Service Desk Analyst (Shift) Ref. 3198

Flexible Working: Shift patterns accounting for 36 hours per week (London) and 37 hours per week (Cheltenham). The shift pattern is: Days 0700 – 1900 and nights 1900 – 0700. Part-time, job share will be considered. Due to the nature of the role, hybrid working is not an option.

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

As a Service Desk Analyst, you’ll work within the IT Event Operations team ensuring IT systems meet our operational needs both inside and outside of office hours. This is an extremely varied role; you could be supporting, maintaining, and developing new capabilities and infrastructure solutions, rapidly responding to unplanned outages and colleague requests, or contributing to unique projects.

Working with hardware, innovative technology and the Cloud, you’ll gain broad exposure to the operations and mission priorities across GCHQ. You’ll operate on a 24-hour shift pattern and monitor our critical infrastructure as well as helping to detect and report issues. Day-to-day, you could be focusing on our networks, operating systems, data transfers and cyber security; you’ll help maintain a continuous awareness of the health and integrity of our global IT estate.

You’ll work as part of a team of infrastructure specialists and engineers solving specific challenges. At other times, you’ll join larger groups assigned bigger tasks. Either way, you’ll work closely with colleagues across GCHQ and our partner agencies, as well as external industry representatives. You’ll also use your skills to develop Cloud native technologies, applications and provision infrastructure. With your genuine interest in technology, you’ll assist with our drive to automate ‘infrastructure as code’ techniques, identifying innovations that shape the way we work.

About You

You’ll have an IT-related qualification at QCF Level 3 (or above), or be able to demonstrate experience of working within incident or problem resolution within an IT environment. You may also have some knowledge of network technologies, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), service desk experience and/or a background working with Microsoft Servers.

You don’t need experience with all of the technologies we use as we’ll offer training and support, but you should have worked with at least some of the following: Cloud services including IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and Cloud native CI/CD workflows, tools such as Jenkins, Concourse, Bamboo and Code Deploy (AWS), and programming, scripting languages and automation including Powershell, Python, Ruby and goLang. We also work with physical, virtual, Cloud and Container-based infrastructure such as VMWare and AWS, Linux, Windows, macOS and iOS operating systems, WAN/LAN technologies and authentication/authorisation tech such as Open ID.

Importantly, you’ll have a genuine interest in technology and infrastructure engineering and a desire to learn new skills in a fast-moving environment. Enthusiastic and motivated, you’ll also demonstrate sound customer service as you’ll be handling requests from colleagues across GCHQ, some of which will be urgent. You’ll analyse issues and develop creative solutions before sharing your knowledge and insights with the team and stakeholders, as well as providing up-to-date handovers to the next team when you’ve finished your shift.

Training and Development

As well as on-the-job training and access to subject matter experts, you’ll be paired with a mentor to support your technical and personal development. We also have a number of internal groups for wider knowledge exchange.

We’ll work with you to create a structured development plan, offering training that’s tailored to your needs. This could be in the form of external sessions, bespoke internal courses or self-guided learning. We’re committed to ensuring you have access to a wide range of opportunities to further your learning, which is why we’ll encourage you to pursue areas of interest and even cover the cost of your training throughout your career.

You’ll also have opportunities to apply for professional registration with the IET or BCS, or to gain qualifications including the ISC2 CISSP, CISCO CCNA and CCIE, or qualify as an AWS Solution Architect.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £34,663 plus shift disturbance payment of 33% of base salary in Cheltenham and in London £34,663 plus shift disturbance payment of 33% of base salary. London-based roles also attract a London weighting payment of £6,250, 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 (travel and parking).
• Excellent pension scheme
• 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 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.

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-identifies 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 which will be assessed at application sift (in order of application process) are:

• Able to demonstrate a passion for IT – either by work experience or extra-curricular learning.
• Able to demonstrate a keen interest in new and emerging technologies
• Comfortable working independently as well as within a team.

What to Expect

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

• CV and Application Question Sift
• Competency and technical interview looking at your motivation for the role
• If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 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 need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria 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.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having 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 to manage your application with us more discretely.

The role is based in Cheltenham / Central London, 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. 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 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.