How to Write a Great Instructional Designer Job Description

Finding the right instructional designer to join your team starts with a clear and compelling instructional designer job description. If you’ve never hired an instructional designer before, writing a solid job description can help you hire better.

If you’ve been recycling the same old job posting for years, it might be time to reassess. Needs change over time, and your job descriptions should too. A thoughtful description will help you write an enticing job job post and make your interviews more effective

Get Ready to Write An Instructional Designer Job Description

Start by thinking about the core duties you want this person to perform. Most instructional designers will be expected to:

design and develop learning experiences
engage in employee development, training, or curriculum planning, and
work with subject matter experts
build and maintain digital learning experiences

Those duties are a good place to start, but put some thought into the day-to-day demands of the job. For example, will they be expected to create supplemental learning tools or load content onto the learning management system?

Next, consider the skills someone would need to achieve these tasks. List technical skills, soft skills, education and experience. Once you’ve made your list, go over it again and separate the requirements from the nice to haves.

For example, you might absolutely need someone experienced with the ADDIE model. But experience with video production would just be a nice bonus. Differentiating between needs and preferences can help you write a clearer job description. It also helps you prepare for interviews by focusing on what’s really important.

Make sure your requirements are reasonable for the level of the job. A senior instructional designer job description should ask for different things than one for entry level instructional design jobs. Be sure to leave room for equivalences. For example, you might prefer someone with a Master’s degree in Instructional Design, but think about whether you’d consider a candidate with a Bachelor’s degree and five years of experience.

Turning Your Instructional Designer Job Description into a Job Posting

Once you have your job description written out, you can use that as the basis for your job posting. An effective job posting includes 5 key sections:

General job description – a summary of the role and the high level skills a candidate needs to be competitive.
List of responsibilities – Make sure to flag whether each one is required or preferred.
Education & Certification Requirements – Include requirements and preferences here as well.
Requirements – all other requirements, like level of experience or particular technical expertise goes here.
Information about your organization – don’t forget to tell them about your organization and how this role will help you achieve your mission.

Highly qualified candidates aren’t just looking for any job they might be capable of. They’re looking for a role where they can really contribute and make an impact. Make sure the job description and organization information paint a clear picture for them.

Pro Tip: Include a salary range in your job posting if you can. More candidates are refusing to even apply for jobs without posted salaries. If you don’t include one, you might miss out on some highly qualified candidates.

Sample Instructional Design Job Description

We’ve created sample instructional designer job postings that you can use and tailor to your needs. They include a basic job description and common responsibilities. Plus standard education, instructional design skills, and experience requirements.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the process of writing an instructional designer job posting or just want some help getting started, these are the resources you’ve been looking for.

Sample instructional designer job posting for corporate roles
Sample learning designer job description for education roles

Feel free to use these samples to inspire your own job postings. Just remember to tailor them to your needs so you can find the instructional designer who’s the best fit for your organization.

Where to Share Your Job Posting

Smart employers don’t just look for instructional design candidates on all-purpose job boards. Seek out industry-specific job boards and talent marketplaces. These are more likely to include skilled and qualified candidates.

If you’re pressed for time, you can get help from a skilled recruiter. Look for one who takes the time to really understand your needs. You don’t want a recruiter who’s focused on just finding as many candidates as possible. You want someone who can act thoughtfully to bring you vetted candidates that will be competitive for the instructional design role you’re filling.

At Teamed, we specialize in connecting qualified instructional designers and eLearning professionals with the employers that need their skills. Visit our job board, subscribe to our talent marketplace, or reach out to our recruiting team to find your next Teammate.