Mobile Surveillance Officer Ref. 3830

Work Pattern: shift work, including working two weekends in five. We will discuss your shift pattern with you towards the end of the recruitment process. It will always be organised well in advance, and you’ll be able to book your leave around it. Due to the nature of the role, travel is common and remote or home working isn’t possible.

About us
MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing, and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you'll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The role
As a Mobile Surveillance Officer, you’ll blend into the environment, observe people and places, and report back to MI5’s Intelligence Officers. Surveillance is a key investigative resource we use to protect against threats to the UK, and your key objective will be to observe subjects who’ve been identified as potential threats to national security.

This is a uniquely impactful, one-of-a-kind role, so we don’t expect you to have all the skills when you join. In fact, our Mobile Surveillance Officers come from all sorts of backgrounds including nursing, teaching and customer service. Some are recent graduates, and some have spent years working in another industry.

To begin with, you’ll attend an intensive 20-week training programme, where you’ll learn how to turn your existing skills to surveillance. We’ll teach you how to safely observe and blend into your surroundings – and keeping you safe will be our priority. Plus, you'll get the chance to bond with your fellow officers, which will matter once you're out in the field, travelling and carrying out surveillance on foot or in a car, often at short notice, as part of a close team tracking subjects across changing environments.

Due to the nature of the role, you’ll work to a shift pattern and spend time travelling away from home. Your shift hours will be organised in advance on a five-week rota, which will include working two weekends in five. We’ll always give you as much notice as possible when travel is needed. But on rare occasions, subject to mission requirements, you may need to travel at short notice or spend up to seven nights away. There may be the option for flexible working after completion of the 20-week training programme, and we’ll discuss this with you as part of the recruitment process.

About you
You'll have strong communication skills and the ability to build relationships quickly, along with a genuine willingness to learn. You don’t need any qualifications to join us, but you will need a full UK manual driving licence and should have no more than three points on your licence. You’ll also use maps in your role, so you should be willing to learn how to navigate yourself between two points using an ‘A-Z’ map and be comfortable communicating directions to others.

Since you’ll be working closely with a partner, you’ll need to have a strong sense of camaraderie, with teamwork and people skills that you might have learned from working in a team, playing sports, travelling, or coaching. Being there for your fellow officers will be important, just as they’ll be there to support you. So, you’ll be energised by working with others and able to build good, lasting relationships.

You’ll also be observant, someone who’s able to accurately remember details of what you’ve seen and heard. You’ll be a skilled multitasker – able to learn how to watch, plan and think ahead, drive and communicate with your team, all while making risk assessments and decisions on the go.

Aside from your skills, there are some physical requirements for this role. These are to ensure you can complete surveillance safely and effectively. Along with hearing and eyesight tests, the following physical requirements will be assessed during the recruitment process:

• any distinguishing features such as tattoos on your face, neck or hands would make you more recognisable to someone who is under surveillance and would therefore make you unsuitable for this role
• if you are a man you will need to be 6’2” or under and if you are a woman, you must be 5’10” or under
• you’ll need to have good vision in both eyes, either naturally or corrected with glasses or contact lenses, including full colour and peripheral vision to DVLA Group 2 sight
• good hearing, referred to as HSE Category 1 without hearing aids, is essential
• you should be comfortable both walking and sitting for substantial periods of time
• good manual dexterity in both hands will be needed so you can operate surveillance equipment
• you’ll need to undertake and pass a Fitness for Role medical which includes having a body mass index of 30 or less and blood pressure within NICE guidelines of less than 140/90

Our officers operate in communities across the UK, so it's important that our teams reflect the society we protect and can work effectively in a wide range of environments without attracting attention. That's why we're particularly keen to recruit women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, helping us build balanced teams with a broad range of perspectives and experiences. All applications will be considered on their own merits.

Training and development
We take your training seriously – it’s how we’ll make sure you stay safe and are able to complete your role effectively. Our training programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge needed to become an effective surveillance officer. On joining, you will commence a 20-week pass/fail programme which is based in London and non-residential. The course consists of 6 non-assessed and 14 assessed weeks. Training is on a 1:1 student-to-instructor ratio and predominantly based in real-world, uncontrolled environments, with some classroom-based learning.

Upon completion of the course, you will then join one of our surveillance teams and be allocated a Development Partner for 6 months to coach and mentor you, helping you to apply your learning to operations and develop your skills to excel in the role.

Over time you’ll get opportunities to build specialist skills within the surveillance discipline as well as learning more about the department and what we do. Due to the investment in your learning there is an expected 5-year return of service within the surveillance role, although many officers stay for their entire careers. There will also be an expectation that after your first two years you will develop your wider surveillance knowledge by incorporating some internal office work, which can be non-operational in nature. Training and personal development are ongoing throughout your career.

Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £45,837 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
• dedicated development budget
• interest-free season ticket loan
• excellent pension scheme
• 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 MI5 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.

We’re Disability Confident
MI5 are 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. Being a Disability Confident Leader, 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 secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential 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 criteria important for all roles in our organisation.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate well under pressure, build relationships and work closely with others – to be assessed at application sift.
• Demonstrate skills of observation, assessing risk and planning ahead – to be assessed at application sift.
• Confidence driving and the ability to coordinate movements and directions effectively – to be 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:

1. An initial online application form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios.
3. Application form: including MSO specific Situational Judgement test and rationale, motivation for the role and organisation and driving experience questions.
4. An invitation to an Online Assessment platform. This will include multiple assessments consisting of an observations exercise, maps exercises, an aptitude exercise and multi-tasking catered for the role and a strengths-based interview role.
5. A short, scripted telephone interview with some motivational, driving and scenario based questions.
6. A 2-day in person Assessment Centre – consisting of multiple exercises involving driving, maps, foot surveillance, self-reflection, an aptitude test, working with others and a competency-based interview. The successful completion of Day 1 will be required, to receive an invitation to Day 2.
7. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, and this is dependent on the business needs and the successful completion of Vetting and a Fitness for Role medical.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 9 to 18 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 MI5, 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 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, 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 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. 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.