Non-Executive Director - Technology and Digital Lead

Job summary

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.

Our GCHQ strategy focuses on:

• delivering impact where it is needed most;
• harnessing technology to operate at the edge of impossible;
• investing in our people to build an inclusive, diverse workforce; and
• being a well run organisation.

Further information can be found here.

Job description

About the Role

We are seeking a Non-Executive Director to join our Board of Directors with recent and extensive experience of large scale digital and technological delivery and innovation.

This position complements the balance of skills, experience, and perspectives of our existing Board. Working with our executive and non-executive directors in a dynamic and demanding environment, you will help to shape, scale, and promote the long-term sustainable success of GCHQ.

As a Board member you will contribute your knowledge and expertise to the Board’s collective decision making, formulating strategy, providing direction and assessing performance. You will help us achieve cultural change and our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) ambition.

You will act as a critical friend to the Director, and coach executives as required. You will bring independent and constructive challenge, along with advice, to help set our future direction navigating complex digital modernisation and responding to the opportunities and risks of AI at the pace of the frontier.

Key responsibilities:

1. Provide strategic advice to help set our future direction as we move into a fast-paced changing world, navigating complex digital modernisation;
2. Provide external and independent views on large digital transformations and AI adoption, readying us to consume advanced services, future-proofing our processes, and enabling this at scale;
3. Be able to offer informed challenge on GCHQ’s major strategic technology challenges;
4. Shape and embed our purpose, values, and strategy, ensuring cultural alignment;
5. Provide an internal and independent view on the running of the business, ensuring high levels of appropriate accountability and governance best practice are upheld;
6. Provide independent counsel to the Director, acting as a trusted sounding board in specialism or more generally;
7. Provide independent oversight and challenge of executive and business performance, ensuring it is strategically aligned and prioritised;
8. Ensure the Board is operating within the risk appetite and risk management framework agreed by the Board;
9. Ensure that workforce policies and practices are consistent with GCHQ’s values and support long-term sustainable success;
10. Provide valued input and contribution to Board meetings and, where appropriate, constructive independent challenge to the thinking and decision-making of the Executive Board;
11. Ensure the effective implementation of Board and Committee decisions by the Director and executives;
12. Actively participate in Board Committees and sub-committees, supporting and chairing where required;
13. Advise and support other members of the department on defined topics and support, mentor, and coach directors where requested;
14. Regularly update own skills, knowledge, and familiarity with the business, risks to the business, and regulatory environment

As the Tech and Digital Lead NED, you will also be expected to:

• Attend, in person, the GCHQ Board and annual offsite. This will include preparation / reading time in advance (often on location at secure sites) and on occasion, pre-briefs, to ensure the necessary background and knowledge for full participation in Board activities. Plus ad-hoc support to the department, and attendance at any other relevant committees or sub-committees.
• Allocate sufficient time to discharging the key responsibilities of this role.
• Complete all mandatory training.
• Regularly update and refresh your skills, knowledge, and familiarity with GCHQ’s business, the risks it runs, and the legal framework and ethics with which it must comply.
• Have a high degree of resilience, integrity, and impartiality, avoiding conflicts of interest.
• Adhere to, and promote, GCHQ values and behaviours.
• Undertake duties in accordance with the Cabinet Office Code of Conduct for Board Members.

Person specification

About You – Person Specification

Experience

We are seeking recent and extensive experience of:

• Working at board and executive level in an organisation of scale and complexity.
• Leadership within a leading-edge technological environment and technical industry experience.
• Delivering significant transformation and able to offer informed challenge on GCHQ’s major strategic technology challenges.
• A track record of achievement in digital/technological improvement, innovation, and research & development.
• Leading large operational businesses through large scale change, including people and cultural aspects of change, and the associated challenges.
• Supporting, mentoring and coaching Directors.
• Delivering EDI initiatives and organisational culture change.

Desirable:

• NED experience.
• Operating in a political environment with complex operational challenges and multiple collaborative dependencies.
• Working directly with central government and in a large-scale regulatory environment.
• Balancing the needs of a variety of stakeholders.

