Summary

At GCHQ, 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, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodiverse conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce.

Job description

This is an influential role working across a complex stakeholder map. You will work closely with your customer agencies, making sure you are developing and delivering services that provide operational value. As a leader you will be responsible for ensuring NTAC is fit for the future in terms of culture and ethos, as well as technical capability, workforce capacity and policy.

The National Technical Assistance Centre, part of GCHQ, plays a central role in countering terrorism, serious crime and other threats to UK prosperity and security. This role is an opportunity to shape the future of NTAC while also delivering operational impact today.

NTAC is responsible for providing technical assistance, policy advice and support to Law Enforcement, the intelligence community and wider government; and provision of a national Lawful Interception capability. NTAC also plays a lead role for the UK in engaging with international standards organisations in the relation to Investigative Powers Act capabilities; and is a key enabler of the UK/US bilateral data-sharing agreement.

NTAC is a team of around 150 people with a budget of £45m. The team is a rich mix of GCHQ employees, secondees and integrees from our partner organisations, and contractors. It is jointly funded by GCHQ, the Home Office and customer agencies, and has major footprints in Thames House (London) and GCHQ (Cheltenham), with smaller footprints elsewhere across the UK.

Our vision for NTAC is to maximise the operational success of our customers by providing a responsive, sustainable and adaptive range of unique services; and to do this by creating an inclusive environment where our people can thrive and feel empowered to innovate.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include:

•Developing and delivering the Unit’s vision and strategy

•Enabling an inclusive culture and working environment that allows everyone in NTAC to give of their best, and that attracts the diversity of talent and background we need to succeed

•Managing NTAC’s investment budget to build and deliver new capabilities, enhance operational services and deliver impact now and in the future for NTAC’s customers

•Identifying and implementing the most effective and efficient delivery partnerships and methods, striving for more agility, flexibility and efficiency in ways of working

•Ensuring NTAC remains operationally effective and compliant with relevant law and policy

•Influencing and collaborating with industry suppliers, CSPs and international partners to drive policy on emerging technical standards - ensuring opportunities are realised and threats to capabilities mitigated

•Playing a key role in the cross-community approach to influencing communications standards

•Ensuring coherence with, and contribution to, the delivery of GCHQ’s strategic aims and values

•Maintaining and building internal relationships within GCHQ, keeping NTAC aligned to the GCHQ strategy and relevant to the teams it serves