About Us

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ help protect the UK and UK interests from threats to national security at home and abroad. We work closely as partners in the intelligence community to safeguard Britain’s people and interests from various threats including cyber-attacks, espionage, terrorism and organised crime.
 
The Role

We currently have vacancies for Senior Auditors in our Internal Audit and Consultancy function. We’re a diverse team that works as a trusted business partner with the intelligence agencies: protecting value, delivering insight, and developing talent and future leaders. We have privileged exposure to the work of the community as a whole and take pride in delivering high quality and impactful services, while continuously seeking opportunities to innovate. It’s challenging, varied and meaningful work that you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Find out more about our internal audit team here.
 
We’re looking for experienced Senior Internal Auditors to support the Deputy Head of Internal Audit. In this role you’ll manage and deliver internal audit assurance and advisory work to MI5, MI6 and GCHQ at pace, covering a wide range of topics. This will include topics that are truly unique to the intelligence community, such as reviews of mission-focused capabilities and adherence to the legal framework underpinning our mission work.

Your contribution will make a real difference. You’ll provide customers with high quality assurance, advisory and investigatory services that help strengthen and enhance our risk management, governance, and internal control arrangements. You’ll be working on a variety of complex audits and assignments, which could range from leading and overseeing a small team to deliver a project, to conducting independent reviews to quality, budget and agreed timescales.

Although you’ll be based in London or Cheltenham, travel within the UK is essential, with a possibility of occasional overseas travel. You will also need to live within a commutable distance of your work location. We do not cover relocation costs but there will also be the opportunity to work from home during part of your working week.

About You
 
Regardless of specialism, you’ll be able to understand and evaluate business arrangements quickly and be a credible communicator who can interact with staff at all levels across the organisation - taking a lead role when communicating to senior stakeholders. As a Senior Internal Auditor, you could also manage a small number of newly qualified Internal Auditors.
 
Senior Internal Auditor – Technology: You’ll have a diverse and broad technology background. We particularly value experience and expertise in relation to cyber security, ITGC, change management, technology infrastructure, cloud computing and service management. You’ll also possess audit experience across data governance, data privacy and data security. Most importantly, you’ll be passionate about learning and keeping up to date with emerging technologies and trends.

Senior Internal Auditor – General: You’ll have a diverse and broad internal audit background. You will have experience of auditing a range of corporate and operational areas.

What You’ll Bring To The Role:
 
•    A strong and demonstrable internal audit and risk management background in the public and/ or private sector.
•    A relevant professional qualification (eg. IIA, CCAB or equivalent). For technology focussed auditors CISA qualification or equivalent is desirable.
•    Experience of performing complex, high and medium-risk focussed internal audits, and confidence in navigating ambiguity and complexity.
•    Knowledge and experience of applying audit testing methodologies, data analysis, root cause analysis and strong report writing skills. This should include the ability to review the design of control processes and their operating effectiveness, while continuously looking at ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these processes.
•    Demonstrable people management experience, with the ability to lead small teams to deliver a portfolio of audit assignments and manage competing priorities and deliver audit work at pace, to time and quality commitments.
•    The ability to engage and build relationships with internal and external stakeholders. This should include experience of successfully negotiating and communicating with customers at all levels within the organisation, to deliver difficult messages and influence change in a collaborative way.
•    A proactive mindset, and able to identify methods or approaches to continuously improve internal audit capabilities and ways of working.
•    Experience of data analytics, including use of SQL and / or VBA excel to query data and use of data visualisation software such as Qlik Sense, Tableau or Power BI is desirable, but not essential for this role.
•    Experience of providing assurance over change and transformation programmes is also desirable, but not essential for this role.


Training and Development

In line with our focus on developing talent and future leaders, development opportunities will form an important part of this role. We will support you in achieving the professional qualifications you need to progress your career with us in Internal Auditing.

