Senior Occupational Psychologist Ref. 3737

Job Description

Flexible working: we support full time, part time, compressed hours and other flexible working patterns. This is an office-based role and, due to the nature of the work, home or remote working are not available.

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 Senior Occupational Psychologist, you’ll apply occupational psychology to support MI5 in making robust, evidence-based decisions about its people, skills and organisational capability. Working within a multidisciplinary environment, your advice will underpin fair, effective and sustainable people practices aligned to our mission.

You’ll operate with a high degree of autonomy, leading complex consultancy projects or substantial workstreams independently. This includes scoping work, managing senior stakeholder relationships and delivering clear, evidence-based recommendations. You’ll be accountable for the quality, rigour and impact of your work, exercising sound professional judgement in sensitive and high-stakes contexts.

The role sits within organisational environments that are complex and, at times, sensitive. You’ll apply occupational psychology across areas such as job analysis, skills frameworks and core people processes, ensuring interventions are ethical, proportionate and fit for context. Balancing methodological rigour with practical delivery is a core expectation.

Day to day, you’ll engage with a wide range of stakeholders to understand their needs, gather and analyse data, and translate psychological evidence into clear guidance, tools and interventions. You’ll advise on complex people and organisational issues, contribute to decision-making, and support continuous improvement through applied learning.

The scope of the role is broad and influential. You’ll work collaboratively across teams and programmes, contribute to the development of occupational psychology practice, and provide mentoring and professional support to colleagues. While the role does not include line management responsibility, you’ll play an active part in strengthening organisational capability and supporting the professional development of others.

About you
You’re a chartered and HCPC registered Occupational Psychologist with experience applying occupational psychology in organisational settings. You hold an MSc in Occupational Psychology and have completed the professional requirements for BPS chartership, enabling you to operate confidently as an autonomous practitioner. You’re also a BPS accredited test user in occupational ability and personality testing (Level A and Level B).You bring well-developed consultancy skills and are comfortable leading complex pieces of work independently. This includes scoping and delivering consultancy projects end to end, managing stakeholder relationships at all levels and providing clear, evidence based advice. You are confident working in environments shaped by ambiguity, sensitivity or competing priorities, and you exercise sound professional judgement throughout.

You have applied occupational psychology across areas such as job analysis, skills frameworks, assessment and wider people processes. You balance methodological rigour with pragmatic delivery, ensuring work is ethical, proportionate and fit for context while maintaining professional standards.

Clear communication is a key strength. You can translate psychological theory, data and evidence into practical guidance, tools and recommendations that are accessible to non specialist audiences. You work effectively with HR professionals, managers and senior stakeholders to support informed decision making.

You value collaboration and professional community. You enjoy working as part of a multidisciplinary team, sharing expertise and supporting others through mentoring and professional guidance, while taking full accountability for the quality and impact of your own work.

Training and development
We’re committed to supporting your ongoing development as a senior occupational psychology practitioner and helping you sustain high quality, ethical practice in complex organisational environments. On joining, you’ll receive an induction to the team, organisational context and portfolio of work, giving you a clear understanding of how your expertise supports wider organisational priorities.

You’ll have access to continuing professional development opportunities aligned to senior level practice. This includes peer supervision, professional networks and communities of practice, and opportunities to collaborate with other applied psychologists and specialists across the organisation. There will also be support in place to help you maintain professional accreditation and meet ongoing CPD requirements.

At this level, development is strongly shaped through practice. You’ll continue to build expertise by leading complex consultancy projects, advising senior stakeholders and contributing to the evolution of occupational psychology standards and approaches. As your professional influence develops, you’ll also be encouraged to mentor and support others, strengthening capability across the occupational psychology community.

Development in this role focuses on maintaining professional rigour, deepening applied expertise and supporting sustained contribution and influence within a complex organisational setting.

Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £66,308 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
• a dedicated development budget
• 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 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 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 secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are:

1. You will be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses your ability to problem solve
2. You will be required to meet the minimum pass mark on questions about your motivation for the organisation and the role (assessed at application sift)
3. You will be required to meet the minimum pass mark on questions relating to your skills, experience and qualification required for the role. (assessed at application sift)

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, visit our application process page 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. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your responses to a series of short scenarios. The SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation
2. An initial online application form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria
3. An in-person interview, examining your responses to different situations typical to the role, including a role-based assessment and competency-based elements
4. If successful, you will 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 to 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 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 practise and will help you manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Central 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 interviews or assessments 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.