Flexible Working: We offer a range of working styles to fit your needs, whether you require full-time, part-time, compressed, or flexible hours to balance your personal and professional life. While the role is primarily office-based, there are some opportunities for homeworking, depending on business needs and personal circumstances.
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
This role offers a unique opportunity to use your Korean Language skills in ways you may never have imagined – for a purpose you won’t find anywhere else. As a Korean Language Specialist at GCHQ, your expertise, along with your deep understanding of Korean culture, ideology, and politics, will be crucial in protecting the UK and its interests.
As part of a diverse team of experts, you’ll use your knowledge of the Korean language and culture to identify nuances in key information from spoken and written materials. Combining language and technical skills, you’ll piece together snippets of information collected from a variety of digital communication sources, to build up the full intelligence picture.
In your first year, you’ll work within a closely-knit team, engaging in textual analysis and audio learning while honing your analytical skills. You’ll learn how to contextualise information, making it accessible and understandable to others, including key partners shaping UK policy. There’s a lot to learn to become a proficient language specialist, but as you gain confidence, you’ll start to undertake long-term projects and work more independently.
Along the way, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to shape your career in a way that suits you – focusing on topics or skill areas that you find most interesting. Whatever you’re working on, you’ll enjoy varied and rewarding tasks, using your language skills in a supportive team.
About You
You don’t need any experience or qualifications to be a Korean Language Specialist with us. However, you do need strong language skills, excellent written English, and a thorough knowledge of Korean culture, history, religion, and politics. Essentially, you’ll be passionate about the language and a proficient user (at C1 level, see explanation below) of Korean in all its forms.
Your proficiency could come from being a heritage speaker, growing up in a multilingual family, undergoing language training in the military, or studying Korean to a high level academically.
At C1 level or higher, you’re able to:
- Understand a wide range of longer and more demanding texts or conversations.
- Express ideas without too much searching.
- Effectively use the language in social, academic, or professional situations.
- Create well-structured and detailed texts on complex topics.
You can also access the CEFR self-assessment grid for more information on our requirements.
We’re looking for resilient, curious problem solvers who are attentive to small details and have strong interpersonal skills.
You also need:
- An analytical, enquiring mind.
- Good judgement and effective people skills.
- A collaborative approach, as you’ll share your knowledge and contribute to professional standards of best practice.
We’ve provided a guide on C1 level for information purposes. However, if you think you’re just below this level, please don’t rule yourself out – we’ll test you, so if you’re not sure you have all the skills we’re looking for, please give it a try and apply. During the interview process, we’ll assess your language skill via a number of translation and transcription tests, as well as some additional skills we’re looking for.
Training and Development
At GCHQ, we have an inclusive and supportive working environment designed to encourage open minds and attitudes. We value and nurture talent, and we’re committed to ensuring you have the support and guidance to build a rewarding career at the heart of national security. You’ll benefit from on-the-job training and classroom-based sessions, enhancing both your language and technical skills.
From language events and workshops to acquiring professional qualifications, our strong learning culture will continuously develop you, your knowledge, and your skills. By joining GCHQ, you’ll become part of a network of colleagues who work across the Intelligence community. This widens our perspectives, enhances our abilities, creates an open culture, and enables us to be more effective in our work. You’ll work alongside and learn from a community of language experts who’ll share their knowledge and encourage your contributions.
Along with being assigned a buddy on day one, you’ll undertake a comprehensive induction package that spans multiple areas of the business, providing you with insights into how we use Korean in our work. Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) qualifications can be attained, and you’ll also have opportunities to upskill, which in turn will attract financial rewards.
Whatever your career path, you’ll be part of a community of passionate, dedicated, and talented language specialists, working together on critical work you won’t find elsewhere.
Rewards and Benefits
At GCHQ, you’ll receive a starting salary of £34,663. After successfully completing the 6-month probationary period, you’ll be eligible for an additional annual payment of £3,120 in recognition of your language skill.
- 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.
- Opportunities to work flexibly, subject to business needs.
- Interest-free season ticket loan (travel and parking).
- Excellent pension scheme.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Facilities such as a subsidised gym and restaurant, and on-site coffee bars.
- 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 commitment to 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 (in order of application process) are:
- Demonstrate strong motivation and commitment to work for the UK intelligence agencies, assessed at application form sift.
- Achieve a pass mark in the language tests.
What To Expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:
- Initial application and eligibility sift.
- In-person language tests in Cheltenham.
- An in-person interview and analysis test in Cheltenham.
You may also be required to undergo a hearing test for this role.
Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 9 - 12 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.
We regret that we are unable to reimburse travel expenses.
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 manage your application with us more discreetly.
This role is based in Cheltenham, 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 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 reserve 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.