Military Programs Interpreter

Job Category: Historical Performing Arts & Interpretation

Requisition Number: MILIT
003599

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• Posted :
  March 26, 2026
• Full-Time

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Historic Area Magazine
Williamsburg, VA 23185, USA

Who We Are

Founded in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is a private, not-for-profit educational, historic, and cultural institution that owns and operates one of the largest and best-known museum complexes in the world. Our mission is “that the future may learn from the past” through preserving and restoring 18th-century Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. We engage, inform, and inspire people to learn about this historic capital, the events that occurred here, and the diverse peoples who helped shape a new nation.

Today, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living history museum in the U.S. The Historic Area is the 301‑acre restored colonial capital with 88 original buildings and 525 buildings reconstructed to how they appeared in the 18th century through extensive archaeological, architectural, and documentary research. The Historic Area is staffed by highly trained, historically dressed interpreters and expert tradespeople who bring the 18th century to life.

The Foundation also owns and operates two world‑class museums, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, and a renowned research library, the John D Rockefeller Jr Library.

Additionally, Colonial Williamsburg is home to five world class accommodations at the Williamsburg Inn, Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection, the Griffin Hotel, the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites and the unique Colonial Houses in the Historical Area. Visitors may also indulge in food and drink at our many on‑site restaurants and taverns that blend a historically inspired dining experience with today’s evolved tastes.

Each year over 5 million people visit Williamsburg and another 20 million engage with us digitally.

About the Position

The primary function of the Military Programs Interpreter is to understand, preserve, and demonstrate the varied facets of soldiering and military life in late colonial Virginia and during the American War for Independence, and to present those skills to the public both orally and in written form. The interpreter must become proficient in these skills and knowledge to be able to teach future staff, helping ensure the knowledge is passed on to future staff members.

The interpreter is expected to learn and demonstrate mastery of the subject matter while providing the highest quality guest experience possible.

Main Duties:

• Learns and develops proficiency in the skills of the eighteenth‑century soldier, including mastery of five Manual Exercises, sewing, leather artificership, firearms maintenance and repair, penmanship, record keeping, and other daily life skills through a 5 year, multidiscipline curriculum. Increases knowledge in each skill area and uses information to expand interpretation to the guests, gained through completing work assignments outlined in the Military Programs curriculum.
  
  The progression of the interpreter is based on the successful completion of learned skills as defined in the Military Programs curriculum.
• Researches 18th military history as outlined in the Military Programs curriculum, including reading and transcribing relevant treatises, orderly books, pension, letters, and ledgers. Works collaboratively with members of the work unit and representatives of other work units (for example: research) in developing recommendations on new and/or varied interpretive contributions. Gives presentations on research as appropriate. Write reports, articles, and social media postings on findings.
• Provides in‑depth interpretations on soldiering, its history, and its impact on the community, region, and the world; the technology, processes, skills, organization, and working environment of the military; the lives experiences of those who fought for the cause of American Liberty; the evolution of soldiering and military doctrines and disciplines during the American Revolution; relationships between military organizations, etc. to a variety of…