GCHQ recruitment drive to create 'exciting partnership' with Cheltenham

A recruitment drive by GCHQ has been hailed as the start of an "exciting partnership" between the intelligence centre and Cheltenham.

Bosses are calling for highly-skilled and highly-qualified technical professionals to protect the country's security.

Gloucestershire County Council deputy leader, Councillor Paul McLain (C, Charlton Kings), said: "I'm confident this will be the start of a really exciting new partnership between Cheltenham and GCHQ.

"It bodes well for graduates from the university, who will have a better chance of getting jobs closer to home.

"This is fantastic because we have a great wealth of talent in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire and it's great that we can be working so closely with one of the major employers."

Mr McLain, who is also a borough councillor, said he was confident town chiefs were "knocking on an open door" when it came to increasing links with GCHQ.

He described the recruitment drive as a "statement of intent".

One of the job adverts, for a cyber security specialist and senior cyber security specialist, calls for pioneers that can push technical boundaries.

It states: "In a game where our adversaries operate with no rules and unknown boundary lines, you will be exploring the possibilities and inventing the seemingly impossible."

Other positions on offer include mathematicians, software engineers and researchers.

Salary

The top salary on offer among the current vacancies is £39,482 for a 'mathematics and crypt security professional', while a graduate software engineer can expect to earn £25,446.

Only highly-qualified applicants are being considered, but the number of openings is being kept under wraps by the organisation.

Mr McLain has previously called for the intelligence centre to be the hub of a drive towards Cheltenham's development as a home for hi-tech industry.

A GCHQ spokesman said: "This is the optimum time of year for graduate recruitment; to that end GCHQ is currently attending a number of fairs around the country marketing the roles that we are currently recruiting to.

"In parallel with that activity GCHQ is running generic marketing to attract the attention of those who would not be attending the fairs and directing them to the GCHQ careers website, where they will find a range of campaigns for graduates, non-graduates and sponsored students.

"We are particularly keen that we market in the local area and this was our decision for choosing the job supplement.

Source: Thisisgloucestershire.co.uk, Thursday 27th October 2011