Cheltenham, London, Manchester, Samlesbury
Job description
Salary: £44,044. Dependent on your skills, you may also qualify for a recruitment bonus of £3,500. During the interview, your skills will be assessed to determine eligibility for a further Specialist Role Payment ranging from £4,513 to £9,812. For roles based in London, a London Addition payment of £6,250 will be included.
Flexible Working: This role is primarily office-based, with most of the work undertaken in the office. We offer flexible working hours, including options for compressed and part-time shifts. While working from home isn’t guaranteed, it might be possible on occasion, based on personal and business needs. Once you are established in the role, you may also be required to join an on-call rota.
About Us
GCHQ is an intelligence, cyber and security agency with a mission to keep the UK safe. We use cutting-edge technology, ingenuity and partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats. Working with our intelligence partners MI5 and MI6, we protect the UK from terrorism, cyber-attacks and espionage. At GCHQ you’ll do varied and fascinating work in a supportive and inclusive environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.
The Role
As an Infrastructure Engineering Specialist, you’ll play a key role in supporting, maintaining, and developing capabilities that drive our critical operations. You’ll work alongside colleagues who share your passion for technology, building strong relationships with internal teams, industry networks, and our intelligence partners. Whether you’re tackling complex challenges or discovering new innovations, you’ll enjoy a vibrant environment filled with variety, impact and collaborative teamwork.
You could find yourself working in exciting areas such as Networks, Operating Systems, Applications, Data Transfer, or Cyber Security. Depending on the team, you might be developing cloud-native technologies, deploying innovative applications, automating processes through Infrastructure as Code, or shaping new and efficient workflows. Whatever the task, you’ll be contributing to unique infrastructure projects that make a meaningful difference, driving substantial progress and creating lasting change.
Please note that while this role does not involve shift work, you may be required to join our on-call rota to ensure continuous support. Additionally, in most cases, this role includes line management responsibilities, providing you with the opportunity to lead and mentor team members.
About You
You’ll have experience working with and knowledge of various technologies. While you don’t need to be familiar with all of them, some of the key areas include:
• Cloud Services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• CI/CD Workflows & Tools: Jenkins, Concourse, Bamboo, AWS Code Deploy
• Programming & Scripting Languages: PowerShell, Python, Ruby, GoLang
• Infrastructure: Physical, virtual, cloud, container-based e.g., VMWare, AWS
• Operating Systems: Linux, Windows, MacOS
• Networking Technologies: WAN/LAN
• Authentication & Authorisation Protocols: OpenID Connect
You have a solid background in IT, having worked as part of a collaborative team or been involved in end-to-end product development. Your enthusiasm and motivation drive you to stay ahead of technology trends, ensuring you bring the latest innovations to your work. You thrive in a fast-paced, Agile environment, where collaboration and adaptability are key. Your creative problem-solving skills shine through as you navigate changes and challenges. Under pressure, you remain focused and prioritise tasks effectively, delivering high-quality results consistently.
As you work with a range of colleagues and customers, you’ll take the time to understand their requirements, share your knowledge, and translate technical information for non-technical people. In addition, you’ll have a desire to learn new skills and further your knowledge in an environment that encourages fresh thinking and innovation.
Training and Development
When you start, you’ll receive a 3-day departmental induction, followed by a comprehensive business induction to help you meet the team and settle into life at GCHQ. You’ll have a dedicated line manager who will act as your “buddy” offering advice and guidance whenever you need it.
From day one, you’ll be encouraged to pursue training tailored to your needs and role. You might attend relevant supplier conferences, be paired with mentors for both technical and personal development, or join an internal, friendly group that shares your passion and enjoys knowledge sharing. Additionally, you’ll have opportunities to engage in bespoke, in-house training designed to develop the specific skills and experience valued by the organisation. You may also have opportunities to apply for professional registration with esteemed bodies such as the institution of Engineering and Technology or the British Computer Society, with funding provided for these registrations. The specific learning opportunities may vary based on the skills needed to undertake your role.
Rewards and Benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £44,044 plus other benefits including:
• 25 days annual leave, automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years of service, and an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays.
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme.
• Interest-free season ticket loan (travel and parking).
• Excellent pension scheme.
• 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 underrepresented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.
Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website: https://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/life-at gchq/diversity-inclusion.html
We’re Disability Confident
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 employer, we aim to offer a fair and proportionate number of person-to-person interviews to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI). To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are:
• Show experience and knowledge in various technologies relevant to the role. Assessed during application sift.
• Demonstrate a strong motivation for applying to work at GCHQ as an Infrastructure Specialist. This will be assessed during the application sift.
• Exhibit analytical and problem-solving skills to resolve technical issues. This will be assessed during the application sift.
• Show an awareness of up-coming-technologies and commitment to learning. This will be assessed during the application sift.
There is a wide range of extra support available through the recruitment process to enable you to do your best. See our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer: https://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/how-to-apply.html
What to Expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:
• Application Sift: We’ll review your motivation for the role and the organisation, as well as your essential skills.
• The Interview: This will include a skills assessment.
• Conditional offer: If you’re 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 GCHQ, 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, 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 features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you manage your application with us more securely.
This role is based in Cheltenham, Manchester, Samlesbury or London, 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.
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 on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.
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 of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.
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