Software Engineers Cheltenham, England
Job description
Flexible Working: Full-time and part-time opportunities (flexible working hours available) in Cheltenham, Manchester, or London with a mix of office and remote working dependent on business needs.
About Us
We’re GCHQ, and we unlock the complex world of communications to keep the UK and its citizens safe, both in the real world and online. Working closely with our British Intelligence partners in MI5 and MI6, we protect the UK from threats including serious organised crime, terrorism, and cyber-attacks. A role in GCHQ means you’ll have varied and fascinating work in a supportive and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.
Your work is at the core of our operations. Put simply, your contributions will directly or indirectly help our ongoing mission to keep the UK safe. You’ll be empowered to work autonomously to achieve the desired outcome, while growing your skills in the process. We offer a strong work-life balance, benefits, training and certifications and hybrid working options depending on the business area and needs. Our culture is centred on embracing a growth mindset, equality, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day.
About the role
A typical day in the role of Software Engineer could include working in an Agile team, tackling real-world problems via a variety of software engineering methods, languages, and frameworks (such as JavaScript, Java, C++, Node, Python, Rust, Go, .NET). But you’ll use your experience to influence and contribute to the wider engineering community. Day-to-day, you’ll also work on large-scale projects and deliver your work in collaboration with others using various approaches such as pairing/mobbing and individual programming. You’ll ensure best practice and continual improvement by reviewing pull requests, ready for integration into production systems.
About You
While the languages we use most at the moment are Javascript, C++, Java, and Python, it’s far more important that you’re able to learn new languages and libraries and keep yourself up to date. We value your engineering mindset, tenacity and perseverance with problems that seem unsolvable.
We’re looking for Software Engineers with potential. People who are comfortable developing software features and have experience with at least one modern language/framework such as C++, GoLang, Java, JavaScript, .NET, Node, Python or Rust. You may have worked as part of an Agile team but if not, you’ll be open to learning and adapting to an Agile way of working. Knowledge of Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) is desirable.
Diverse teams really are the best teams. So, if you’re excited about working with us and think you can do much of what we are looking for but aren’t sure if you are 100% there yet, we’d still love to hear from you.
Training and Development
At GCHQ we’re proud to offer an inclusive and supportive working environment. As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, in whatever role you join us in, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential. And we value your ability to learn and adapt to new challenges. So, we’ll invest in your skills and the way you like to learn, from books, study, courses, and conferences to stretching work with the support of the team.
Training and career development is encouraged with a minimum of 10% of your work time being dedicated to this. We’re keen for everyone to have the chance to study towards what matters to them. This could be Certifications (Cloud, framework specific methodologies etc) or continued academic learning like MSc/PHD and also an opportunity to work towards chartered engineer status (CCENG/ENG).
You’ll be encouraged to drive and shape your own personal development and you’ll have access to learning and development opportunities tailored to your role. You’ll be supported to gain professional qualifications and certifications. Our training can cover a multitude of software disciplines including front end design, site reliability engineering, data engineering, solutions architecture, machine learning operations, UX, Agile and Cloud engineering.
We’ll help you to master the art of software and become part of our world-class engineering team, including seeking out opportunities to continually learn and develop – for example, through mentoring or spending time with other teams.
Rewards and Benefits
As a Software Engineer, you’ll receive a starting salary of £36,512 - £39,654 dependent on skills and experience (the package includes basic salary and a skills payment), and an additional one-off recruitment bonus of £2,000, plus other benefits including:
- 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 recognised through our employee performance scheme
- Interest-free season ticket loan (parking and travel)
- Excellent pension scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Facilities such as a gym and 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, 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 here.
We’re Disability Confident
GCHQ are 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. Being Disability Confident, we aim to offer a person-to-person interview to any candidate who self-identities 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:
Software Engineer Role:
- Strong motivation to learn/adapt to Agile ways of working
- Demonstrate an ability to develop software features
- Able to demonstrate knowledge of at least one modern language/framework, such as C++, GoLang, Java, JavaScript, .Net, Node, Python, Rust
- Demonstrate limited experience of working as a Software Engineer.
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
- Technical and competency-based interview, including a presentation
Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process in order to progress to the next. Your application may take around six to nine months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.
Before You Apply
Please be advised you may only apply to one of the Software Engineer roles, however, we can advise that you may be considered for one of the other roles should you be suitable.
To work at GCHQ, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria here 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
The role is based in London, Manchester/Greater Manchester, and 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.
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.
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
