Intelligence analyst/officer : Employers and vacancy sources

The UK’s three intelligence and security agencies which employ intelligence analysts are:

• Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) , which gathers intelligence through the interception of communications (signals intelligence (SIGINT)) for reasons of national security, military operations and law enforcement. It also provides advice and recommendations as the Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG) , the UK’s national technical authority for information assurance. The director of GCHQ reports to the Foreign Secretary.
• Security Service (MI5) , which is the lead agency responsible for protecting the UK against covertly organised threats to national security, using human and technical sources. Their work includes tackling international and domestic terrorism, as well as counter-espionage work. They also provide security advice to a range of organisations (see the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) ). The director general of MI5 reports to the Home Secretary.
• Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) , which collects secret foreign intelligence on issues relating to the UK’s interests in national security, defence, serious crime, and foreign and economic policies. Using human and technical sources, as well as liaison with foreign counterparts, SIS obtains and provides information about the acts and intentions of foreign nationals, conducting operations overseas in the support of UK government objectives. The chief of SIS reports to the Foreign Secretary.

Other parts of the UK government also contribute to intelligence collection and/or analysis, notably the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)  and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) . SOCA became operational in April 2006, taking over serious crime responsibilities from the Security Service.

The Ministry of Defence also employs intelligence analysts, either directly recruited as civilians into Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) , or recruited as military staff. For example, the British Army recruits intelligence analyst into the Intelligence Corps .

UK police services also individually recruit criminal intelligence analysts. They analyse reported crime statistics to identify patterns in crime behaviours in order to predict future crime and persuade senior staff to allocate crime-fighting resources accordingly.

See Police Recruitment  for information about working for the police force in the UK. The National Intelligence Model  describes intelligence-led policing.

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• GCHQ Careers   
• Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)  
• Security Service (MI5)  
• Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)  

All three agencies separately advertise vacancies in the national press and on their own websites. In addition, the agencies’ specific recruitment campaigns are often accompanied by dedicated websites. Look out for further information on this on the above websites. Candidates must apply online through the respective agencies’ websites.

Other sources of vacancies for intelligence analyst roles elsewhere include:

• MoD Careers   
• Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)  

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