Many senior software engineer resumes describe harder tickets with a more impressive title attached. That is still execution evidence. The stronger seniority signal is decision weight: how much uncertainty you absorbed, which tradeoff you owned, how far the consequences traveled, and whether other people could act more effectively because of your judgment.
"Worked cross-functionally" is one of the easiest ways to hide meaningful technical influence behind harmless corporate language. Naming product, design, security, or operations proves that meetings happened. It does not show what you contributed, which tension you helped resolve, or why anyone changed direction. A stronger resume leaves a decision trail: who needed alignment, what made the decision hard, what you brought to it, and what happened next.
Soft skills do belong on a technical resume. The mistake is treating them like personality traits instead of job evidence. Hiring teams are not looking for "great communicator" or "strong leader" floating in a summary with nothing behind it. They are looking for proof that you can align people, explain complex work clearly, make decisions, mentor others, and move projects forward. That matters because resumes are scanned quickly, and vague claims disappear fast while specific, outcome-based evidence survives the skim.[1][2]