NCSC Economy and Society Cyber Resilience Lead Ref. 3801 in Cheltenham

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 and has the aim of making the UK the safest place to live and work online.

This role falls within the NCSC’s National Resilience Directorate, responsible for enhancing cyber resilience throughout the UK. More specifically, within the Economy and Society Resilience Team.

What will the successful candidate be doing? As an Economy and Society (E&S) Resilience Lead, you will collaborate across multiple NCSC teams and external stakeholders to deliver initiatives that enhance the cyber resilience of the UK's economy and society. This covers everything from a micro business to a FTSE100 company, academic institutions, charities and individual citizens. Your work will support one or more of the E&S team's outcomes, which aim to ensure that organisations are making better cyber decisions and, ultimately, the number of attacks that reach potential victims is reduced. These outcomes are underpinned by objectives, key results and more specific workstreams.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Increasing the cyber resilience of UK organisations through collaboration with business representative organisations.
• Building partnerships with industry, law enforcement and other stakeholders to collaborate on the delivery of cyber resilience and security initiatives.
• Working with other government departments to inform their policy development on cyber resilience interventions.
• Working with NCSC colleagues to develop capabilities that protect the UK’s economy and society from cyber-attacks.
• Continued development of personal knowledge and skills to deliver against an ever-changing threat landscape, whilst supporting the upskilling of others within E&S.

Person Specification The successful applicant will need to have:

• Experience in cyber security or organisational resilience.
• Experience of delivering successful outcomes in technically challenging environments.
• Skills at developing and managing productive relationships with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to represent NCSC externally, acting as a confident and credible ambassador for the organisation.

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:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Collaboratively
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering Outcomes

Rewards and benefits 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 are committed to helping you fulfil your potential. With comprehensive training and development opportunities, tailored to your needs and the requirements of your work, we will enable you to flourish in your role and perform to the very best of your abilities. You’ll receive a starting salary of £55,758 (which includes a concessionary payment of £2,758). For roles based in London, you’ll receive an additional £6,250 London Allowance. Other benefits include:

• 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
• 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
• 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.

Disability Confident GCHQ 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.

To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria, which will be assessed at the CV sift stage:

• 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.
• Demonstrate experience in relationship development and management.
• Demonstrate experience in cyber security or operational resilience.

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

• Initial online application.
• Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your response to a series of short scenarios.
• Application sift.
• Online Interview.
• 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 - 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. This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). 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.

The role is based in London, Cheltenham 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. We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process.

The closing date for this role is: 18th August 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.