EME 610 

JOB ADS FOR ​MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT 

 

Spring 2017 
Natalie Anderson - Narender Aujla - Brittany Crawley - 
Yaël-Alex Monereau - Nicole Ortiz 
 

 
 

 
 
 

Table of Contents 
Introduction 3 

Identifying the Job Advertisements 3 

Job Title 3 
State / Location 5 

General Details about the Jobs 6 

Type of Job 6 
Type of Appointment 7 
Rank / Position & Pay Grade 8 
Payscale 9 
Degree Requirements 10 
Name of Degree Required 11 
Research(er) 12 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) 12 

Instructional Design Skills 13 
Addressing ADDIE’s Place 13 
Needs Analysis 13 
Task Analysis 14 
Learner Analysis 14 
Design 15 
Development 15 
Evaluations 16 
Storyboarding 16 
Project Management 17 
Delivery Method 17 
Knowledge of/on 18 
Software Experience 19 

Conclusion 20 

References 21 

Introduction 

When looking for a career in Instructional Design within the government and military, one 
may find various job qualifications, degree requirements and skills needed. As a group, we 

 
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collected 50 job advertisements and analyzed the various Instructional Design and 
Technology positions. With this data we assessed that there are many positions available, 
however not all companies are adhering to a blanket qualifications listing of a variety of 
Instructional Design Skills, KSAs, and Software. With that same premise in turn the Rank, 
Pay Grade, and opportunity for lateral promotion is derived on a case-by-case basis. 

Identifying the Job Advertisements 

Job Title 
20 different position titles were found varying from an Instructional Designer to Training 
Manager. 14 out of the 20 job titles were only identified once. Our findings were that 
Instructional Systems Designer was the most in-demand job title with 11 different jobs 
under that same title. Instructional Designer came in as a close second, most in-demand 
job with 10 different position listings. The third most common with 8 different ads was 
Instructional Systems Specialist.  

Website Searched/Job Source 

To help with identifying multiple positions available for Instructional Designers and 
Technologists, a total of 16 different websites were used. Most of our job listings acquired 
were sourced from Indeed.com and USAJobs.gov. There were a total of 17 jobs identified 

 
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from Indeed and 15 jobs from USAJobs.gov. Some other online sources utilized were 
Careers, LinkedIn, and Monster. 

Company  

There were a total of 40 different companies identified in our job search, being employed 
by the Air Force, Air National Guard, Army, Army National Guard, Coast Guard, Marine 
Corps, and Navy. Looking at the companies closer, there were 4 jobs specifically for the 
Department of Defense. 3 jobs were for the US Army, 3 for the US Navy, 1 for the US 
Marines,1 for the US Air Force, and 1 for the US Coast Guard. The remaining companies 
mentioned had contracts with government agencies. Additionally, other companies 
included Lockheed Martin, Kurz Solutions, the CDC, and the City of San Antonio. 

AP Ventures Engility Kurz Solutions Noblis Ho-Chunk

Burning Castle, WaterMark Risk Knowledge Naval Education Sterling

LLC Management Management and Training Heritage
Inc. Command Corporation

Calibre First Command Library of Oak Grove Patricio

Educational Congress Technologies Enterprises
Foundation

 
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Carney Geocent Leidos OG Systems TPGS

CDC Grant Thornton Lockheed TSO Armor US Coast Guard

Martin

City of San Harkcon ManTech Int’l Randolph Air US Marine

Antonio Force Base Corps

Department of Hewlett Packard UIC Technical Superior Group US Army

Defense Series

Department of US Citizen and Mosaic Textron US Navy

Juvenile Justice Immigration Technologies

State / Location 
The locations varied among the different responses based on the job ads collected. The 
data clearly indicated that Virginia ranked the highest area of interest for job seekers in the 
Government and Military, ranking at 26% of our data collection in this category. Following 
the popularity of Virginia, Washington D.C. fell next in respect for career interest in 
instructional Designers with a total of 14% of the collected data. Right behind these 
locations were Washington State totaling 12% of the collected job ads total. However, it is 
beneficial to note that the job ads collected involved multiple states as well as international 
locations that totaled collectively 48% of the data supported in this data analysis. 

