Infrastructure Engineer

Infrastructure Engineer Ref. 3481

Department : Engineering

Location(s) : Manchester, Samlesbury

Salary : £36,408, plus a recruitment bonus of £2,000, dependent on skills assessed during the interview. Additionally, there is an opportunity to obtain a skills bonus of £4,513, based on a skills review during your first year in the role.

Job description

Flexible Working : This role is primarily office-based, with most of the work undertaken in the office and a small proportion of time working outside of the office. We offer flexible working hours, including options for compressed and part-time shifts. While working from home isn’t guaranteed, it might be possible on occasion, based on personal and business needs. Once you’re fully trained, you may also be required to join an on-call rota.

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 puts the emphasis on teamwork.

The Role

As an Infrastructure Engineer, you’ll become part of a friendly and skilled team dedicated to finding end-to-end solutions that optimise our systems and support our mission. You’ll be assigned a specialism based on your suitability, either at recruitment stage or following an in-role assessment. Specialisms include :

Tailored Acquisitions

Platform Engineers

Network Engineers

DevOps Engineers

Web Technology SMEs

Whatever your specialism, you’ll have real influence and impact. You might develop solutions for existing and future infrastructure or create innovative approaches to operational challenges. By contributing to your team’s success, you’ll also hone technical skills that advance your career. Whether you’re troubleshooting infrastructure issues or supporting operational tasks throughout their lifecycle, gain plenty of exposure to unique technology and grow in both confidence and experience.

This role involves plenty of collaboration. Work in both big and small teams, depending on the project and engage with a range of customers. Additionally collaborate with analysts across varied missions and the wider technical community to develop customer-driven infrastructure. In doing so, meet unique requirements, develop pioneering solutions and help enable the success of our mission.

About You

Are you passionate about IT and technology? Do you thrive in vibrant environments and love learning new skills? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you!

You only need one qualification : GCSE grade 4 / C or above, or an equivalent Level 2 qualification in Maths. No other specific qualifications or deep technical background are required. You might have a background in STEM, experience working in a small company with exposure to end-to-end products, or simply a passion for IT and technology. If you’re enthusiastic, motivated, and eager to learn new skills, you’ll thrive in this role.

Organised and adaptable, you prioritise tasks effectively and stay focussed under pressure. You analyse problems and are willing to explore different approaches to find creative solutions. Moreover, you communicate those solutions to customers with clarity. No matter where you are in your career, if you have a passion for learning new skills in an environment that values collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and innovation, this opportunity is for you.

Training and Development

When you start, you’ll be assigned a “buddy” and a mentor to help you settle into the role and life at GCHQ. You’ll engage in a mix of formal and on-the-job training and be given ownership of tasks early in your role. At the beginning, you’ll collaborate with your team and line manager on initial responsibilities to develop your skills and ease into the types of projects you’ll be working on. As an Infrastructure Engineer, you’ll rotate through each of the three areas of our large team, spending 6 months in each area. This will help you gain comprehensive knowledge and a well- rounded experience. After 18 months, you’ll be placed in the team that best matches your skills. Please note that the rotation and training programme described is specific to our Samlesbury location. Manchester will have its own tailored training programme.

Depending on your specialism, you’ll have the opportunity to develop a wider range of valuable skills including :

• Technical risk management : Learn to identify, assess, and mitigate technical risks.
• Operational security : Gain expertise in protecting systems and data from threats.
• Domain services (Windows / Linux) : Master the management of domain services across different operating systems.
• Operating system administration and security (Windows / Linux / Android / iOS) : Enhance your skills in administering and securing various operating systems.
• Web technologies (Tor / VPNs / Proxies / CDNs / Cloud) : Dive into the world of web technologies and learn to navigate complex networks.
• Scripting languages (Python / PowerShell / Bash) : Develop proficiency in scripting languages to automate tasks and improve efficiency.
• Virtualisation technologies (vSphere, Hyper-V) : Explore virtualisation technologies and their applications.
• Networking (Cisco, Juniper, NSX) : Build your knowledge in networking with industry-leading technologies
• Automation Tooling (Terraform / Ansible / Docker) : Get hands-on experience with automation tools to streamline processes.
• Monitoring and analysis (ELK, Splunk) : Learn to monitor and analyse systems using powerful tools.
• Storage (3PAR & Primera) : Understand the intricacies of storage solutions and their management.

We aim to develop your knowledge through exposure and using the right technologies for the problem. So, you’ll get experience of a wide variety of tech tools and programming languages, and as your skills develop, we’ll support your applications for specialist skill payments that recognise your abilities. We’ll also encourage you to pursue external training when necessary to enhance your knowledge of new technologies and provide opportunities to gain relevant funded qualifications.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £36,408, with the opportunity for additional skills payments once in role, plus other benefits including :

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 :

https : / / www.gchq-careers.co.uk / life-at-gchq / diversity-inclusion.html

We’re Disability Confident

GCHQ is proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This initiative encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain, and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident employer, we aim to offer a fair and proportionate number of person-to-person interviews to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI). To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are :

There is a wide range of extra support available through the recruitment process to enable you to do your best. See our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer : https : / / www.gchq-careers.co.uk / how-to-apply.html

What to Expect

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

Conditional Offer : If you’re successful, you’ll receive a conditional offer of employment.

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.

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.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy. 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 set 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 manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Samlesbury or Manchester, 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.

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 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 reserve 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.