Business Support Officer Ref. 3777

This role is expected to attract significant interest and may close within a short time frame, so early applications are encouraged.

About us

We’re MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Our mission is to protect the security and economic wellbeing of the UK from overseas threats such as regional instability, terrorism, and cyber-attacks. Working across the globe and in close partnership with MI5 and GCHQ, we help the Government to counter these threats through the provision of secret intelligence. A role in MI6 will see you providing vital support to this work, within a supportive and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

The role

As a Business Support Officer (BSO), your role will be administration-based, supporting the smooth running of your team to deliver their mission. You will start on a three-year development pathway and over the course of this time, you will be allocated to 2 placements in different teams as a BSO, benefiting from practical learning, within a supportive environment. You could be assisting a busy operational, technical or corporate team e.g, HR department, or working alongside senior staff and managing their diary. As a BSO you will be the go-to person within your team and your contribution will keep critical activity on track. This role brings plenty of new opportunities every day and you will be expected to take on real business challenges whilst learning with the support of your team. As a BSO you are supporting your team, which helps the organisation run.

On completing the pathway, you will have a variety of opportunities open to you. You may want to specialise in a corporate profession and gain industry-recognised qualifications, we are particularly interested in those who want to apply for roles in one of our many locations overseas (opportunities to work overseas after 3 years). Whatever you choose, this role offers you the opportunity to carve a career path unique to you, building on your strengths whilst learning and developing valuable new skills.

About you

You’ll have a minimum of 5 GCSEs Grades 9 – 4 (A* to C) including Maths and English Language Grades A* to C or equivalent. A resilient problem-solver with innate curiosity, you’re adaptable with an ability to plan and prioritise your workload and you’ll enjoy embracing challenges to support our mission. You’ll be comfortable communicating with people at all levels of the organisation, anticipating their needs and using your natural curiosity to look for efficiencies to help you, and your team, work better.

You’ll be adaptable, motivated, and collaborative. Some BSOs come straight from full-time education, others might have extensive work experience, but all are attracted by our unique working environment. Whatever your background you will share our values of Integrity, Courage, Respect and Creativity and our mission to have a positive impact on UK security.

Training and development

At MI6, we’re proud to offer an inclusive and supportive working environment. We value and nurture talent, and we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential. No matter your experience or background, you’ll get lots of dedicated support. Upon joining, you’ll receive an initial induction to learn more about the organisation. You’ll then begin your career with MI6 on a three-year development pathway, with a range of different learning and development opportunities available, from team shadowing to courses and peer support. You won’t be on your own here – our strong community of Business Support Officers have created a peer network, where you can learn from each other, share ideas, organise events and build connections that’ll last throughout your career. You’ll be part of a community dedicated to your development.

Rewards and benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £36,377, plus other benefits including:

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
• an interest-free season ticket loan
• an excellent pension scheme
• a cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave

Equal opportunities

At MI6 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 https://www.sis.gov.uk/working-at-mi6/diversity-and-inclusion/

Offer of interview

We are committed to providing equitable opportunities throughout the recruitment process to support candidates with disabilities. As part of this, 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, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

You'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses your ability to problem-solve

1. Achieve the minimum pass mark in questions about your motivation for wanting to work for MI6 and for the role – assessed at application sift
2. Demonstrate the ability to solve problems effectively while adapting to changing priorities and embracing challenges – assessed at application sift
3. Being able to plan and prioritise workload and communicate confidently with stakeholders at all levels – assessed at application sift

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:

Eligibility questions – you’ll answer a number of questions based on the requirements for the role.

1. Initial form – you’ll create a personal account and complete our equal opportunities monitoring questions. If you do not feel comfortable completing equal opportunities monitoring, there is a ‘prefer not to say’ option for each question.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios.
3. You’ll complete an online application form and online test.
4. You’ll be invited to attend an online interview.
5. If you’re successful at this stage, you’ll be made a conditional offer of employment while you undergo the Developed Vetting process (details below).

You’ll only be made a final offer of employment once you have obtained the necessary security clearance.

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 MI6, 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 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 to manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in London, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. An interest-free loan is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.

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 hardcopy 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.

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.