Project Support Officer

Job summary

As a Project Support Officer, you’ll play an essential part in making sure projects and programmes across GCHQ run smoothly. You’ll begin by helping teams stay on top of financial activity across the year, from monthly and quarterly forecasting to in-year monitoring and year-end close, before gradually expanding your responsibilities as your confidence grows.

Day to day, you’ll prepare financial and performance information for governance and review meetings, maintain accurate records and audit trails, and support discussions on financial risk and planning. As your skills develop, you’ll take on increasing responsibility across planning, risk and wider project controls. Over time, you’ll become someone delivery teams rely on for clear, structured information that helps them make timely and confident decisions.

Job description

You’ll work closely with Project Managers, stakeholders and customers to identify emerging trends, and be involved in conversations around scheduling, budgeting and risk. Throughout, you’ll help foster a collaborative culture built on teamwork, trust and clear communication. With the support of a well established project delivery community, you’ll also learn how high-quality project information underpins every successful delivery outcome.

Deployment may vary depending on organisational need, so you may work independently or within a multidisciplinary team. Occasional UK travel may be required, depending on business needs.

A structured induction will help you understand our mission, ways of working, and the delivery community you’ll be joining. During the first weeks, you’ll meet your line manager and a dedicated buddy will support your transition, build your confidence, and help you 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 accreditation pathways. Access to mentoring, coaching and project management forums will provide you with opportunities to share learning and strengthen your professional network, while regular career check-ins will help you reflect on your progress and shape your next steps.

We foster a “Discover. Develop. Deliver” culture with ongoing development embedded in the role. You’ll build solid foundations in financial management, planning, and risk management, while developing confidence in project controls and gaining valuable experience working in a variety of delivery contexts. While the role has no formal line-management responsibilities, there may be opportunities to develop people management and mentoring skills as part of future career progression. Throughout, you’ll be part of an active and supportive project management community committed to continuous improvement and shared learning.

Person specification

You have at least four GCSEs at Grade 4/C or above in English Language and Maths, or equivalent Level 2 qualification, or relevant experience demonstrating solid numeracy and communication skills.

Comfortable working with numbers and financial information, you’re able to interpret and present information clearly, whether in a spreadsheet, document or conversation. Your skills in Microsoft Office, especially Excel, mean you can work confidently with budgets, forecasts and financial reports.

You’re well suited to working across multiple projects or workstreams, often led by different managers, and you remain organised and reliable when priorities shift. A clear communicator, you can explain tasks, risks and financial information in a simple, accurate and reassuring way. Collaboration comes naturally to you, and you enjoy building positive relationships with colleagues, stakeholders, customers and visitors. Above all, your attention to detail and ability to stay calm when things get busy will help you thrive.

Your experience may come from project work, education, customer service, finance or any environment where communication, data handling or problem solving are key. What matters most is your interest in developing skills in financial control, planning and risk management, as well as your desire to grow within the project delivery and finance community.

Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary £35,134 to £42,338 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

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.

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.
• Demonstrates experience in project support tasks, including processing and analysing financial and performance data, and presenting information clearly in reports and dashboards to support delivery.
• Evidence clear written and verbal communication skills, including tailoring messages to different audiences and communicating risks or issues clearly to support successful delivery outcomes.

What to expect

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.

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