Arabic Language Analyst Ref. 2448

Mind Achieving Impact AwardSocial Mobility Foundation AwardThe Times Top 100Disability confident leaderThe Prince's Responsible Business

Languages
Cheltenham
Permanent
Full Time
£30,831 rising to £33,831 after 6 months upon successful completion of probation

Your knowledge of Arabic could open up a career in intelligence. By joining GCHQ, you can play your part in protecting the UK and its interests.

We are looking to recruit Arabic 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 GCHQ to make the right choices to help safeguard national security.


THE ROLE
 
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 Arabic 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.

While the role is challenging, our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. Wherever possible, we accommodate reduced hours or job share options, balanced against business needs.

Later, there will be opportunities to develop your own career path focusing on the broader application of your language skills, be it helping to develop language technology, sharing knowledge with junior colleagues or learning in-depth analysis skills. 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 GCHQ’s business needs.

Whatever your career path, you will 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).


ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

•Degree-level* or native speaker knowledge of Arabic, acquired either through academic study, military training, time spent in-country or family connections. A formal qualification in the language (eg. Arabic degree) is not a pre-requisite.
•A strong desire to apply your knowledge of Arabic to promote the security and wellbeing of the UK
•A keen interest in current affairs
•Knowledge of and an interest in the culture, history and politics of those parts of the world where Arabic is spoken
•An interest in communications technology OR a willingness and openness to learn
•A strong team player, but an ability to self-start and work independently

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

•A 2:2 degree (in ANY discipline)
•Time spent in a country where Arabic Language is spoken
•Knowledge of one or more of the main dialects, such as Egyptian or Iraqi would be of value. However, equally valuable is a desire to learn and gain familiarity in a dialect
•A desire for ongoing professional development

ABOUT US

GCHQ uses its expertise in technology and cyber to collect foreign intelligence that Language Analysts translate and analyse to protect the UK from terrorism, hackers, espionage and organised crime.


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 Arabic language skills and any other language(s) you have learnt and your motivation for using Arabic 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 in London which will assess your Arabic language ability across a range of tasks including listening, reading comprehension and translation. To give you a better gauge of our level of language tests, we say candidates should be able to read a quality modern standard Arabic newspaper with ease and understand a news broadcast.

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 Cheltenham.

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

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:

•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, 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.
 

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, 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.


*By degree-level we mean either a university level Bachelors or Masters degree; STANAG Level 3+/4; CFR C1 in reading and listening and B2 in speaking and writing; or membership of the Chartered Institute of Linguists based on testing in A Language

This Program / Vacancy is closed to applications.