Brazilian CV Format: How to Write a Brazilian CV (2026)
Job seekers targeting Brazil quickly learn that the Brazilian CV Format is its own craft. Getting the length, photo rule, date format, and section order right is what turns an average application into a professional one.
Length is a key signal in Brazil: 1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals..
Brazilian recruiters value concise currículos that are easy to scan.. The photo rule is Common. A professional 3x4 photo is customary on Brazilian CVs, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs..
If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.. Dates follow Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g. 15/06/2025), or written as “Junho 2025”. Month-year precision is enough for most roles.. These are the details recruiters notice first, so they anchor this guide.
Personal details follow a clear local standard: Name, phone (with +55 from abroad), professional email, city and state (e.g. São Paulo, SP), and LinkedIn URL..
Date of birth and marital status are traditionally included, though increasingly omitted in tech. Never include your CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas) or bank details...
Section order matters too: Dados pessoais (contact details) → Objetivo (objective, 1–2 lines) → Resumo profissional (professional summary, 2–4 lines) → Experiência profissional (reverse-chronological) → Formação acadêmica (education) → Habilidades (skills) → Certificações.. Each section below explains the reasoning behind the rule, not just the rule itself.
This guide covers the Brazilian CV Format end to end, with example content for software engineer at every career level. Use it to write a cv that passes the first screening.
Brazilian CV Format at a Glance
- Document type
- CV (currículo): “currículo” is the standard term in Brazil; “CV” is used in English-language and international applications. Applications are written in Portuguese, with English for tech and international roles. The reverse-chronological format is the norm.
- Typical length
- 1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals. Brazilian recruiters value concise currículos that are easy to scan.
- Photo
- Common. A professional 3x4 photo is customary on Brazilian CVs, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs. If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.
- Date format
- Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g. 15/06/2025), or written as “Junho 2025”. Month-year precision is enough for most roles.
- Paper size
- A4.
- Personal details
- Name, phone (with +55 from abroad), professional email, city and state (e.g. São Paulo, SP), and LinkedIn URL. Date of birth and marital status are traditionally included, though increasingly omitted in tech. Never include your CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas) or bank details.
- Section order
- Dados pessoais (contact details) → Objetivo (objective, 1–2 lines) → Resumo profissional (professional summary, 2–4 lines) → Experiência profissional (reverse-chronological) → Formação acadêmica (education) → Habilidades (skills) → Certificações.
- ATS friendliness
- Growing; Brazilian employers (Nubank, iFood, Mercado Libre, Itaú, plus Google and Microsoft offices in São Paulo) increasingly screen with ATS. Use standard headings, a clean layout, no tables or graphics, and PDF export. Mirror keywords from the job description exactly.
Brazilian CV Examples
Real Brazilian CVs written to these conventions across three experience levels. Switch tabs to review each, then load it straight into the builder to make it your own.
Lucas Almeida
Software Engineer (Graduate)
Professional Summary
Entry Level software engineer (graduate) with experience at iFood (Brazil) and Itaú Unibanco (Brazil) in São Paulo, SP. Skilled in Kotlin, Java and Spring Boot, with a focus on reliability and clean architecture. Following the standard Brazilian CV Format.
Work Experience
Software Engineer (Graduate)
07/2025 – PresentiFood (Brazil) · São Paulo, SP
- Ship customer-facing features in the payments using Kotlin, Java and Spring Boot, following team code review and CI/CD practice.
- Reduced API response time by 22% by introducing response caching in a payments endpoint.
- Fixed 40+ production issues across two quarters, maintaining a 99.9% service uptime record.
- Pair with senior engineers on system design and observability, contributing to the team's on-call rota.
Software Engineering Intern
01/2025 – 06/2025Itaú Unibanco (Brazil) · São Paulo, SP
- Built a reporting dashboard in React and Python that cut weekly report generation from 3 hours to 20 minutes.
- Wrote 60+ unit and integration tests, raising feature coverage on the module to 92%.
- Presented the project to 150+ staff at the local office; offer extended.
Education
Bacharelado em Ciência da Computação
2021 – 2025USP (Universidade de São Paulo) · São Paulo
Focused on computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, and software engineering.
Skills
Certifications & Links
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
- GitHub portfolio with 25+ public repositories
- LinkedIn profile linked in the header
Professional Summary
Mid Level software engineer with experience at Nubank (Brazil) and Mercado Libre (Brazil) in São Paulo, SP. Skilled in Kotlin, Java and Spring Boot, with a focus on reliability and clean architecture. Following the standard Brazilian CV Format.
