Network Engineer

Salary: £37,892, including a concessionary payment of £2,758. There is also the opportunity to qualify for a £2,000 recruitment bonus and an additional £4,513 skills payment, depending on experience and capability. Skills and eligibility for additional payments will be assessed during the interview process.

Flexible working: We support a range of flexible working patterns, including full time and part time arrangements, as well as compressed hours. Due to the sensitive nature of the role, home or remote working opportunities are not possible.

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 carry out varied and fascinating work in a supportive and inclusive environment that emphasises teamwork.

As a Network Engineer within the Network Capability Centre (NCC), you'll design, implement and maintain secure, scalable network infrastructure that underpins critical organisational systems. Working in a large, multidisciplinary environment, there is a shared contribution to the delivery and ongoing reliability of network services supporting national security outcomes.

Your work may include activities across a full lifecycle of network delivery. This includes designing and building solutions, supporting deployments, and monitoring and troubleshooting live environments to maintain availability, performance and security. There is also involvement in ongoing operations, including updates, patching and optimisation, alongside contributions to disaster recovery and business continuity activities.

Day to day, work is a mix of independent tasks and collaboration, working closely with internal teams, customers and external organisations to resolve issues and strengthen network capability. Continuous improvement is a key part of the role, helping to evolve network services and supporting the adoption of technologies that enhance resilience and security.

Operating within a large team, initial work sits within a smaller specialist area, with opportunities to broaden your experience as you develop. This role is particularly well suited to early career or developing engineers looking to build their technical capability, gain exposure to a wide range of networking technologies and progress into a more senior engineering role.

You'll have GCSEs (or equivalent) in Maths and English at Grade 4/C or above, along with a solid foundation in network engineering. This may come from a dedicated networking role or a broader IT position, but you'll be confident in building, testing and maintaining network infrastructure, as well as diagnosing issues and supporting live environments. Experience with Cisco or similar networking technologies is essential.

A good understanding in configuring and supporting network technologies is expected, alongside knowledge of systems such as Linux or Windows. You may also have experience across areas such as automation, cloud platforms or core services like DNS and DHCP.

A practical approach to problem solving is key, together with an interest in working with live systems, identifying faults and maintaining reliable services. The ability to work effectively within a team, communicate clearly with both technical and non technical colleagues, and take a proactive approach to resolving issues is essential. A genuine interest in networking and emerging technologies will help you get the most out of the role, and you'll be motivated to continue developing your technical skills and expanding your knowledge.

When you join, you'll complete a structured induction within the Network Capability Centre, giving you a broad understanding of the networks, systems and technologies that the team designs, builds and supports.

Development is practical and continuous. You'll build your capability by working alongside experienced engineers on live systems, contributing to real projects from the outset. This is complemented by access to internal and external training, including core networking courses, specialist technologies and industry recognised certifications such as Cisco.

Support is provided within a collaborative team environment, with a buddy to help with getting started and mentors to guide your ongoing development. As skills grow, there are opportunities to move across teams and technologies, broadening your experience and building a well rounded and rewarding career in network engineering.

You'll receive a starting salary of £37,892 plus other benefits including:

• 25 days' annual leave, rising automatically to 30 days after 5 years' service, along with an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through the employee performance scheme
• an interest free season ticket loan
• access to facilities such as a subsidised gym, restaurant and on site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave

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 from different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations and ways of thinking, as well as 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, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and those from low socio economic backgrounds.

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. Being Disability Confident, 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 work at GCHQ, 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.

We have a strict drugs policy. Once you start your application, you must not take any recreational drugs, and you'll need to declare any previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

When contacting GCHQ during the recruitment process, consider using a separate email address to keep your personal and application correspondence separate. Avoid including identifying details such as your name or date of birth in your email address. This is good practice and will help you manage your application more securely.