Principal Project Support Officer Ref. 3692

Cheltenham

Flexible working We support a range of flexible working arrangements, including part time hours, compressed working patterns, and flexible start and finish times. Due to the sensitive nature of the role, it cannot be performed fully remotely or as part of a hybrid arrangement. However, there is an expectation that some home working will be required.

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 places the emphasis on teamwork.

The role 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.

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.

About you 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.

Training and development 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 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.

Rewards and Benefits You'll receive a starting salary £53,000 to £64,841 depending 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

Equal Opportunities 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 neuro divergent 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.

We're Disability Confident 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 of 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.

We offer a range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to perform at your best. Visit our "How to Apply" page for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect

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 to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply 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.

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