You will be supported initially by a buddy, and by your line manager throughout your posting.  Internal communities, support networks and mentors will also be available to you.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £53,211 (Central London) or £51,638 (Cheltenham) plus other benefits including:

•    25 days annual leave (rising to 30 days after 5 years’ service) and 10.5 public and privilege holidays
•    Financial support for learning and development
•    Interest free season ticket loan
•    Excellent pension scheme
•    Cycle to work scheme
•    Subsidised gym, restaurant and coffee bar
•    Flexible Working opportunities

Culture and Working Environment

As part of our team, you’ll discover an inclusive workplace that’s welcoming, supportive and encouraging. You’ll be part of an organisation where people want to support one another and make a difference. Aside from fostering an open culture, we’ve got a range of growing affinity groups. For example:  
 
•    Ethnic Minority and gender equality networks
•    Groups supporting wellbeing, mental health, neurodiversity and disability
•    Faith/No Faith communities for staff to come together
•    LGBTQ+ support networks

You’ll also find a variety of sports, activity, interest and social groups to help you settle in and connect with people with similar interests.

Before You Apply

To work at MI5, MI6 or GCHQ you need to be a British citizen. We do 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.

Honesty and integrity are really important if you want to work at MI5, MI6 or GCHQ. Take some time to read about the vetting process and make sure you meet the criteria in the vetting pages of the ‘How to Apply’ section. The process can take some time, but this is just because it’s thorough. Giving misleading information and omitting or concealing information during the recruitment and vetting process is viewed very seriously.

The role is based in London and/or Cheltenham, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application.

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.

Equal Opportunities

At MI5, MI6 and 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, 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.

We’re Disability Confident

MI5, MI6 and 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 ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this position will be offered an interview where practicable; this is known as ‘Offer of an Interview’.

To secure an interview for this vacancy, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• Passing the eligibility stage
• Meeting essential criteria for the role at the application form stage

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply, you must be a British Citizen. One of your parents must be a British Citizen or must have one of the nationalities or citizenships from one of the following: British Overseas Territory, British Subject, British National (Overseas), British Overseas Citizen, British Protected Person, citizenship of a country in the Commonwealth, citizenship of a country in the European Economic Area (EEA), or citizenship of the United States of America (USA). If deceased, they should have had such citizenship or nationality before death. If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will nonetheless be considered. If successful, you will not normally be required to give up your non-British citizenship but, as a condition of your employment or secondment, MI5, MI6 and GCHQ may impose restrictions on your postings, work travel and/or general use of that nationality. Candidates must normally have been resident in the UK for seven out of the last ten years. This is particularly important if you were born outside the UK. Each case will be carefully considered on its own facts. You can apply at the age of 17 years and 6 months, if successful you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday. Discretion is vital. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member. 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 of the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. Further information on our eligibility criteria can be found on the Applying section.

What to Expect

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

•    The first thing we will ask you to do is complete our pre-screening questions to find out if you meet our initial criteria. If you do meet these criteria, we will then ask you to fill out a full application form where you will need to create a log in and provide your full name, email address and a memorable password.
•    Our recruitment team will conduct a sift of your application and successful applicants may be invited to a short video interview that will explore your audit experience and interest in the role. All successful applicants who pass this stage will be invited to a final online interview where you will have the opportunity to demonstrate key behaviours relevant to the role.
•    If you pass the final online interview, we will then start the vetting process, which includes a Security Interview. This interview is an important part of the selection process. It’s an interview to explore your life and experiences, and it’s not a competency or capability-based interview.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process in order to progress to the next and your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process.

Our Vetting

To work in this role you will need the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community has to go through and it can take some time. As part of the DV process you will be asked to fill in a detailed questionnaire and attend an interview with a vetting officer. In your interview the vetting officer will have a thorough, compassionate and honest discussion with you about you as a person and your life experiences, to ensure holding a DV clearance is right for you. You don’t need to do any preparation for your vetting interview, just be honest and be yourself. All applicants for DV are treated impartially and consistently, irrespective of gender, race, disability, religion, age, sexual orientation and other protected characteristics.

Right to Withdraw Statement:

Please be aware that we withhold 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.

To return to the main vacancy and apply for this role, please click here.