Work Experience
Software Engineer
03/2021 – PresentNubank (Brazil) · São Paulo, SP
- Lead backend development for a payments team, owning services that process R$ 2M+ in daily transactions.
- Migrated 12 microservices to Kubernetes, reducing deployment time from 35 to 6 minutes and cutting on-call incidents by 30%.
- Designed a distributed tracing pipeline adopted by 4 teams, improving mean time to detection from 40 to 9 minutes.
- Mentor 3 junior engineers through the internal promotion process; two were promoted within two years.
Software Engineer
06/2018 – 02/2021Mercado Libre (Brazil) · São Paulo, SP
- Developed features for the payments platform in Kotlin and Java, serving 2M+ customers.
- Reduced alert noise by 45% by building an anomaly-detection service.
- Improved query performance 3x by rewriting the telemetry ingestion path, cutting storage costs by 18%.
Education
Bacharelado em Ciência da Computação
2016 – 2018USP (Universidade de São Paulo) · São Paulo
Focused on computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, and software engineering.
Skills
Certifications & Links
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
- GitHub portfolio with 25+ public repositories
- LinkedIn profile linked in the header
Rafael Oliveira
Senior Software Engineer / Tech Lead
Professional Summary
Senior Level senior software engineer / tech lead with experience at Google (Brazil) and Microsoft (Brazil) in São Paulo, SP. Skilled in Kotlin, Java and Spring Boot, with a focus on reliability and clean architecture. Following the standard Brazilian CV Format.
Work Experience
Senior Software Engineer / Tech Lead
03/2021 – PresentGoogle (Brazil) · São Paulo, SP
- Lead a team of 8 engineers owning the payments platform, which protects R$ 2M+ in monthly transaction volume.
- Designed a real-time feature store that cut model latency by 70% and reduced false positives by 35%.
- Drove the migration of 40+ services to a service mesh, improving deployment safety and cutting rollback incidents by half.
- Recruited and mentored 6 engineers; 4 promoted within two years. Run the team's architecture review process.
Software Engineer
06/2018 – 02/2021Microsoft (Brazil) · São Paulo, SP
- Developed features for the payments platform in Kotlin and Java, serving 2M+ customers.
- Reduced alert noise by 45% by building an anomaly-detection service.
- Improved query performance 3x by rewriting the telemetry ingestion path, cutting storage costs by 18%.
Education
Mestrado em Ciência da Computação
2016 – 2018UNICAMP · São Paulo
Masters with focus on distributed systems and machine learning.
Skills
Certifications & Links
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
- GitHub portfolio with 25+ public repositories
- LinkedIn profile linked in the header
How to Write a Brazilian CV: Step-by-Step
Open With Dados Pessoais and a Clear Objetivo
Start with your name, phone (use +55 from abroad), a professional email address, city and state (e.g.
São Paulo, SP), and LinkedIn URL.
Never include your CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas) or bank details.
Date of birth and marital status are traditional but increasingly omitted in tech.
Add a 1–2 line objetivo stating the role and level you are applying for.
Example
Software Engineer with 3 years of experience building payments platforms in São Paulo, SP. Skilled in Java, Kotlin, and AWS, with a focus on reliability and clean architecture.
Entry Level
Keep the summary to 2-3 lines: your degree, internships, and core languages.
Mid Level
Lead with years of experience, your stack, and the products or teams you have shipped for.
Senior Level
Summarise scope: systems owned, team size led, architecture decisions, and business impact.
List Work Experience Reverse-Chronological With Quantified Achievements
List roles most recent first with job title, company, city, and dates in DD/MM/YYYY or month-year format.
Write 3–5 achievement-led bullets per role;
“reduzi o tempo de resposta da API em 40% com cache” beats “responsável pelo backend”.
Brazilian recruiters want results, not responsibilities, so quantify impact in every bullet.
Example
Software Engineer. Nubank (Brazil), São Paulo, SP, 06/2022 - Present. Migrated a payments service to Kubernetes, cutting deployment time from 40 to 8 minutes and improving on-call resolution by 30%.
Entry Level
Detail internships, attachments, and capstone projects with measurable outcomes.
