Principal Project Support Officer

Job summary

As a Principal Project Support Officer, you’ll play a central role in enabling the successful delivery of projects and programmes across GCHQ. Working within the Project Delivery Capability Centre, you’ll apply effective project controls across a diverse portfolio, ensuring that delivery teams are supported with accurate information, with robust governance, and consistent, high‑quality processes.

Job description

You’ll work across the full project lifecycle, contributing to financial management, scheduling, risk and issue management, reporting, assurance and change control. This role offers significant autonomy, allowing you to take responsibility for defined areas of work and provide constructive challenge, guidance and advice to delivery teams and stakeholders. Your work will underpin informed decision‑making and ensure that complex outcomes are delivered efficiently and effectively.

You’ll also take an active role in strengthening project delivery capability, promoting best practice, identifying lessons learned and driving continuous improvement. As part of the central project support team, you may work across multiple directorates or delivery areas, supporting a rich mix of projects in complex and evolving environments. You may occasionally need to travel within the UK to meet customers, teams and stakeholders.

The role comes with line management responsibilities, offering opportunities to supervise and coach colleagues and contribute to the broader development of the project support community.

A structured induction will help you understand our mission, ways of working and the project support community you’ll be part of. During your first weeks, your line manager and a dedicated buddy will support your transition, build your confidence, helping you to navigate the organisation.

Development continues through a blend of internal and external training, practical experience, and community support. As a corporate member of the Association for Project Management (APM), we’ll encourage you to explore relevant courses, frameworks and support you to work towards, or maintain, APM membership. Access to mentoring, coaching, and a range of project delivery forums offer additional avenues for learning and connection, helping you expand your network and share good practice. Regular career check-ins will help you reflect on progress and shape your next steps.

We foster a “Discover. Develop. Deliver” culture, with ongoing development embedded in the role. You’ll have opportunities to strengthen your skills in scheduling, financial management, risk and issue management, governance and reporting. There is also space to grow your leadership and supervisory capability as you take on more complex responsibilities. Throughout your development, you’ll be part of an active and generous project delivery community committed to continuous improvement and shared learning.

Person specification

You have GCSEs at Grade 5/C or above in English Language and Maths, or equivalent Level 2 qualifications, or relevant experience demonstrating solid numeracy and communication skills. Furthermore, you bring well‑developed project controls knowledge, covering areas such as forecasting, profiling and accruals, risk management, scheduling, governance, assurance and change control.

Experience working across multiple projects or workstreams has helped you develop confidence in adapting priorities, making balanced decisions, and escalating risks or conflicts when needed. You understand how to build effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, sharing clear and accurate information and supporting sound decision‑making while staying within agreed boundaries.

Your background includes supporting projects, programmes or portfolios in complex delivery environments and applying project controls throughout the lifecycle. You’ve contributed to continuous improvement, produced reliable management information for governance and assurance, and communicated clearly, whether in writing, verbally, or through dashboards. You’re also familiar with supervising or coaching colleagues and participating in wider organisational processes.

Methodical and organised, with meticulous attention to detail, you care about producing high quality work. Your collaborative and inclusive approach means you contribute positively to team outcomes and help improve ways of working. You’re adaptable, resilient and able to operate effectively amid changing priorities and complex contexts. Above all, you’re committed to developing your skills and contributing to the wider project delivery community.

Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary £53,000 to £64,841 dependent on skills and experience, plus other benefits including:

• 25 days’ annual leave, rising automatically to 30 days after 5 years' service, plus an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• an interest-free season ticket loan
• an excellent pension scheme
• a cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave

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

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

1. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your responses to a series of short scenarios. The SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation.
2. Application sift, which will assess your motivation for the role, the organisation and your relevant experience.
3. Interview to assess competency and suitability for the role.
4. If successful, you’ll receive the conditional offer of employment, subject to a drugs test and vetting.

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

At GCHQ, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a workforce that truly reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: people of 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 individuals from groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce, such as women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Visit our website to find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity .

GCHQ is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. The scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident organisation, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria for this position, assessed at sift, are offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. This is known as the Offer of Interview. To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• You will be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Organisational Situational Judgement Test which looks at your ability to problem solve. If you meet this criteria, you will be directed to complete an application form.
• Evidence applied competence across core project support disciplines, including accrual accounting, risk, scheduling, and assurance, and experience providing insight or challenge to support informed decision-making

Show evidence of coordinating work across multiple workstreams, adapting priorities, managing risks or conflicts, and communicating delivery impacts to support informed decision-making.

To work at GCHQ, you must be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.

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 applying, we recommend setting up a separate email address for your contact with us to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid including 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 securely.

The 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.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation. Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hard copy receipts for reimbursement.

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 begin your application. Applying from outside the UK will affect our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Please be aware that we reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for this role 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.

Please note, it is this organisation's policy not to provide feedback at any stage of the recruitment process. This may be contrary to the message below.

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 : careers@recruitmentteam.org.uk
• Email : careers@recruitmentteam.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : careers@recruitmentteam.org.uk