Salary:
- Business Change Analyst: £43,083
- Business Change Manager: £53,000
- Senior Business Change Manager: £68,745.
All roles attract a Concessionary Payment of £2,758 to £3,144, depending on role.
Flexible working: We support part-time working with a minimum of 30 hours per week, compressed hours, job shares and flexible start and finish times. Working from home arrangements will be considered where possible and agreed in line with both personal circumstances and business needs. Due to the sensitive nature of these roles, opportunities to work from home are limited.
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 roles
Business Change at GCHQ focuses on delivering a wide range of change initiatives across the organisation, from technology implementation and structural reorganisation to cultural transformation and operating model change. Working as part of a supportive and collaborative team, you’ll partner with colleagues across the organisation to understand requirements, engage stakeholders, and help ensure change is delivered effectively, making a real difference to how GCHQ works.
Responsibilities will vary depending on your level of experience:
As a Business Change Analyst the focus is on supporting change initiatives and developing your skills across the change lifecycle. This may involve delivering smaller pieces of change or contributing to larger change initiatives, working closely with experienced colleagues as you build your capability.
As a Business Change Manager, responsibility extends to owning more complex change initiatives, advising stakeholders on the best approaches and leading delivery across multiple areas. The role also includes supporting and developing less experienced colleagues and contributing to building an effective change community.
As a Senior Business Change Manager, the emphasis is on acting as a trusted partner to senior stakeholders, shaping strategy and guiding the organisation through its most complex change challenges. Insight, influence and leadership are key to ensuring change is successfully embedded across the business.
About you
Experience of delivering business change in a professional environment is essential, alongside a flexible and pragmatic approach to applying change tools and techniques. A collaborative approach and readiness to work across a range of initiatives are also important, along with the ability to adapt to contexts and priorities.
Effective communication skills are needed, including the ability to build relationships, engage stakeholders, and contribute to shared outcomes. Curiosity and openness to learning are key, with a willingness to develop skills, share knowledge, and improve how change is delivered.
The level of experience required will vary depending on the role:
Business Change Analyst: Experience supporting change initiatives across at least two areas is expected, such as technology change, process or policy change, culture, organisational design, or operating model change. If you don’t already hold a recognised Business Change qualification, you’ll be supported to obtain one during the early stages of your role.
Business Change Manager: Significant experience across multiple areas of change is required, along with the confidence to lead more complex initiatives and advise stakeholders on effective approaches. A recognised Business Change qualification (such as APMG International or Prosci) is expected, otherwise, you will be expected to achieve one during the initial stages of your role.
Senior Business Change Manager: Extensive experience delivering complex change, including transformational change, across a broad range of areas is essential, with confidence influencing at senior levels. Sound judgement and effective leadership are expected, as well as the ability to shape strategic approaches to change and a requirement to hold a recognised Business Change qualification.
Across all roles, adaptability, proactivity and a readiness to work in a fast-paced environment where priorities can shift quickly are important.
Training and development
From the moment you join, you’ll receive structured support, including a three-day organisational induction, a team induction, and a buddy to help you settle in. You’ll also benefit from mentoring focused on your development, as well as regular guidance from your manager as you work across a range of change initiatives.
Development is tailored to experience and role.
At Analyst level, the focus is on building core skills across the change lifecycle, with support to achieve a recognised qualification such as APMG, where this is not already held.
At Business Change Manager level, development broadens to include leading more complex ambiguous change, strengthening advisory capability, expanding influence across the organisation, and supporting the development of others.
At senior level, development centres on shaping how change is delivered across the organisation, influencing senior stakeholders, and refining leadership in complex environments, with opportunities to drive strategic direction and enhance the Business Change profession.
Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £43,083 to £68,745 (depending on the role), as well as additional benefits including:
- 25 days’ annual leave, rising automatically to 30 days after 5 years' service, plus an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays
- opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
- an interest-free season ticket loan
- an excellent pension scheme
- cycle to work scheme
- facilities such as a subsidised 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 truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: people 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 groups that are underrepresented in our workforce, such as women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, 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 scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to offer a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the minimum criteria for these positions an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI). To secure an interview for these vacancies, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are:
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. Meet the minimum pass mark for the application question which explores your CV, motivation and suitability for this role and organisation.
There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best. 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. An initial online application form, including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria.
2. An online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios.
3. A full online application form including a CV and application sift, looking at your motivation and suitability for the role and organisation
4. A virtual interview, in which you will be asked questions relating to your motivation and our core competencies.
5. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment and proceed to the vetting stage.
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 need to 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 must not 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 manage your application with us more securely.
The role is based in Cheltenham, 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.
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.
