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 National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, is the UK Government’s lead authority on cyber security. The organisation is at the heart of the Government’s cyber security strategy aims to make the UK the safest place to live and work online.
At the NCSC, an AI Security Architect plays a key role, leading a wide-ranging portfolio that spans strategic programmes, security research, and cutting-edge architectural design. You’ll collaborate with leading experts across government, industry, and academia to tackle complex security challenges and deliver impactful advice to our users. The role places you at the forefront of shaping secure adoption of emerging technologies—especially Artificial Intelligence—while directly supporting critical national outcomes.
The role
In this role, the focus will be on researching how to design secure architectures and systems around AI, rather than building or securing models directly. Close collaboration is expected with teams researching core GenAI security, as well as those examining broader socio-technical considerations and supporting capabilities.
Assessing how AI technologies can be integrated into both existing and emerging architectural models is a key aspect of the role. This includes working with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google and GCP, as well as areas like identity and access management, AI agents, and hybrid cloud environments. Responsibilities also include contributing to the development and evaluation of secure frameworks, tools and architectures, and supporting the development of NCSC guidance on the safe adoption of GenAI.
This work provides an opportunity to further develop expertise as a security architect while contributing to a wider range of AI and broader architectural initiatives.
About you
Your experience spans designing and building a range of systems and services, or providing expert technical advice, together with the ability to apply specialist security capabilities to real-world challenges. This is underpinned by a solid understanding of how technological vulnerabilities arise, how they are discovered and how they may be exploited. Experience in developing or supporting systems using modern technologies, including cloud services and AI, is also valued. Alongside this, a broad background across a variety of technologies is expected, complemented by a deeper expertise in an area of particular personal interest.
GCHQ Competencies
As part of the selection process, the NCSC will assess you using competencies aligned with those used across the UK Intelligence Community. These are closely based on the Civil Service Behaviours, so if you’re familiar with those, you’re already on the right track.
At Level 3, we’ll be looking at how you demonstrate the following:
- Driving Innovation and Change (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Changing and Improving)
- Communicating and Influencing (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Communicating and Influencing)
- Working Collaboratively (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Working Together)
- Delivering Outcomes (Civil Service Behaviour Equivalent: Delivering at Pace)
Further information on Civil Service Behaviours
Training and development
At NCSC and GCHQ, we are proud of our inclusive and supportive working environment, which is designed to encourage open minds and attitudes. As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential. With comprehensive training and development opportunities tailored to your needs and the requirements of your work, we’ll enable you to flourish in your role and perform to the very best of your abilities.
Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £55,758, which includes a concessionary payment of £2,758.
This role attracts a skills payment. You’ll be assessed against the skills criteria during the selection process, with details of the criteria provided when you’re invited to interview. If successful, the skills payment starts at £15,757 (Level 2) and can increase to £33,448 on achieving Level 3.
Other benefits include:
- 25 days’ annual leave, rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and 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
- a cycle to work scheme
- facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars; availability varies by location
- paid parental and adoption leave
- an excellent pension scheme - Civil Service pension
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.
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, candidates must meet the minimum criteria, which will be assessed at the CV sift stage:
1. You'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation
2. Demonstrate experience of applying specialist technical security capabilities to help solve customer security problems.
3. Demonstrate how technological vulnerabilities occur, how they are discovered, and how they may be exploited.
4. Demonstrate experience of developing or supporting systems, using modern technologies.
There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best. Please see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.
What to Expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:
1. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios
2. Application sift
3. Online Interview
4. If 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 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 NCSC, 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, 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 recommend 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 or surname or date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.
The role is based in 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.
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 hard copy 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.
The closing date for this role is: 16th July 2026 at 23:55
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.
