Weapons Systems Analyst

Job summary

The UK intelligence community maintains a detailed overview of the threats posed by foreign weapon systems. This is your opportunity to play a vital part in the nation’s defence and procurement planning as you learn to paint a picture of weapons, risks, and threats.

Job description

As a Weapons Systems Analyst, we’ll train you to understand the capabilities of certain systems. You’ll grow your knowledge, with plenty of opportunity to develop yourself and others. This role is unique and varied and you’ll find yourself working at the cutting-edge of data analysis.

You’ll use a wide range of tools and techniques for data visualisation and analysis. Seeking the best solutions, you’ll bring fresh ideas to the team, influencing leaders and working diligently to build close relationships with customers, partners, and the wider team.

Working both on your own and together with colleagues across the intelligence community, you’ll set the standard for what good looks like, understanding customer business outcomes and translating this into informed guidance to an expert community both in this country and overseas.

In the future, as you develop your knowledge and experience, you’ll become the go-to person. You’ll take an active role in mentoring and coaching colleagues, contributing to the Analysis community, supporting others to upskill and build their career in an inclusive environment.

Person specification

To be successful in this role you’ll have – or expect to achieve - a minimum of a 2:2 degree in a STEM subject. Or maybe you have technical or engineering experience, for instance, experience gained in government, the military or defence industries. Whatever your background, you’ll have performed detailed data analysis and have experience writing reports based on that data. You’ll also have four or more GCSEs at Grade 4/C or an equivalent level 2 qualification including passes in mathematics and English.

Crucially, you’ll be attentive to small details, confident in handling numbers, data, and technical concepts with a proactive approach. Comfortable engaging with stakeholders at all levels, you’ll be working with large, disparate datasets and solving complex problems, so you’ll have an aptitude for problem solving and a keenness to work with others, finding solutions to unique challenges. You’ll enjoy analysing data to reach a conclusion and then using your communication skills to share your findings in a variety of written formats and in presentations.

Whatever your background, you’ll be adaptable, motivated, and collaborative, eager to make a positive difference and ready to learn a wide range of analysis techniques.

Any directly relevant experience – for example, working with military hardware or scripting or coding languages like Python would be an advantage, as would practical knowledge of data science. But please do not rule yourself out if you do not have these. More importantly, you’ll be tenacious, curious, and enthusiastic, and be committed to acquiring new skills and learning about unfamiliar technology.

Benefits

Training and development

From day one we’ll support youas a new starter with a dedicated mentor who’ll help you complete your training plans. While there is some formal or classroom-based training, much of the learning takes place on-the-job.

This means you’ll take on business tasks and receive full support and training within months of joining. You’ll be encouraged to work with different parts of the business, so you’ll constantly be exposed to new learning experiences across multiple specialisms, providing you with the chance to connect with colleagues and learn new things.

There’ll even be opportunities for postings to other UK or overseas locations once you’re fully trained. In short, it’s a role like no other, where you can use your knowledge and comprehension to become an authority in your field.

Rewards and benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £37,892,including a concessionary payment of £2,758, plus the opportunity for a skills payment, which is typically attainable between 2 – 3 years in the role. Skills payments start from £8,190. After further time in post (typically between 5 – 7 years) there’s the potential to qualify for skills payments starting from £15,288.

Other benefits include:

• 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
• Interest-free season ticket loan
• Excellent pension scheme
• 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

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 diversity on our website: Diversity & Inclusion , GCHQ Careers

We’re Disability Confident

GCHQ is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions' 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. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as the Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• Demonstrate the ability to make sense of complex data – assessed at application sift
• Demonstrate the use of a range of methods for presenting your findings – assessed at application sift
• Demonstrate a willingness towards learning in order to keep pace with technology – 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. How to Apply , GCHQ Careers

What to expect

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

1. Initial Application.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your response to a series of short scenarios. The SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation.
3. Application sift, looking at your motivation for the role and the organisation
4. Competency and technical Interview, looking at your motivation for the role
5. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, subject to vetting

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

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. How to Apply , GCHQ Careers

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. How to Apply , GCHQ Careers

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 to manage your application with us more discretely.

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 hardcopy 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 launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on 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 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.

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