Instructional Systems Specialist
Agency
Department of Defense Education Activity
Location
Alexandria, Virginia, Virginia
Salary
$142,488 - $185,234 Per Year
Open & closing dates
Posted: October 14, 2025
Closes: October 28, 2025 (13 days left)
Job Description
About the Position: This position is located with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), Education Directorate, Student Services Division, in Alexandria, VA. This position may be eligible for situational telework as determined by the agency policy. This position is not covered by a bargaining unit.
Qualifications
Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected. See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities. Current Competitive Service Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Civilian Employee Current Permanent Department of Defense (DoD) Civilian Employee Domestic Defense Industrial Base/Major Range and Test Facilities Base Civilian Personnel Workforce Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technician Eligible Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) Eligible Priority Placement Program, DoD MR and NG Preference Eligible Tech Receiving Disability Retirement Priority Placement Program, DoD Retained Grade Preference Eligible Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) of 1998 In order to qualify, you must meet the education and experience requirements described below. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Basic Requirement for Instructional Systems Specialist: Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours appropriate to the work of the position to be filled. The course work must have included study in at least four of the following five areas: (1) Learning theory, psychology of learning, educational psychology: Study of learning theories as they relate to the systematic design, development, and validation of instructional material. (2) Instructional design practices: Study of the principles and techniques used in designing training programs, developing design strategy and models, and applying design methods to the improvement of instructional effectiveness. (3) Educational evaluation: Study of the techniques for evaluating the effectiveness of instructional/educational programs, including developing written and performance tests and survey instruments, and determining reliability and validity of evaluation instruments. (4) Instructional product development: Study of the techniques appropriate for developing training materials, including identifying learner characteristics, specifying objectives, applying training strategy, validating training materials, and evaluating training. OR (5) Computers in education and training: Study of the application of computers in education and training, including selecting appropriate computer software. NOTE: You are required to submit ALL TRANSCRIPTS with at a minimum, your bachelor's degree. Your Master's, EDS, Doctorate etc. may need to be submitted as well if they must be used to meet the education requirement. If you do not provide this, your application WILL be rejected. In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below: Specialized Experience: One year specialized experience which includes developing PreK-12 special education policies, communicating with internal and external stakeholders regarding special education, and reviewing performance and/or program standards. This experience should have been in an above PK-12 school (district, state, federal, central office, etc.) level. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service or equivalent (GS-13). NOTE: If your resume doesn't clearly describe this experience, your application WILL be rejected. One year is defined as 365 days or 52 weeks of full-time experience, whichever comes sooner. Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to qualify. For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone--no substitution of education for experience is permitted. Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-13).
Required Documents
The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (e.g. applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement). Please review the following link to see which documents you need to provide to prove your eligibility to apply: Proof of Eligibility. As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further. 1. Your resume: Your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration. For each relevant work experience, make sure you include the employer's name, job title, start and end dates (include month and year), for qualifications purposes, the number of hours worked per week, and a brief description that show you can perform the tasks at the required level listed in the job announcement. If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete, and you may not receive consideration for this position. Use plain language. Avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood. The hiring agency will not make assumptions about what's in your resume. If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations, and you may not be considered for this vacancy. For additional information, to include formatting tips, see: What to include in your resume. 2. Other supporting documents: Cover Letter, optional Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable Proof of Eligibility to Apply: Your application must include the documents which prove you are eligible to apply for the vacancy. The Proof of Eligibility document describes authorities commonly used in merit promotion recruitment and what document(s) are required to prove you meet the requirements of the authority. You must meet the requirements of at least one of the authorities listed in the Who May Apply section above to receive further consideration. Time-in-grade documentation: If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old). Transcripts: This position has an individual occupational requirement and/or allows for substitution of education for experience. You MUST submit all applicable copies of your transcript with your application package, or you will be rated ineligible. Failure to provide copies of all applicable transcripts will result in disqualification due to incomplete application. If selected, you must provide all official transcripts prior to receiving an official job offer. You must scan, upload, and attach legible photocopies of the following transcripts: Bachelor's Transcript Master's Transcript. This transcript is required IF it applies to you. EDS Transcript. This transcript is required IF it applies to you. Doctorate's transcript. This transcript is required IF it applies to you. NOTE: Transcripts must include the date and degree was conferred. Transcripts without this information will not be reviewed and will result in disqualification. Your transcripts must clearly identify coursework required for the position you are applying for. Transcripts submitted in other languages other than English must include an official translation or will not be considered. Computer print-outs of transcripts, links to transcripts, grade reports, copies of degree diplomas or certificates, illegible copies and unofficial copies of transcripts will not be acceptable. Receipt of these documents will result in automatic disqualification. NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.
Department Information
Agency
Department of Defense Education Activity
Department
Department of Defense
Location
Alexandria, Virginia, Virginia, United States