How To Become A Senior Instructional Systems Designer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior instructional systems designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Anthony Piña Ed.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior instructional systems designer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $35.45 an hour? That's $73,730 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 15,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a senior instructional systems designer?

Anthony Piña Ed.D.

Chief Online Learning Officer/Director of Online Education, Illinois State University

If you have not done so already, become active in professional associations that align to your career interests. Attend (and consider presenting at) their professional conferences. This will be a source of professional development, networking, and future employment opportunities. Look for opportunities to gain practical experience-even as a volunteer. For example, if you have an interest in instructional design, you may check out Designers for Learning (designersforlearning.org), which can match you with service-learning opportunities. You should become familiar with the instructional designer competencies from the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (ibstpi.org) and work on those in which you might have less training or experience.

ScoreSenior Instructional Systems DesignerUS Average

Salary

5.8

Avg. Salary $73,730

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.67%

Asian 5.30%

Black or African American 13.03%

Hispanic or Latino 15.71%

Unknown 3.80%

White 61.49%

Gender

female 41.08%

male 58.92%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior instructional systems designer

Explore senior instructional systems designer education requirements

Most common senior instructional systems designer degrees

Bachelor's

59.8 %

Master's

23.0 %

Associate

13.8 %

Start to develop specific senior instructional systems designer skills

Skills	Percentages
Subject Matter Experts	8.56%
Instructional Design	6.15%
SMEs	5.92%
ISD	5.90%
Learning Objectives	5.31%

Complete relevant senior instructional systems designer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior instructional systems designers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior instructional systems designer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior instructional systems designer resumes.

Research senior instructional systems designer duties and responsibilities

Lead, facilitate, and report on the progress of the ISD process for the training academy.
Manage the company SharePoint and information distribution program.
Contribute to the proposal efforts for multiple DoD training development projects.
Praise by DoD for delivery of just-in-time training for iraq-deploy warfighters.

Get senior instructional systems designer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior instructional systems designer. The most common roles before becoming a senior instructional systems designer include instructional systems designer, instructional designer team lead and senior instructional designer.

Prepare your senior instructional systems designer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior instructional systems designer resume.

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