Dari and Afghan Pashto Language Analyst Ref.2402

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Languages
Central London
£33,350 (rising to £36,053 after 12 months)

Your knowledge of Dari and Afghan Pashto could open up a career in intelligence. By joining MI5 you can play your part in protecting the UK and its interests.

We’re looking for Dari and Afghan Pashto linguists for a role that goes beyond translation and transcription. It takes knowledge of the culture, history and politics to fully understand the original idea. If you can do that, you can enable MI5 to make the right choices to help safeguard national security.


THE ROLE

MI5 is responsible for the domestic security of the UK and the work of our language analysts help to identify and counter threats to the UK’s national security.

You’ll use your language and analytical skills to provide intelligence insights that often have direct impact on UK government policy and decision-making. Your challenge is to seek out the important information from Dari and Afghan Pashto language material and make that material accessible and understandable to others. You’ll play an active role in directing projects and driving forward investigations, working right at the heart of intelligence. It’s gripping work, which will draw on your judgement, people skills and linguistic and cultural expertise every step of the way.

Our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. Wherever possible, we accommodate reduced hours or job share options, balanced against business needs.

There will be opportunities to develop your own career path focusing on the broader application of your language skills, we’ll support and help you enhance your linguistic skills further and work with you to develop language technology, share knowledge with junior colleagues, learn in-depth analysis skills and get involved in agent running. We have opportunities for promotion within the team, leading to more strategic understanding of the work we do. There are opportunities to develop your language skills, and allowances to reward your use of a high level of language capability to meet MI5's business needs.

Whatever your career path, you’ll be part of a community of dedicated and talented language analysts, working together to really make a difference.


GROW AND DEVELOP

At the Intelligence Agencies, we’re proud of our inclusive and supportive working environment that’s designed to encourage open minds and attitudes. As organisations that value and nurture talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential. But you’re not expected to come to us with a wealth of knowledge, or skills, on day one. With comprehensive training and development opportunities, tailored to your personal needs and the requirements of your work, we’ll enable you to flourish in your role and perform to the very best of your abilities.

You’ll be supported to enhance your linguistic skills further, for example by specialising in a specific dialect. You’ll also receive training on non-language aspects of the job, including more technical skills.

In return, you’ll receive a range of benefits (including a recognition payment to reward the advancement of language skills).


THE SKILLS

Your language skills could come from growing up in a multi-lingual family, or you may have studied Dari and Afghan Pashto to a high level.

Your linguistic skills need to be complemented by good knowledge of Afghan culture, history, religion and politics. You also need to combine an analytical, enquiring mind with strong powers of judgement and good people skills. To ensure you pass our language tests, you will need to be able to comfortably read newspaper articles and understand news broadcasts in Dari and Afghan Pashto. You’ll be able to translate from Dari and Afghan Pashto into clear, well drafted English.
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We have an excellent benefits package which includes 25 days holiday as standard (pro rata) increasing to 30 days after five years, various flexible working patterns and part time working options available, generous pension contributions and parental leave, and three days volunteering leave

SALARY


Starting Salary London: £33,350 (rising to £36,053 after 12 months)
After a 12 month probation period language analysts are eligible to join the language capability framework which pays an allowance on top of salary.


SELECTION PROCESS

To apply for this position, you must meet our nationality, residency and security requirements. You can find these on our website.

You’ll be required to complete an application form, providing contact details and equal opportunities monitoring information. You’ll also be asked to provide background about your education and employment history, as well as details of your Dari and Afghan Pashto language skills and any other language(s) you have learnt and your motivation for using these languages in a role in intelligence.

Following this, the recruitment team will conduct a paper sift of applications. Successful applicants will be invited to attend a language test in person which will assess your Dari and Afghan Pashto language ability across a range of tasks including listening, reading comprehension and translation.

If you’re successful at the language tests, we will invite you to attend a final assessment centre. The assessment centre will include a face-to-face interview and drugs test in central London.

Once the successful applicant has been determined, the candidate will be asked to attend a security interview with a Vetting Officer.


WE’RE DISABILITY CONFIDENT

MI5 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:

•    Eligibility questions – You will be asked a series of questions relating to this vacancy. If you meet the eligibility criteria you will directed to the initial application form.
•    Application form – You will be required to pass an application form sift
•    Language Tests - You will be required to reach the pass mark set for the relevant language tests.
 
On successful completion of the tests, you will be invited to interview.
 
 
 
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 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.
 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

At MI5 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.

This Program / Vacancy is closed to applications.