Technical Operations Electronics Engineer Ref. 3716

Job Description

Salary: £44,190, rising to £47,773 after one year.

The role also attracts frequent overtime opportunities and a 6% shift disturbance allowance. You’ll also have the chance to apply for the relevant technical framework and on-call allowances once your training is complete. By your second year as a fully trained specialist, you may be able to earn £52,000, excluding overtime, on call and shift disturbance allowance payments.

Flexible Working: Full-time hours. Home/remote working is not possible in this role. Once fully qualified, some flexibility/compressed hours could be considered depending on training and business requirements.

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 Technical Operations Electronics Engineer, you’ll play a vital role in testing, installing, maintaining and optimising our technical equipment to collect vital intelligence to keep the country safe.

Working in a collaborative team, you’ll use your expert engineering skills to deliver specialist engineering tasks to a high standard. The majority of this work will be at system level and is a blend of radio frequency, electronics, some network engineering mixed with DIY skills. This is a practical role where you’ll be applying your skills at a range of sites installing and testing equipment to support our technical operations.

Continuous learning is central to our work, such as keeping up to date with new technologies to benefit your development, but also to enable us to deliver the best possible operational support. You will be encouraged to do this by working closely with other teams on project work, contributing to future technical capabilities, and working with colleagues across the UK Intelligence Community. This is a role where the sharing of knowledge and expertise is vital in this highly unique and specialised area of work.

With our ever-changing intelligence needs there is never a dull day. You’ll need to adapt and respond quickly to short-notice demands, flexibility is key as you’ll be expected to work out of hours and across the UK. As such, having a full UK driving license is essential for this role, as you'll be required to travel to different locations.

About you

We are seeking experienced electronics engineers with a keen interest in emerging technologies like cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to join our team.

You’ll have an ONC or equivalent in Electronic Engineering with a background working as a development, systems, or test engineer, and will be able to demonstrate experience of troubleshooting across lab and field environments.

As an electronics engineer, you will be responsible for work on projects where external issues and time constraints are factors. You’ll have excellent problem-solving skills and an ability to work in challenging environments, such as at heights, in confined spaces, in extremes of weather and at all times of day. Ideally, you'll also have direct experience using hand and power tools.

While you’re comfortable working independently with minimal supervision, you'll also enjoy working as part of a team, actively contributing your ideas, and communicating effectively with peers and seniors - both technical and non-technical.

As well as a strong foundation in electronics, you’ll have a passion for staying at the forefront of technological advancement and will be able to apply this to support future capability.

Training and development

You will have a fully defined development pathway that is a blend of in-depth internal training, external training and on-the-job learning, that will take roughly 12 to 18 months. Following on from this, you’ll have access to in-house support, as well as external courses to continue your development.

Additionally, a dedicated member of staff will be on-hand to mentor you throughout your training period – as well as to provide advice and share their knowledge and experiences as you settle into your role. Our bespoke training will give you the skills needed to apply your existing experience to our specialist ways of working.

Technology moves at pace and it’s important we keep on top of emerging technologies. This means we are committed to the ongoing professional development of all our people. From dedicated training, to ensuring you’re updated and aware of evolving industry standards, we will support your professional growth.

This role has the potential to lead to other opportunities across MI5 and our partner organisations in the future. If you’re interested in building a varied career as well as unique skills, then we’ll support you to make that happen.

Rewards and benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £44,190, rising to £47,773 after a 12-month probationary period.

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
• a dedicated development budget
• excellent pension scheme
• cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars
• 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:

• you’ll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Organisational Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses your ability to problem-solve. If you meet this criterion, you’ll be directed to complete an application
• meeting the minimum pass mark on how you have demonstrated your motivation for the role and the organisation
• holding an ONC or equivalent in Electronic Engineering or Networking
• holding a full UK driving licence

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. Initial Application.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your response to a series of short scenarios. The SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation.
3. Application form, looking at your motivation for the role and the organisation.
4. Assessment centre, comprised of a competency-based interview, technical interview and a practical test where you can demonstrate your knowledge of electronic equipment.
5. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment (subject to vetting and medical.)

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 9-12 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you’ve received your final job offer.

Before you apply

To work at MI5 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 more discreetly.

This 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. A loan is available to support people relocating to London.

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.