The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of professional qualifications and work experience on school principals' instructional leadership performance in primary schools in the Awi zone of Ethiopia. This research used a quantitative research method where the researchers collected data from school principals through a questionnaire. Thus, we found that there was a significant difference in the mean scores between groups, where the mean score for educational leadership or management professionals were higher than those of professionals in other fields. This indicates that those principals qualified in Educational Leadership or Educational Management have significantly better instructional leadership performance than principals qualified in other fields of studies. In addition, the principals' level of experience significantly influenced their instructional leadership performance. Those principals who had more experience performed better than less experienced ones. Therefore, professional qualifications and experience are the major determinant factors of principal's instructional leadership performance.