both a recruiter and technical enough for an engineering manager. It’s hard to find that balance.

They delivered the CV in a docx format, which I obviously had to convert to LaTeX. I wanted to write a custom LaTeX class based on their template and use org-mode to keep track of the content. This required lots of back and forth to make sure I had duplicated the template correctly and more back and forths with org-mode to properly organize my data in an org file.

I wanted to have a good organization, as I wanted to keep track of two (or more) versions of my CV, depending on the position I would apply to.

With that, I came up with this template. I keep a basecv.org file to store LaTeX and file configuration, along with reusable (across different CVs) content, while cv.org holds the content specific to that CV.

cv/
├── basecv.org         # Base template: macros, shared content
├── cv.org             # CV variant
├── cv-export-init.el  # Export logic: LaTeX class, filters, headline handler
├── custom.cls         # LaTeX class
└── .dir-locals.el     # Emacs glue: loads cv-export-init.el, auto-export hooks

Furthermore, I designed the LaTeX template to be as machine-readable as possible so ATS can read without much hiccups. The PDF generation is fully reproducible, if the content remains unchanged, the build process will yield an identical file. Consequently, there is no need to commit a new PDF if no content updates have been made.

To get started with this template, begin by editing cv.org. As you progress, you will eventually need to update basecv.org as well.

How Files Connect#

Setup#

Each CV variant inherits from basecv.org using the #+SETUPFILE directive:

#+SETUPFILE: basecv.org

This pulls in the LaTeX class declaration, the #+SUMMARY: keyword, and the {{{new-page}}} macro. Properties, not macros, drive all structural LaTeX output (see Key Properties).

Shared sections#

Shared sections are pulled from basecv.org into variants using #+INCLUDE:

#+INCLUDE: "./basecv.org::*Header"
#+INCLUDE: "./basecv.org::*System observability"
#+INCLUDE: "./basecv.org::*Education" :minlevel 1

This allows writing highlights, education, and technical skills once and reusing them across multiple CV variants.

The .dir-locals.el#

The .dir-locals.el is intentionally thin. Its sole job is to load cv-export-init.el (for both interactive and async export), register the benmezger/cv-export-pdfs interactive command, and set up auto-export hooks.

Saving cv.org or basecv.org triggers an automatic async PDF export. Saving custom.cls does the same via a latex-mode hook.

The cv-export-init.el#

This file contains all export logic and is loaded by both the interactive Emacs session (via .dir-locals.el) and the async export subprocess. It registers the custom LaTeX class, defines the #+TAGLINE: and #+SUMMARY: file-level keywords, and installs the preamble filter and headline advice.

Injecting keywords into the LaTeX preamble#

The cv-latex-insert-preamble filter converts org keywords to LaTeX commands inserted just before \begin{document}:

#+TAGLINE: Software Engineering - Clean Code
#+SUMMARY: Driving Software Engineer...

becomes:

\cvtagline and \cvsummary store their values and \introduction (triggered by :OPENER: t) renders them both in the body (see below).

Custom headline handler#

The headline handler reads properties and emits the appropriate LaTeX, short-circuiting the default \section{} rendering where needed:

Headlines matching none of the above fall through to the standard org-latex transcoder.

Key Properties#

Contact header#

The header section in basecv.org uses properties to define contact information, which \contactinfo renders as a two-column block:

* Header
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: header
:CV_LOCATION: Amsterdam, Netherlands
:CV_PHONE: 31612345678
:CV_PHONE_DISPLAY: +31 6 12 345 678
:CV_EMAIL: john.doe@example.com
:CV_USERNAME: johndoe
:CV_WEBSITE: https://johndoe.dev
:END:

Introduction opener#

Set :OPENER: t on the introduction headline to automatically render the \introduction block (tagline + summary sentence) before the body text. No macro call needed:

* Senior Software Engineer
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: introduction
:OPENER: t
:END:

*Software engineer* with over ten years of experience...

\introduction reads the \cvtagline and \cvsummary values stored by the preamble filter and renders them centered above the body paragraph.

Job positions#

Each job entry uses properties to structure the position details:

** Company Name
:PROPERTIES:
:POSITION: Senior Software Engineer
:LOCATION: Germany, Berlin, Hybrid
:DATE: September 2025 - Current
:END:

Job descriptions use a custom block that renders in a shaded box:

#+BEGIN_cvdescription
Role summary text here...
#+END_cvdescription

This is defined in custom.cls as the cvdescription environment using tcolorbox.

Prior positions#

Older positions use :PRIOR_POSITION: for compact rendering with no description block. The enclosing heading uses :PRIOR_HEADING: t to emit the “Prior Engagement:” label:

* Prior Engagement
:PROPERTIES:
:PRIOR_HEADING: t
:END:

** Coolblue
:PROPERTIES:
:PRIOR_POSITION: Junior Software Developer
:LOCATION: Netherlands, Rotterdam
:DATE: June 2012 - August 2013
:END:

Special Tags#

The :ignore: tag is particularly useful for including shared sections without their headlines appearing in the output. It is enabled via ox-extra in cv-export-init.el.

The custom.cls#

Reproducible builds#

The class suppresses all date and toolchain metadata from the PDF (creation date, modification date, PTEX info, trailer ID, and compression) so that identical content always produces a bit-for-bit identical file. hyperref date fields are also cleared. This means the PDF can be committed to git and a diff will only show real content changes.

ATS readability#

The class enables glyph-to-unicode mapping so text copied from the PDF (by a human or an ATS parser) maps to proper Unicode characters.

Custom commands#

#+TITLE is intentionally suppressed; it is only used for PDF metadata via #+AUTHOR and hyperref.

Environments#

cvdescription

A full-width tcolorbox with a light gray background used for role summary paragraphs.

strengthstable

A tabularx wrapper pre-configured with three equal columns for the strengths/skills snapshot table.

The Export Flow#

1. Open cv.org
2. Emacs loads .dir-locals.el, which loads cv-export-init.el, registering the LaTeX class, export keywords, preamble filter, and headline advice
3. Export with C-c C-e l p (or save the file for auto-export):
   • #+INCLUDE pulls shared content from basecv.org
   • #+TAGLINE: / #+SUMMARY: are injected as \cvtagline{} / \cvsummary{} before \begin{document}
   • Headlines with :OPENER: t have \introduction prepended to their body
   • Headlines with :POSITION:, :PRIOR_POSITION: etc. are rendered as the corresponding LaTeX commands
   • custom.cls styles everything and appends \lastupdate automatically

Make sure you have pdflatex installed, along with the LaTeX dependencies.

This architecture allows maintaining one source of truth for shared content while tailoring each CV variant’s introduction, strengths, and emphasis for different positions.