ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) -- The Air Force has transformed its developmental duty process to offer Airmen more flexibility and control over their career while ensuring high-quality personnel fill positions critical to the future of the force.
Beginning Oct. 1, 2025, Airmen will have the opportunity to volunteer to join the following seven developmental duties: military training instructor, military training leader, academy military training noncommissioned officer, officer accessions instructor, first sergeant, professional military education instructor (NCOA/SNCOA) and recruiter.
Previously, the opportunity to volunteer for these developmental duties was limited. Most Airmen selected for developmental duties needed to be nominated by their local leadership and approved by the career field manager to be released. Now, they can view Developmental Duty opportunities on Talent Marketplace where they can volunteer for open positions.
Once an Airman has volunteered through Talent Marketplace they will be screened by the developmental duty hiring team. Upon approval by the hiring team to continue the process, the Airman’s leadership will have an opportunity to review the members application and records to make a recommendation on whether that Airman is a good fit for the developmental duty.
The developmental duty team will select those Airmen who best fit the position from the pool of volunteer applicants.
Prior to this change, Airmen were required to get career field manager approval to join a developmental duty. However, the new system now streamlines that process by setting a preset number of personnel in each career field allowed to join developmental duties. If a career field has not exceeded the number of maximum releases for that quarter, an Airman who has made it through the selection process will be allowed to be released from their primary AFSC for a limited time. If a career field does not have any releases remaining for that quarter, Airmen will not be able to volunteer.
Any Airman interested in joining one of the seven developmental duties now open under the new process can apply on Talent Marketplace starting Oct. 1, 2025.
More information on the Developmental Duty process is available on MyFSS.