Intelligence Officer Ref. 573

Stonewall Top Employer AwardSocial Mobility Foundation AwardDisability confident leaderThe Prince's Responsible BusinessThe Times Top 100

Intelligence
London

Job description

Intelligence is at the heart of what MI6 does. It is the secret information that the British government requires to keep the country safe and prosperous.

As an intelligence officer your focus will be gathering, delivering and utilising intelligence. These are fascinating and unique roles. Whether working with government departments to identify the intelligence requirements, overseeing a targeting effort to develop an operation to gather the intelligence, meeting the agents overseas with access to the intelligence, or reporting the intelligence back to senior government Ministers you will be at the forefront of keeping this country safe and secure.

Your career will likely encompass all of these roles but you will not be assigned to any one until you have been through the initial induction course which will allow us to assess where your skills best lie. In your career you will also have the opportunity to work overseas, receiving language training where appropriate.

As your career develops you will have ample opportunities to broaden your skills and look to move into management and operational leadership positions.

You will receive a competitive salary (variable dependent on relevant experience) and also benefit from additional allowances, including child care support during training.

The qualities we are looking for

The ideal candidate is probably not the obvious candidate. The sort of qualities we are looking for are:
•    Real evidence of achievement, both in an academic setting and supplemented with work/life experience
•    A sharp intellect and analytical capability with an ability to link disparate data in order to draw conclusions
•    Sound judgement and the capability to operate with great levels of autonomy
•    A drive to acquire knowledge and an ability to absorb new learning across a diverse range of subjects
•    Exceptional interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. The ability to understand, interact and connect with a diverse range of people is central to what we do and defines a good officer
•    An interest in foreign culture is essential. Ability with foreign languages and technology are both advantages.

For candidates of exceptional ability there is the opportunity to be selected for our Fast Track managed programme

Thinking of applying

Applicants must be British nationals, aged 21 or older and are required to have a minimum of a 2:2 degree or higher, or be expecting to achieve this and are in the final 6 months of completing your degree.


You should only discuss your application with your partner or a close family member, as long as they are British. They should also be made aware of the need for discretion.

Contrary to some people's pre-conceptions, there is not an MI6 'type'. The Service strives for diversity in the work place and is committed to the creation and maintenance of a climate in which all staff are treated fairly on the grounds of merit and ability. We judge you solely by the value that you can add to our work.

The Service is also proud to be a member of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme in recognition of our commitment to equality of opportunity regardless of sexual orientation.
 
Application process

The following is a rough guide to the recruitment process. Some applications may proceed more quickly, others more slowly - especially when application levels are high.  We strongly recommend that candidates make their applications via the website from within the UK. Those living overseas are advised to wait until they visit the UK before launching an application.

Check the Nationality and Security Criteria Unfortunately, no matter how good your application, we won't be able to accept it unless you meet these criteria - so do check.

Advice for completing the application form
The application form asks for details of your:

•    Academic record
•    Employment and life experience
•    International Travel, and
•    Language and IT skills

This information is vital for us to be able to evaluate your application and we would ask that you ensure that the details are as accurate as possible. This can be time consuming to provide in the format we ask for. However, these details are essential at this stage.  

In addition to this factual information, we ask you to answer a series of further questions. Some are competency-based which allow you to demonstrate the attributes and aptitudes that we consider essential to this role; we are less interested in a list of achievements than in understanding how you work and arrive at results. Other questions are more analytical in nature. Your answers to these questions are key to whether we think you would be suitable for this unique role. Each of these answers has a word limit.

We suggest that it is easier to draft responses in MS Word (or equivalents) and then cut and paste into the application form itself.  Please be aware that there is an automatic time out to this section so you may lose information if you do not save it for a long period.

You should only refer to our organisation as ‘the organisation’ in any of your answers.

When you have completed all the sections of the application form, please finish the process by using the ‘Submit’ button. We have no access to your form until you do so. We will process your application form as quickly as possible and, if you are successful, we will invite you to an interview.

Thank you again for your interest in this role.  We must remind you that confidentiality is central to our work.  Please do not discuss your answers with anyone else or leave information up on screens where you may be overlooked.

We ask candidates to submit within 7 days of starting their application form.  This will enable us to process it as quickly as possible and, if you are successful, we will invite you to a testing session in London.

Successful applications

If your application is successful at this stage you will be invited to attend a testing session which will take place in London and are designed to test whether you have some of the core skills and competencies essential for the role.
Candidates who are successful at the testing session, will then be invited to attend an interview.

The final stage of our recruitment process is a two day assessment centre.





This Program / Vacancy is closed to applications.