Project Support Officer

Department

Technology Roles

Location(s)

London

Salary

£42,798 (including concessionary payment of £3,353)

Job description

Flexible Working:
Due to the nature of our work this role is office-based only. We do however support full-time (36 hours), part-time, compressed and flexible working patterns.

About Us
MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing, and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you'll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The Role
As a Project Support Officer (PSO), you’ll be at the heart of our mission, supporting key activities that will keep the country safe. As part of a collaborative team, you’ll be responsible for bringing structure to the delivery of transformational projects, using your skills to plan, budget, and resource-manage.

As a custodian of project information and resources, you will focus on analysing, interpreting, and providing insight on the progress of projects and programmes, reporting out to stakeholders across the intelligence agencies. If anyone wants the latest status, figures, actions, or issues, you’ll be the person who makes it happen. Your contribution will keep critical projects on track, helping us to protect the UK and its interests.

This role brings plenty of new opportunities and challenges every day, from supporting Project Managers, to providing guidance on risk management, finance, and planning. You’ll be reporting on project progress as you help to mitigate risk, ensure project quality, and support collaboration. Crucially, you and your team will help to drive forward a collaborative, joined up approach by actively promoting knowledge sharing between team members, partners, and stakeholders.

About You
You’ll have a minimum of 2 GCSEs at Grade 4/C in mathematics and English language, or an equivalent Level 2 qualification, plus experience of using Microsoft Office packages including Excel. Since you’ll be extracting and presenting data, you’ll be comfortable handling numbers too.

Although experience of working within a project environment, or exposure to projects is desirable, it is not essential. Whatever your background, you’ll be adaptable, motivated, and collaborative. You’ll also be comfortable engaging with stakeholders at all levels and reaching out to appropriate experts who can support organisational change.

Intellectually curious, attentive to detail, and at ease navigating complexity in an agile working environment, you’ll enjoy solving problems and embracing challenges to support our mission.

Training and Development
We’re committed to developing our staff and recognise this will look different for everyone. We have an expert skills community dedicated to supporting you. You’ll have a full induction to the organisation, which will help you understand how we operate. You’ll then have a team induction to give you a rounded understanding of your role, followed by on-the-job training to help you settle in.

You’ll be supported with planning your own development and be proactive in seeking out opportunities to learn as you progress. There’ll be plenty of tailored training, coaching, and mentoring, alongside opportunities to pursue specialised career pathways within organisational change. As a commitment to developing and applying core project delivery skills, we follow the Government Project Delivery Capability Framework (PDCF) to guide and nurture talent at all levels.

Whatever your professional goals, we’ll work with you to build the skills you need to excel at your role and throughout your career.

Rewards and Benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £42,798, plus other benefits including:

• Excellent pension scheme
• 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
• Dedicated Development Budget
• Interest-free season ticket loan
• 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 MI5 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.mi5.gov.uk/careers/diversity

We’re Disability Confident
MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s 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 Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (to be assessed at application form sift) are:

• A minimum of 2 GCSEs at Grade 4/C in mathematics and English Language (or equivalent O-Level, BTEC or Level 2 qualification).
• Working knowledge of MS Office, pulling data and reporting together, particularly in manipulating and extracting the right data, so that it can be easily digested and presented
• Demonstrate a proactive approach and the ability to engage with a range of stakeholders
• Demonstrate analytical and problem-solving skills, and an awareness of project management methodologies

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

• Application sift – you are advised to make full use of the word allowance for each question
• In person – competency and technical-based interview

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.

Before You Apply
To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes.

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 securely.

The role is based in Central London, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. An interest-free loan is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.

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.