Building positive and productive relationships with colleagues, customers and stakeholders, you are confident engaging with a range of audiences. A collaborative team player, you communicate effectively and manage challenging conversations professionally using sound judgement to resolve conflict and achieve positive outcomes.

Taking a proactive approach to your work, you drive continuous improvement and contribute to high standards across the project delivery profession. Flexible and adaptable, you respond positively to changing priorities, deployments and business needs. Experienced in operating in environments where ambiguity exists, you work independently, use initiative and maintain focus whilst balancing competing demands.

As part of the Project Controls community, you’ll be expected to continue developing your capability in line with the Project Delivery Capability Framework, building expertise across project controls disciplines and contributing to the successful delivery of projects and programmes across GCHQ.

Training and Development

A structured induction will introduce you to our mission, ways of working and the delivery community you’ll be joining. From day one, you’ll be supported by your line manager and a dedicated buddy who will help you settle in, build confidence and navigate the organisation.

Learning and development are built into the role through a combination of practical experience, training and support across the project delivery community. As a corporate member of the Association for Project Management (APM), we encourage you to take advantage of relevant training, professional networks and development opportunities to broaden your experience and support your career growth.

We foster a “Discover. Develop. Deliver” culture where continuous learning is part of everyday work. You’ll build expertise in planning, risk management, financial control and assurance, while strengthening your project controls capability through practical experience across a range of delivery environments. While the role has no formal line management responsibilities, opportunities to develop leadership and mentoring skills may arise as your career progresses.

As part of a supportive and collaborative project management community, you’ll contribute to continuous improvement, share best practice and learn from experienced professionals as you develop your career with GCHQ.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £35,134, plus other benefits including:

• 25 days’ annual leave, rising automatically to 30 days after 5 years' service, plus an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• An interest-free season ticket loan
• An excellent pension scheme
• A cycle to work scheme
• Facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• Paid parental and adoption leave

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, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Visit our website to find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity.

We’re Disability Confident

GCHQ is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ 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, where practical. This is known as an “Offer of an interview”.

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 organisation. Meet the minimum pass mark for your motivation and skills for the role and organisation - to be assessed at application sift.

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

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection Process Details

What to Expect

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

• Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios.
• Application Sift, looking at your motivation and skills for the role and the organisation.
• Virtual Interview, including technical and competency-based questions.
• If successful, you’ll receive a conditional offer of employment.

Before You Apply

To work at GCHQ, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria. (Penna link to appropriate website Eligibility sections)

This role requires the highest level of security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process. (PENNA link to org website vetting page).

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

Before you apply, we advise you to consider 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 information in your email address, such as your first name, surname or date of birth. This is good practice and will help you manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Cheltenham, 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