Bude, Cheltenham, Manchester, Samlesbury
Job Description
Salary: £42,630 - £46,246, dependent on experience and made up of a base salary of £35,134 - £38,750, a concessionary payment of £2,758, and a skills payment of up to £4,738 (assessed at interview and offered from day one). You will also receive a one-off recruitment bonus of £2,000 (£1,000 on arrival and £1,000 on successful completion of probation).
Flexible Working
Flexible Working: We recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance and offer full-time, part-time, and compressed hours. Due to the nature of the work, hybrid working may be more limited; however, some home-working options may be available depending on business requirements.
Find out more about flexible working on our website.
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
A typical day as a Software Engineer at GCHQ involves working both collaboratively and independently to develop innovative solutions to complex, real‑world mission challenges. As part of an Agile, multidisciplinary team, you’ll contribute to a culture of continuous learning and adaption. Teams experiment with new ideas, explore different technical approaches and tackle difficult problems that often require fresh thinking. Collaboration with analysts and technical specialists across multiple missions is central to shaping solutions that meet operational needs.
Day‑to‑day work may include team check‑ins and planning sessions, reviewing and raising pull requests, and applying a range of engineering practices such as pair programming, mobbing, or focused individual development. You might also spend time researching and analysing web or mobile technologies, designing, documenting and implementing software solutions, and delivering software for mission requirements. You’ll also support existing solutions throughout their lifecycle, all contributing to steady progress and well‑crafted outcomes.
Depending on the project and your own strengths, you might draw on a variety of specialisms such as server‑client‑side technologies, object‑oriented programming, software design principles, Android development, or Agile/Lean practices. You’ll use a mix of modern engineering languages and frameworks such as JavaScript, Java, Node, Python, Rust, Go and .NET, depending on the project needs. Knowledge sharing is also central to the role, whether that’s swapping ideas with peers, discussing approaches across teams, or contributing to the wider engineering community to help strengthen capability and improve technical practice.
About You
You’ll bring a real aptitude for learning and problem‑solving, with a genuine interest in technology and trying new approaches. You enjoy developing ideas, exploring technical options and working with others to solve challenges. You will have practical experience in a software development environment gained through a previous role or an industrial placement. You’re comfortable using at least one modern programming language or framework and have a good understanding of core software engineering practices.
You’ll be curious about cloud technologies, and any familiarity with AWS, Azure or GCP would be beneficial. You may have some experience with Agile or DevOps ways of working, CI/CD, automation or infrastructure‑as‑code, and you’re keen to build confidence in areas like cloud security or vulnerability awareness. A basic understanding of Linux or Windows is useful, along with a willingness to learn more as part of the role. You’ll work well in development teams, switching between independent tasks and collaborative work, and you’re happy contributing across teams when needed. You can prioritise effectively, adapt to change and stay focused when things get challenging. You communicate clearly, enjoy sharing ideas and are comfortable engaging with a range of customers and technical colleagues.
If you’re enthusiastic about technology, motivated to develop skills and excited by our mission, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet every requirement. Your perspective and potential could be exactly what we’re looking for.
Training and Development
At GCHQ, we embrace a growth mindset and are committed to your development. You’ll follow a blend of in‑house learning from our experts, external courses where helpful, and plenty of on‑the‑job experience. From day one, you’ll have access to mentors and subject matter experts who will support you in building a development and career plan that works for you.
We encourage you to dedicate time to continual professional development through formal courses and practical experimentation, supported by the innovation time available to you. You’ll have access to books, online learning platforms, conferences and practical project work supported by experienced colleagues, along with funding towards formal qualifications. Training covers a broad range of areas, including Front‑End Design, RF Software Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, Data Engineering, Solution Architecture, MLOps, UX, Agile, Cloud Engineering and Security. You’ll also have access to courses including AWS certification, Scrum Master training, microservices, engineering patterns, Linux, user experience and leadership skills.
Subscriptions to platforms like Cloud Academy, Pluralsight or O’Reilly are also available.
Rewards and Benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary £42,630 - £46,246 dependent on skills and experience, with an additional one‑off bonus of £2,000 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 workforce that truly reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: people of 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 individuals from groups that are currently 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. The scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident organisation, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria for this position, assessed at sift, are offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. This is known as the Offer of Interview.
To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:
* Demonstrate a strong motivation to learn and adapt to Agile ways of working.
* Demonstrate an ability to develop software features.
* Demonstrate a working knowledge of at least one modern language or framework, such as, Golang, Java, JavaScript, .Net, Node, Python, Rust.
* Demonstrate experience of working as a Software Engineer in a software engineering environment. This could include an industry placement.
There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, visit our How to Apply page for information on the 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:
1. Application sift.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) assessing the appropriateness of your responses to a series of short scenarios. The SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation.
3. Technical and competency‑based interview, including a presentation.
4. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, subject to vetting.
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 you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.
Before you apply
To work at GCHQ, you must be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.
This role requires the highest 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, 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 applying, we recommend setting up a separate email address for your contact with us to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid including 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.
The role is based in Cheltenham, Bude, Manchester or Samlesbury 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 begin your application. Applying from outside the UK will affect 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 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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