Intelligence Officer

So, what will you do as an Intelligence Officer (IO)? Well, you’ll use your intellectual curiosity to help gather, deliver and use secret intelligence to protect the UK and its interests overseas. With your natural people skills, you’ll build strong, trusted relationships. And working with government departments and agents at home and abroad, you’ll help to make the UK a safer place.

There are few things we look for in our Intelligence Officers:
• A minimum 2:2 degree or higher
• A knack for solving problems and building persuasive arguments
• Proactivity, adaptability and perceptiveness
• Curiosity and a love of learning new things
• Confident, credible and influential communication
• Inclusive and empathetic collaboration

If you’re an avid learner; a people person; if you throw yourself into learning new things and embracing change, you’ll be welcome here, whoever you are. We value diversity in every sense of the word: different backgrounds, cultures, gender identities, ethnicities and sexual orientations., To be eligible to apply, you must be a British Citizen. If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will nonetheless be considered. 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. You can apply at the age of 17 years, if successful you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday. Full eligibility details can be found on our website https://www.sis.gov.uk/eligibility.html

IOs work in four main areas. We have Targeters, who analyse data to be turned into real-life intelligence operations. Case Officers, who build and manage relationships with agents (the people who pass on intelligence to us. Reporting Officers, who analyse, validate and test the intelligence before briefing government officials. And finally, there are Operational Managers, who plan and manage the collection of intelligence.

It’s all critical work. You might meet an agent for a chat in a café. Or you might gather intelligence online at our offices. In fact, your work will look much like any other office role – and you’ll usually be contactable throughout the day too, in case your family and friends need you. No matter what, you’ll be supported all the way.

Learning and development
We don’t expect you to be a fully formed IO when you join. We’ll give you all the training you need on our three-year Intelligence Officer Training Pathway, where you’ll learn all about gathering intelligence. In that time, you’ll do both classroom and on-the-job training, and experience a few different roles with your own workload to look after. So, when you’re ready to graduate from the Pathway, you’ll be able to apply for a role in an area that best suits your skills and interests. Then every three years or so, you’ll move into one of the other IO areas to broaden your skills and experience even further. Wherever you are, there’s constant access to a mentor and plenty of support around you – from both your colleagues and our many diversity network groups.

There’s a lot on offer. Such as opportunities to work overseas, an interest-free relocation loan, 25 days’ annual leave, an excellent pension scheme, financial support for learning and development, and shared parental and adoption leave.