NCSC International Technical Director

At Level 4, we’ll be looking at how you demonstrate the following:

• Seeing the Big Picture (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Seeing the Big Picture)
• Communicating and Influencing (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Communicating and Influencing)
• Working Collaboratively (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Working Together)
• Providing Customer Value (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Managing a Quality Service)

Benefits and Rewards

At NCSC and GCHQ, we are proud of our inclusive and supportive working environment, designed to encourage open minds and attitudes. As an organization that values and nurtures talent, we are committed to helping you fulfill your potential. With comprehensive training and development opportunities, tailored to your needs and the requirements of your work, we will enable you to flourish in your role and perform to the very best of your abilities.

You’ll receive a starting salary of £71,889 (including a concessionary payment of £3,144).

This role may attract a skills payment, for which you’ll be evaluated during the interview. The criteria for the skills assessment will be provided when you are invited to interview. If you are assessed to qualify for a skills payment, these payments start at £6,552 per annum.

For roles based in London, you’ll receive an additional £6,250 London Allowance.

Other Benefits Include:

• 25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays.
• Opportunities to be recognized through our employee performance scheme.
• Interest-free season ticket loan.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations).
• Paid parental and adoption leave.
• Excellent pension scheme - Civil Service pension.

Equal Opportunities

At GCHQ diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking, and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Disability Confident

About

GCHQ is proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain, and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria, which will be assessed at the CV sift stage:

• You'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organization.
• Demonstrate experience of applying specialist technical security capabilities to help solve customer security problems. Assessed at application sift.
• Demonstrate how technological vulnerabilities occur, how they are discovered, and how they may be exploited. Assessed at application sift.
• Demonstrate experience of leading a technical team. Assessed at CV sift.

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best; see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to Expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

• Initial online application.
• Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your response to a series of short scenarios.
• Application sift.
• Online Interview.
• If successful, you’ll receive a conditional offer of employment.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process, including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before You Apply

To work at NCSC, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria here.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. You can find out more about the vetting process here.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, recommend setting up a separate email address for your contact with us to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based either in London, Cheltenham, or Manchester, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application, as we do not offer relocation costs.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hardcopy receipts for reimbursement.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

The closing date for this role is: 4th August 2026 at 23:55.

Right To Withdraw Statement

Please be aware that we reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number