Skills and Qualities

• Provide advice to help set our future direction as we operate in a fast-paced changing world.
• Have the intellect, breadth of vision, inclusion, and team focus that will enable full contribution to strategic discussions.
• Bring a truly independent perspective and original input to board meetings, and constructive challenge to strategy, process, and practice at a high level.
• Proven track record of holding executive teams to account.
• Motivated to act in the public interest to make a meaningful contribution to the governance of an organisation of critical national importance.
• Absorb complex issues quickly, see what is important and articulate confidently and clearly.
• Be a calm and considered listener, with an open approach, good emotional intelligence, and the ability to develop effective relationships.
• Be comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.

KEY TERMS

Fee payable: c.£1000 per day, dependent upon attendance

Location: Required to attend meetings at sites across the UK.

Time commitment: Up to 20 days a year - 9 board meetings plus a strategic away day, plus any board committee commitments and sub-committees.

Allowances: Reasonable travel & subsistence (we are a public sector body and bound by public finances, ethics, and integrity in how public money is spent)

Term: Three-year period with a formal review point after two years.

Notice: 3 months

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Selection Process and Timetable

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit.

The closing date for applications is 23rd October 2026 at 10am. We ask that you submit your applications as early as possible to ensure that they are processed before this deadline; any late applications received are unlikely to be considered.

Please note that you will initially be required to complete a short eligibility application and Situational Judgement Test, before you are invited to complete the full application form which will include the submission of:

• Suitability Statement (1000 words) evidencing how you have met the experience, skills and qualities detailed in the person specification.
• CV and Technical Career Summary.

The application process in in depth and can take significant time to complete, so we strongly advise leaving plenty of time in advance of the closing date to complete and submit your application.

Application Stages:

You must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next.

1. Your application will be sifted to assess your evidence against the person specification as detailed in this job description.
   - scheduled for w/c 9th November 2026
2. If longlisted, you will participate in a telephone interview with our recruitment partners.
   - scheduled for w/c 16th & 21st November 2026
3. If shortlisted at telephone interview, you will be invited to participate in a Technical Panel Discussion with a small group of GCHQ staff. This will be held virtually, with full details of the assessment process made available to shortlisted candidates.
   - scheduled for w/c 14th December 2026
4. You will be invited to attend a panel interview held in person, where your motivational fit, values, competency evidence and technical experience will be assessed.
   - scheduled for w/c 4th January 2027
5. If successful at panel interview, you will be invited to a face-to-face discussion with Anne Keast-Butler, Director GCHQ.
   - scheduled for w/c 11th January 2027

Please note that these dates are subject to change, and we do ask that you employ flexibility throughout the process with regards to your availability.

For more information about the role or a confidential discussion please contact confidential@recruitmentoffice.org.uk

Eligibility

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. If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will nonetheless be considered. You can apply at the age of 17 years, if successful you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday.

For more information, visit here.

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. Candidates will, however, be considered if they have, for example, served overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of Her Majesty’s Government, studied abroad or lived overseas with their parents. Further guidance around eligibility can be sought from us around candidates with private sector experience who have spent significant periods in the last 10 years working abroad.

Successful candidates will have to hold or obtain Developed Vetting – this is the highest form of security clearance. As part of the vetting process, candidates will have to complete a number of vetting forms including a financial questionnaire and have a confidential security interview with a trained vetting officer. Developed Vetting clearances are subject to review.

We have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you cannot take any recreational drugs and will need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Discretion is vital. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member. Successful candidates would not normally be able to disclose that they are a NED for the organisation.

There must be no conflict of interest(s), including other roles in your portfolio, or national security conflicts.

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

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

We 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:

• You'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation.
• Demonstrate senior leadership skills within a leading-edge technological environment, with significant technical industry experience and a track record of achievement in improvement, innovation, and R&D.
  - Assessed at application sift
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively, provide constructive challenge and build confidence with a wide range of stakeholders – to be assessed at application sift.
  - Assessed at application sift
• Demonstrate the ability to lead an organisation through significant transformation and large scale change.
  - Assessed at application sift

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

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.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : confidential@recruitmentoffice.org.uk
• Email : confidential@recruitmentoffice.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : confidential@recruitmentoffice.org.uk

Attachments

Tech NED Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 2330kB)