Original data · 2,902 full-text S&P 500 job postings
Another Word for "Collaborated" on a Resume: 11 Stronger Verbs
"Collaborated" tells a recruiter you worked with others, which almost every job involves. On its own it says nothing about your role in the group. Keep it when cross-team work is the point, and add who you worked with and what came out of it.
11 alternatives to "collaborated", by what you mean
Pick the group that matches what you did, then the word that fits. "Postings" is the share of the 2,902 full-text job descriptions that use the word in any form. Example bullets are illustrative, not taken from real resumes.
| Word | Postings | Example bullet |
|---|---|---|
| You worked closely with another teamUse for cross-functional work with a clear counterpart. | ||
| partnered with | 24.6% | Partnered with finance to rebuild the quarterly forecast model, cutting prep time by four days. |
| liaised | 0.5% | Liaised between engineering and three enterprise customers during a data migration. |
| teamed with | 5.1% | Teamed with legal and security to ship a vendor review process in six weeks. |
| You shared leadershipUse when you jointly owned the outcome. | ||
| co-led | 0.1% | Co-led a 10-person tiger team that cut checkout errors 35% in one quarter. |
| co-authored | 0% | Co-authored the 2026 product strategy memo with the VP of Product. |
| co-developed | 0.1% | Co-developed a new-hire curriculum with HR, now used for every sales cohort. |
| You got people to agreeUse when the hard part was alignment. | ||
| aligned | 24.7% | Aligned product, sales and support on a single launch timeline for a new pricing tier. |
| united | 0.1% | United four regional teams on one shared ticket taxonomy and escalation path. |
| negotiated | 6% | Negotiated shared roadmap priorities between two product teams competing for one platform squad. |
| You contributed inside a groupUse when you were a member, not a lead. | ||
| contributed | 17.8% | Contributed the data model and API design to a five-engineer billing rebuild. |
| cooperated | 0.2% | Cooperated with county agencies to place 50 families in housing over one year. |
For comparison, "collaborated" itself: 32.5% (942 of 2,902 postings).
Before and after: rewriting "collaborated" bullets
Three example rewrites. They are illustrative, with made-up numbers, to show the pattern: a specific verb, what you acted on, and the result.
BeforeCollaborated with other teams on projects.
AfterPartnered with marketing and sales to launch a referral program that drove 300 signups in month one.
Names the teams and the result.
BeforeCollaborated with stakeholders to define requirements.
AfterAligned five stakeholders on launch requirements in two workshops, unblocking development a sprint early.
Shows what the collaboration achieved.
BeforeCollaborated on the annual report.
AfterCo-authored the annual impact report with the communications director, distributed to 4,000 donors.
Clarifies your share of the work.
Which alternatives each role family uses
"Collaborated" is most common in Finance postings (58.8%) and least common in HR & people postings (28.6%). The right-hand column shows the three alternatives from this page that appear most often in each family's postings. Only families with at least 40 full-text postings are shown.
| Role family | "collaborated" | Most-used alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering628 postings | 37.7% | aligned (30.9%), contributed (30.3%), partnered with (26.1%) |
| Sales368 postings | 38% | partnered with (26.6%), aligned (26.1%), negotiated (24.7%) |
| Retail & service133 postings | 38.3% | aligned (24.1%), contributed (22.6%), partnered with (9.8%) |
| Operations109 postings | 35.8% | aligned (24.8%), partnered with (22.9%), contributed (12.8%) |
| Data & science101 postings | 45.5% | contributed (29.7%), aligned (23.8%), partnered with (19.8%) |
| Finance85 postings | 58.8% | partnered with (45.9%), aligned (43.5%), contributed (29.4%) |
| Marketing84 postings | 39.3% | partnered with (31%), contributed (26.2%), aligned (23.8%) |
| Product72 postings | 50% | partnered with (55.6%), aligned (55.6%), contributed (18.1%) |
| HR & people56 postings | 28.6% | partnered with (51.8%), aligned (41.1%), contributed (19.6%) |
How to pick the right word: mirror the posting
Postings often say "collaborate cross-functionally" or "partner with stakeholders". Mirror whichever phrase the posting uses in at least one bullet, since ATS search is literal. Then name the counterpart team, because recruiters screen for the exact functions you have worked with, such as engineering, finance or clinical staff.
Applicant tracking systems and recruiters search for the posting's own words, so the safest synonym is the one the job description already uses. Paste the posting into the free resume keyword generator to pull out its verbs and skills, then use the table above to replace the "collaborated" bullets that the posting does not ask for. For a wider list by category, see our resume action verbs guide; the dataset behind these numbers is described in our S&P 500 ATS study.
Frequently asked questions
- What is another word for "collaborated" on a resume?
- "Partnered with" is the closest swap and reads more active. If you shared ownership, "co-led" or "co-authored" show that. If the hard part was getting teams to agree, "aligned" fits best. Pick the one that matches what you actually did, and name who you worked with.
- How do I show teamwork without saying "collaborated"?
- Show it through the bullet rather than the verb. Name the teams involved and the shared result: "Partnered with engineering and support to cut onboarding tickets in half." A reader infers teamwork from the cross-team outcome, which is more convincing than claiming it.
- How often do job postings use "collaborated"?
- "Collaborated" (counting "collaborate", "collaborates", "collaborated" or "collaborating") appears in 32.5% of the 2,902 full-text S&P 500 job postings we analyzed. It is most common in Finance postings (58.8%) and least common in HR & people postings (28.6%), among role families with at least 40 postings.
- Which alternative to "collaborated" do employers use most?
- Of the 11 alternatives on this page, "aligned" appears in the most postings (24.7%). For the recommended picks: "partnered with" 24.6%, "co-led" 0.1%, "aligned" 24.7%, "liaised" 0.5%. A word being common in postings means recruiters will recognize it, but the best choice is still the one that matches the posting in front of you and what you actually did.
Related synonyms
Method. Share of 2,902 full-text job postings from S&P 500 careers sites, collected June 2026 (ATS Resume AI study). A posting counts once if any form of the word appears anywhere in its text (for "collaborated": collaborate, collaborates, collaborated, collaborating). Equal-opportunity and legal boilerplate is removed first; where a word's noun sense would swamp the verb (for example "process" or "program"), only verb forms are counted. Role families with fewer than 40 postings are not reported. Data generated: 2026-10-29.