 
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General Details about the Jobs 

Type of Job 

Job titles were classified as either Government or Military, which indicated if the job 
position was either one of the two or in association with both entities. It was discovered 
that most of the jobs being advertised were linked to Government agencies. The 
designations for Government versus Military helped with increasing the understanding of 
the job market, but more specifically: what companies are looking for, who they are looking 
for, and under what circumstances they are searching. 

As the data unfolded, it was evident that more Instructional Designers are needed in the 
Government versus the Military. Our team posited, this may be due to the Military 
prerequisites requiring some level of military experience, whereas the Government has the 
ability to hire civilians. When analyzing the data, the number of jobs associated with the 
Government were 37 in the affirmative, which vastly outweighed the 13 in the negative. 

Majority of the positions identified the ability for Instructional Designers and Technologists, 
as active service members, to grow from within the organization. This growth can be 
promotional advances for instructional designers (active service members). The total jobs 
collected for this portion of the assignment are as follows: When asked if the position was 
associated with the Military: 32 said no, 18 said yes. 

Total: 50 collected responses 

 
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Type of Appointment 

The types of appointment specify whether the job is full time, part time or contracted. From 
the collected 50 jobs ads, there were 32 ads where the type of appointment was 
mentioned. The majority of ads were full time positions offered mainly by defense 
contractors and the military, together they offer 18 positions out of 27, followed by 4 jobs 
offered by the federal government and 2 in the educational sector. There were no part time 
positions found in our data collection. However, there were 5 positions available on 
contracts from which 2 were offered by defense contractors and 1 position by the military, 
information technology and health sector.  

Rank / Position & Pay Grade 

 
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The military and federal government use a different method of ranking or defining 
positions. For example, The General Schedule (GS) is the predominant pay scale for federal 
employees, designed mainly for professional, technical, administrative or clerical positions. 
The system consists of 15 grades, where GS1 is the lowest level and GS15 is the highest. 
There are also levels with each grade. The grade level also determines employee's pay level. 
(Go Government, 2017) 

Grade Level 
● GS3 or GS4: Internship or student jobs 
● GS5 to GS7: Entry Level Jobs 
● GS8 to GS12: Mid-Level Jobs 
● GS13 to GS15: Supervisory 
● Position Beyond GS15 are managerial positions 

In our job ads, there are 7 position which are managerial level with ranks starting with 
GS17. (US Office of personnel Management, 2017) There are similar many other ranks and 
grading system mainly in Department of defense and its auxiliary branches Army, Navy, 
Airforce and Marines. (Military Rank/Civilian Pay Grade Abbreviations, 2016) To simplify the 
data and make meaningful understanding.  

The data is divided into categories: 

● Management level: Top Level management 
● Experience professional: Senior Executives and supervisors 
● Trainer/instructors: Employees hired as instructor or trainers. 
● Executive: Entry level position.  

Out of the 50 job advertisements, 30 job advertisements specify the rank/position of the 
job. There are 9 managerial level jobs, out of which 7 are offered by Army and 1 each by 
defense contractor and federal government, respectively. There are 8 positions which 
required experienced professionals, from which half of them are hired by defense 
contractors, 2 by military, and 1 each by educational institute and state government, 
respectively. The trainer/instructor and executive level positions are mainly hired by 
defense contractors. Overall, Defense contractors provide a high number of opportunity 
followed by the Army. 

 
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Pay Grade 
Pay Grades are defined in a range of two figures (for example, $80,000 to $90,000). An 
average of pay scale is taken for meaningful understanding, (i.e.: Average $85,000). The 
executive on an average gets paid $55,991, an experience professional gets paid around 
$73,845 and management level pay is around $88,535. When comparing data, there is a 
24% salary hike between an experienced professional and executive level position. The 
salary hike however reduces to 16% when compared between managerial level and 
experience professional.  