Mid Level
Quantify features shipped, systems owned, uptime or latency improvements, and team collaboration.
Senior Level
Highlight architecture decisions, team leadership, mentoring, and business impact in revenue or efficiency.
Place Education Prominently
Brazilian employers recognise USP, UNICAMP, UFMG, and PUC.
List your degree, institution, dates, and GPA where strong.
Recent graduates place education before work experience;
experienced engineers keep it after.
Mention certifications (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Scrum) in a separate line;
they carry real weight in the Brazilian market.
Example
USP (Universidade de São Paulo), 2019-2023. GPA 3.6/4.0. Internship at Nubank (Brazil). Capstone: fault-tolerant payments ledger.
Entry Level
Lead with your degree, GPA, and internships; include coursework relevant to the role.
Mid Level
Add professional certifications and continued education alongside the degree.
Senior Level
Keep education brief; lead with certifications and leadership training.
Show Key Skills and Languages
Use a skills section with 8–12 competencies mirroring the job description:
languages (Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, JavaScript), frameworks (React, Spring Boot), and platforms (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes).
A short languages line is standard:
Português (nativo) and English (avançado, B2/C1) matter for tech and international roles.
Example
Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, React, Spring Boot, AWS (S3, Lambda, ECS), Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), SQL (PostgreSQL), System Design.
Entry Level
List languages and frameworks from coursework and internships; include GitHub links.
Mid Level
Add depth: cloud certifications, distributed systems, observability, and testing practice.
Senior Level
Focus on architecture, scaling, security, and leadership skills (system design, incident command, mentoring).
Close With References and a Right-To-Work Line
Brazilian convention is to write “Referências disponíveis mediante solicitação”;
never list referee contact details without permission.
For non-Brazilians, add a right-to-work line:
“Visto de trabalho” (work visa) or “Autorização de residência”.
Employers routinely ask about work authorization;
being explicit saves everyone time.
Example
References available on request. Right to work: Non-Brazilians.
Entry Level
Use your university career center and an internship supervisor or lecturer as referees.
Mid Level
Prefer two professional referees: a current engineering manager and a senior colleague.
Senior Level
List a director of engineering and a peer tech lead who can verify leadership outcomes.
Use Portuguese, A4 Size, and an ATS-Clean Layout
Portuguese is the working language of most Brazilian companies;
English is used in tech and international roles.
Use a clean 10–11pt font, standard headings (Objetivo, Experiência profissional, Formação acadêmica, Habilidades), and a single column.
Avoid tables, graphics, and headers or footers that confuse parsers.
Save as a PDF named Nome_Sobrenome_Curriculo.pdf.
Mirror the exact wording of the job description for the best ATS match.
Proofread carefully.
Example
Save as Lucas_Almeida_CV.pdf and mention relevant keywords from the job description.
Entry Level
Have your university career center review the document before applying.
Mid Level
Check every date and certification is exact; gaps read as hiding something.
Senior Level
Verify all certifications have current dates; keep it to two pages.
What Makes the Brazilian Cv Different
The Brazilian CV Format stands apart from its neighbours in a few concrete ways.
The length rule (1–2 pages;
1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals.
Brazilian recruiters value concise currículos that are easy to scan.), the photo stance (Common.
A professional 3x4 photo is customary on Brazilian CVs, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs.
If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.), and the date convention (Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g.
15/06/2025), or written as “Junho 2025”.
Month-year precision is enough for most roles.) all signal local awareness.
Write every experience bullet with numbers.
Brazilian recruiters compare candidates on measurable outcomes:
latency reduced, revenue grown, costs cut.
Each bullet should start with a strong action verb and end with a quantified result.
Finally, tailor the document to the specific job ad.
Identify the top three requirements and mirror them in your summary, skills, and experience bullets.
Generic CVs are screened out quickly in this market.
Brazilian software engineer salaries in 2026 run roughly R$ 85k–135k for juniors, R$ 120k–200k for mid-level, and R$ 200k+ for senior roles (Levels.fyi, 2026), and São Paulo hosts Nubank, iFood, Mercado Libre, and Google engineering teams.
Key Skills Valued in Brazil
Technical Skills
Soft Skills
Keywords and Terminology for Brazilian Cvs
Using the right keywords is the only way to pass an ATS screen and reach a human recruiter.
Extract them from the job description and mirror the exact wording:
job title, required skills, and tools.
