Training and development

We invest heavily in professional development and provide a range of learning opportunities to help you build your skills and progress your career.

You’ll have a minimum of 30% of your working time dedicated to development activities, with access to training through courses, conferences, technical communities, self-directed study and project-based learning.

We actively support professional and academic development, including industry-recognised certifications, post graduate study and professional registration. Funding is available for relevant qualifications and certifications, such as Scrum Master, CISSP and AWS Certified Developer.

You’ll have opportunities to develop expertise across a range of software engineering disciplines, including front-end development, site reliability engineering, data engineering, solutions architecture, machine learning operations (MLOps), user experience (UX), Agile delivery and cloud engineering.

You’ll also benefit from mentoring, coaching and collaboration with experienced engineers, helping you broaden your technical knowledge and develop your career within our engineering community.

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the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.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:

An initial online application form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios. In-person assessment centre

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.

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.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

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”.

Selection criteria

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. A STEM background in Higher Education that could include a degree, apprenticeship or equivalent qualification. We’ll consider candidates who have completed or are in their final year. Practical software engineering experience this could be gained through practical software projects, relevant employment, internships, industrial placements, or summer placements Ability to demonstrate knowledge of at least one modern language/framework, such as Go, Java, JavaScript, NodeJS, Python, or Rust.

Note: The above criteria will be assessed during the application sift.

Before you apply

To work at GCHQ, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

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.

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 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 hard copy 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 with anyone other than your partner or a close family member.

Right To Withdraw Statement

Please be aware that we reserve the right to close applications once a certain number have been received. To avoid missing out, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible. If you have a disability (as defined under the Equality Act 2010) and need additional time to complete your application, please submit your initial application and then contact us using the email address provided as soon as possible, please use the subject line “Reasonable Adjustments Extension” and briefly outline the support you require.

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