 
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Degree Requirements 
The job advertisements were specific about the degree requirement and preferred 
applicants with Bachelor's degrees, however not always specializing in Instructional Design 
and Technology. Around 36 jobs required an individual to have a Bachelor's degree and 
three (3) preferred individuals having a Master's degree. Nine (9) job ads required 
individuals with a Master’s degree and four (4) preferred individuals with a Master’s degree. 
A Doctoral degree was only required for one job. Fortunately, applicants with Master’s 
degree can have an advantage to apply for more opportunities. 

 
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Name of Degree Required 

The name of degrees required varied, many of the job ads would list more than one degree 
or multiple degrees that were equivalent. As a group, we narrowed the degrees required 
down to 9 common degrees seen often in the ads: Human Performance Technology, 
Psychology, Communications, Education, New Media, Education Technology, Instructional 
Design and Other. The number 1 most popular degree needed was Instructional Design 
with 30 out of the 50 job ads requiring it. “Other” was the next prominent degree listed with 
27 out of 50 jobs needed another type of degree that we did not have listed. 

It is important to note that some job ads did not mention a specific degree required. The 
next most common degree required was Training and Development with 23 out of 50 job 
ads requesting it. Some degrees that were not as common were Psychology and Human 
Performance Technology with only 3 or 4 job ads requiring it. Below are the charts of the 
top two in-demand degrees.  

 
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Research(er) 

As a team, we discovered that most job ads did not require research as a part of the job 
description, duties or responsibilities. Functions or equal responsibilities required some 
form of research involved in the terms and conditions of the contracts. Employers 
requested that the candidates need to have general or extensive knowledge in research or 
can perform research type duties. Based on the total job ads collected, 82% (41 responses) 
did not require research while only 18% (9 responses), required or needed some form of 
this skill as part of the position detail, title, or performance standard(s). 

   

 
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Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) 

Instructional Design Skills 

Addressing ADDIE’s Place 

As an Instructional Designer and Technologist, it is imperative to not only be aware of the 

foundational theories, frameworks, and models, but know how to apply them, as well. One 
of those frameworks is the ADDIE Framework. ADDIE stands for Analyzing, Designing, 
Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating, which are all requirements, specializing in an 
iterative process.  

For the aggregated job advertisements, our group’s focus was on the following Instructional 
Design Skills areas: Needs, Task, and Learner Analysis, Design, Development, Evaluations, 
and Project Management. 

Needs Analysis 

According to the Dr. Titcomb from the University of Arizona, a Needs Analysis is the process 
of identifying and evaluating needs in a community or other defined population of people. 
(2000) Within our findings 25 out of 50 job advertisements, identified the importance of 
being able to conduct a Needs Analysis. No companies chose to explain further which 
specific skills are needed within the Needs Analysis, and this became a recurring pattern for 
all job advertisements. 

 
 
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Task Analysis 

Information from the Usability.gov website explains, that a Task analysis is the process of 
learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to understand in detail how they 
perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. (Affairs, 2010) From our data 
collection, we have discovered that 46% of the jobs reviewed acknowledged Task Analysis 
as a vital Instructional Design Skill. 

Learner Analysis 

According to Wikiversity with a learner analysis, learners' abilities as well as the deficiencies 
in their skills are assessed. This will tell us how if they are ready to reach the learning goal, 
and where the instruction should start. (2016) From our research we found 56% of our 
companies do not focus largely on Learner Analysis and are more focused on the content 
being delivered. 56% of our job advertisements, did not mention learner analysis as a 
required skill. 

 
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Design 

Based on the information collected from the job ad analysis, it is important to note that 
although design may have appeared to be an important indication of “designing 
instruction”, as proposed by the names of positions, we found that the design piece of the 
job position was not apart or required in the actual job functions and duties. Only 20% of 
the collected responses indicated that was the case and design was a critical part of the 
function and duties of the position details. While 80% of collected, responses indicated that 
design and the implementation of so was not necessary in most positions and/or even 
mentioned. 

Development 

Once the content has been identified, and the Design has been agreed upon, Development 
must take place from an IDT point-of-view. 88% of the job advertisements surveyed 
mentioned focused on the Development portion of IDT skills.