How Experience Is Presented in a Brazilian Cv
Experience is the core of the document, written reverse-chronologically with the most recent role first.
Each role shows the job title, company, city, and dates, followed by achievement-led bullets with numbers.
Entry Level
Focus on internships, projects, and transferable skills; show reliability and a fast learning curve.
Mid Level
Show ownership: features shipped, systems run, and improvements measured in numbers.
Senior Level
Show scale: teams led, architectures owned, budgets or revenue impact, and mentoring outcomes.
Tailoring Your Cv to Brazilian Employers
Tailoring means adjusting the lens, not rewriting your history.
Identify the top three priorities in the job ad and make sure they appear in your summary and your first skills.
Match the ad's language exactly.
Common Brazilian Cv Mistakes to Avoid
Avoid these errors that regularly get applications rejected in Brazil:
1. Getting the length wrong: 1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals. Brazilian recruiters value concise currículos that are easy to scan. is the local standard.
2. Ignoring the photo rule: Common. A professional 3x4 photo is customary on Brazilian CVs, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs. If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.
3. Using the wrong date format: use Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g. 15/06/2025), or written as “Junho 2025”. Month-year precision is enough for most roles. consistently.
4. Including personal details that local practice excludes: Name, phone (with +55 from abroad), professional email, city and state (e.g. São Paulo, SP), and LinkedIn URL. Date of birth and marital status are traditionally included, though increasingly omitted in tech. Never include your CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas) or bank details.
5. Listing duties instead of achievements; quantified results win every time.
Brazil Job Market and Salary Outlook
The Brazil job market in 2026 remains active for software engineers, with demand concentrated in the major cities.
Understanding the typical salary brackets for your level helps you calibrate your examples and negotiate with confidence.
| Level | Typical annual salary (BRL) | Typical CV length |
|---|---|---|
| Entry Level | R$ 85,000–135,000 | 1 page |
| Mid Level | R$ 120,000–200,000 | 1–2 pages |
| Senior Level | R$ 200,000+ | 2 pages |
Source: Levels.fyi São Paulo + Glassdoor São Paulo software engineer salary data, 2026 (approximate gross ranges, see sources)
Key Tips for Writing a Brazilian CV
- Tip 1: Save as a clean, selectable PDF named FirstName_LastName_Role_Cv.pdf.
- Tip 2: Use a professional email address; never a personal-sounding handle.
- Tip 3: Include the correct international dialling code on your phone number.
- Tip 4: Keep the length to the local standard: 1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals. Brazilian recruiters value concise currículos that are easy to scan..
- Tip 5: Mirror the job ad's keywords verbatim for ATS screens.
- Tip 6: Have a careers service or a trusted colleague proofread before sending.
Frequently Asked Questions
Preciso de foto no currículo no Brasil?
É comum. Uma foto 3x4 profissional é costumeira nos currículos brasileiros, principalmente para funções de atendimento ao cliente, mas muitas empresas de tecnologia aceitam currículos sem foto. Se incluir, use uma foto limpa e profissional 3x4.
Devo incluir meu CPF no currículo?
Não. Nunca inclua seu CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas) nem dados bancários no currículo. Data de nascimento e estado civil são tradicionais, mas cada vez mais omitidos na área de tecnologia.
Qual deve ser o tamanho de um currículo no Brasil?
De uma a duas páginas: uma para recém-formados e cargos júnior, até duas para profissionais experientes. Recrutadores brasileiros valorizam currículos concisos e fáceis de ler.
Qual formato de data usar no currículo brasileiro?
Dia / Mês / Ano (DD/MM/AAAA, por exemplo 15/06/2025), ou escrito como “Junho 2025”. Precisão de mês e ano é suficiente para a maioria das vagas.
Como é um currículo de engenheiro de software no Brasil?
Um currículo de 1–2 páginas, limpo e compatível com ATS, em coluna única: dados pessoais (cidade e estado, sem CPF), objetivo, resumo profissional, experiência em ordem cronológica inversa com conquistas quantificadas, formação (USP, UNICAMP, PUC), habilidades e idiomas.
Os salários de tecnologia no Brasil vão de R$ 85k–135k no nível inicial, R$ 120k–200k no nível médio e R$ 200k+ no nível sênior, então adapte seus exemplos ao nível ao qual você se candidata.
Conventions verified for 2026 and based on well-established Brazilian recruitment practice.
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the following authoritative sources.
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