IT Service Delivery Opportunities Ref. 2615

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IT / Information Technology
Cheltenham, London
Permanent
Full Time

About Us

We’re GCHQ, a world-leading intelligence, cyber and security agency. Our mission? To unlock the complex world of communications and keep the UK safe. Working closely with our partners in the intelligence community, we protect the nation’s people, interests and businesses from threats including serious and organised crime, terrorism, and cyber-attacks.

The Role

IT Event Management Analysts:

IT Event Management Analysts are responsible for ensuring our IT systems meet our operational needs, both inside and outside of office hours.

As part of the wider Event Operations team, working a 24-hour shift pattern, you’ll monitor critical IT infrastructure, helping to detect and report issues before they cause an impact and diagnose and solve a range of IT issues. You’ll liaise with numerous support teams and third-party suppliers providing out-of-hours support for the IT Service Desk, Incident Management and Communication Centre messaging functions.

IT Event Definition Engineers:

If you’d prefer to work typical office hours and in a more technical role, we have opportunities within our IT Event Definition team. This team design and support an early warning service for potential system failures, enabling our teams to quickly know about and proactively fix issues before they turn into something that impacts our customers.

You’ll look for opportunities to take advantage of our system logs for a range of familiar software applications – some which are more unique to our organisation – and build on our capability to automatically alert Event Operations colleagues when something doesn’t look right.

IT Service Management Professionals:

Service Management Professionals work across the IT lifecycle. In all our roles, you’ll be liaising regularly with other support teams, including partners across the intelligence agencies. In addition, you’ll contribute to the development and improvement of processes to support a wide range of customers.

You could be working in one of several different areas – for example, planning for service outages; designing new services for our customers; Business Continuity; or co-ordinating the restoration of IT services when they fail.

We also have Service Management Professionals managing change; seeking to prevent recurring issues through problem management; managing requests and the catalogue of offerings in our online portal; managing our assets; and developing business intelligence dashboard solutions which drive critical decision making.

Salary:

IT Event Management Analysts, working a 24-hour shift pattern:

  • £30,831. Roles based in London also attract an additional £5,500 London Weighting payment. There is an additional 33% salary uplift on the base salary for this shift-based working role.

IT Event Definition Engineers and IT Service Management Professionals:

  • £30,831. Roles based in London also attract an additional £5,500 London Weighting payment.

About You

We’re looking for enthusiastic and motivated people who are keen to learn new skills and have a genuine interest in working within an IT environment. You’ll be a good communicator, customer-focussed with sound interpersonal skills, and be able to demonstrate your ability to prioritise and remain focused in stretching circumstances.


IT Event Management Analysts and Event Definition Engineers roles:

  • You’ll need to have previous experience of problem resolution within an IT environment, such as working on an IT Service Desk or in a second-line technical support role.
  • For Event Operations, it would be beneficial to have some knowledge of network technologies, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Service Desk experience and/or experience with Microsoft Server environment.
  • For Event Definition, it would be beneficial to have some knowledge or experience in operating systems or IT infrastructure, and/or CompTIA+ qualifications.

IT Service Management Professionals:

  • You’ll need to have previous experience within an IT Service Management role. For example, you may have worked on an IT Service Desk, or specialised in a supporting area such as Incident, Change, Access, Request or Asset Management or a similar business area.
  • It’s essential for you to have knowledge or experience of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL qualifications would be beneficial, but not essential.

Training and Development

During your first two years in post, you’ll benefit from a full training package tailored to your needs. In addition to the core knowledge you’ll need to perform your role, you’ll have opportunities to attend external training where you could gain professional qualifications, such as ITIL v4 or CompTIA+. You’ll also be encouraged and supported to take advantage of the wide range of internal courses and workshops to further your personal and professional development. 

You’ll be supported by mentors for both technical and personal development, and your peers will also support you as you settle in.

After you’ve been with us for two years, future opportunities to build a long-standing career within Service Management will be available to you – there are a wealth of options for your future career aspirations.

Rewards and Benefits

You'll receive a starting salary of £30,831. Roles based in London also attract an additional £5,500 London Weighting payment plus other benefits including:

  • 25 days annual leave 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.
  • Opportunities to work flexibly, subject to business needs.
  • Interest-free season ticket loan.
  • Excellent pension scheme.
  • Facilities such as a gym and restaurant, and on-site coffee bars at some locations.
  • Paid parental and adoption leave.

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, including:

  • Ethnic Minority and gender equality networks.
  • Groups supporting wellbeing, mental health, Neurodiversity and disability.
  • Faith/no faith communities.
  • 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 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 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 Cheltenham or central London, 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 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, ages, 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

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:

IT Event Management Analysts and Event Definition Engineers:

  • Achieve satisfactory marks on two key questions within the Application Form, relating to: (1) Your motivations to apply and undertake the work on offer and (2) the particular skills and/or experience you believe will help you succeed in the role and our organisation.
  • Demonstration of problem resolution skills within an IT environment which will be tested during the application stage and at interview through a series of competency and technical questions

 Service Management Professionals:

  • Achieve satisfactory marks on two key questions within the Application Form, relating to: (1) Your motivations to apply and undertake the work on offer and (2) the particular skills and/or experience you believe will help you succeed in the role and our organisation
  • Demonstration of skills within IT Service Management. You may have worked on an IT Service Desk, or specialised in a supporting area such as Incident, Change, Access, Request or Asset Management. This will be tested during the application stage and at interview through a series of competency and technical questions
  • Knowledge or experience of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

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 the nationality or citizenship from our approved list of countries (further information on our eligibility criteria can be found here  https://www.gchq -careers.co.uk/how-to-apply . If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will nonetheless be considered. 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. You can apply at the age of 17 years, 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:

  • Complete eligibility and Online application
  • Application and CV Sift
  • Competency interview and Technical interview
  • Conditional Offer of Employment
  • Developed Vetting
  • Formal Offer of Employment

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process in order to progress to the next stage. You application may take 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

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 to impartially and inconsistently, 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 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.

This Program / Vacancy is closed to applications.