 
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Evaluations 

From our findings, 56% of the job advertisements reviewed mentioned Evaluations as being 
a skill of focus. The types of Evaluations were not specified, however the importance them 
is still relevant as it is a focus for improvement.  

Storyboarding 

Storyboarding is the ability to draw out or explain a vision for interpretation to others. This 
skill can prove critical within team environments when sharing ideas. Our findings 
discovered only 28% of our identified job advertisements mentioned Storyboarding as a 
useful skill to enter the company. 

 
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Project Management 

As a project manager, an Instructional Designer and Technologist’s job is to plan, budget, 

oversee, and document all aspects of specific projects. Project managers work closely with 
upper management, as well as other departments for support, to make sure that the scope 
and direction of each project is on schedule. 

Delivery Method 
While analyzing the data for the type of delivery method, the most common form of 
delivery was face-to-face, totaling to 24 job ads. Another common method of presentation 
was web/online learning with a total of 16 responses. Classroom based training came in as 
the 3rd most mentioned distribution method with 13 responses. The least common 
delivery method discovered was the virtual classroom with only 5 responses. With these 
findings, we discovered most the jobs were geared for the development of the program 
and not the delivery of the program. 

 
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Knowledge of/on 

During our analysis of the job ads, we discovered many of the companies did not require 
specific knowledge on a topic or concept or if specified, was vague. There were very few 
listings that were detailed in the knowledge required to be qualified for the positions. 96% 
of the job ads required knowledge in instructional design and technology. 12% mentioned 
knowledge of 508/504 compliance. 84% mentioned having experience in teaching, training 
and/or delivery. 60% required knowledge in theories of learning/adult learning. 58% 
mentioned experience in curriculum design. 56% mentioned knowledge in technical writing 
skills as well as 56% in leadership development. 

Software Experience 

 
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Through our data collection we learned most Government or Military favored Adobe and 
Microsoft products. For the companies that did specify the software needs, they did not 
identify a (if any) level of competency. 

Most companies do not incorporate software preferences within the job advertisement. 
Equipped with this information, Instructional Designers and Technologists looking to enter 
the Government or Military should still make it a purpose to practice improving their skills 
with different software. 

Our team speculates that although the software isn't necessarily listed on the initial job 
advertisement, the companies may assume you come prepared with software skills or will 
train on company preferred software. 

 
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Conclusion 

From our collection of various Instructional Design and Technology job advertisements 
within the Military and Government arenas, we have assessed that there are many 
positions available. However not all companies are adhering to some blanket qualifications 
listing of a variety of Instructional Design Skills, KSAs, and Software. With that same premise 
in turn the Rank, Pay Grade, and opportunity for lateral promotion is derived on a 
case-by-case basis. 

References 

Affairs, A. S. (2013, September 06). Task Analysis. Retrieved April, 2017, from 
https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/task-analysis.html 
Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to 
understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. 

Go Government. (2017). G
​ o Government​. Retrieved from gogovernment.org: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NjHIHsET1Q6Gqg6WEiDLyrhtkhg8MweRKWbgi_aA_1
U/edit 

 
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Instructional design/ARCS Learner Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved April, 2017, from 

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Instructional_design/ARCS_Learner_Analysis 

Military Rank/Civilian Pay Grade Abbreviations​. (2016, Feb 6). Retrieved from 
http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/: 
http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/Docs/Training/DTA_App_M.pdf 

Titcomb, A. L., Ph.D. (2000). Needs Analysis. Retrieved April, 2017, from 
https://extension.arizona.edu/evaluation/sites/extension.arizona.edu.evaluation/files/docs/
needs.pdf 

US Office of personnel Management. (2017). L​ eading America's Workforce​. Retrieved from 

opm.gov: h
​ ttps://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/ 

Retrieved from www.payscale.com:  

Executive: 
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Executive_Assistant/Salary;   
Senior Executive: 
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Senior_Executive_Assistant/Salary   
 
M​anagement:http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=General_%2f_Operations_Manage
r/Salary/ab026594/Late-Career 

 
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