Details

Reference number

417103

Salary

£46,900 - £54,106 Salary dependent on skills & experience A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% GBP

Job grade

Grade 7 Dstl Level 6

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

S&T Chemistry & Energetics

Type of role

Analytical
Intelligence

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time, Compressed hours

Number of jobs available

Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information

Location

Dstl Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP4 0JQ

At Dstl, our vision is to have a modern way of working efficiently, accommodating and enabling our people to create, collaborate and deliver. To do this successfully in this job will require 60% attendance at a Dstl location; office and laboratory environment. Some travel to other sites or partner organisations in the UK may be required. Where business needs allow, and with the agreement of your line manager, there may be the option for a combination of workplace and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement.

About the job

Job summary

Join the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) as a Principal Exploitation Intelligence Analyst and help shape the UK’s national security landscape. You will work at the forefront of intelligence analysis within the Exploitation and Threat Analysis Team, delivering impactful, evidence-based assessments that inform critical defence and security decisions across national and international partners.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead the delivery of complex, multi-source intelligence products addressing a wide range of threats, events, and geographical areas. You will be instrumental in refining stakeholder requirements, coordinating a multi-disciplinary team, and ensuring outputs meet the highest analytical and operational standards.

Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution.

Job description

In this role you will:

Lead the scoping, development, and delivery of actionable intelligence analysis tailored to customer needs.
Coordinate the work of internal analysts and partner organisations to deliver high-quality outputs.
Source, organise, and evaluate data from a wide range of intelligence sources.
Ensure clear and effective communication of intelligence products to stakeholders.
Build and maintain strong professional networks to support coherent and collaborative analysis.
Provide technical leadership across quality assurance, capability development, and information management.
Identify new opportunities to add value through intelligence exploitation.
Manage technical risk throughout the delivery process.

Safety at Dstl

Accountable for ensuring safe and secure work;

Must appreciate and be responsible for the health and safety of self and others; both understand and meet defined accountabilities as written in Dstl policy,
Must demonstrate the expected HS (& EP) behaviours as defined by the Civil Service and Dstl and lead by example,
Must ensure understanding and maintenance of appropriate training, experience and knowledge (i.e. competent / SQEP) for self and direct reports,
Develop a working environment that is supportive of and champions the Dstl approach to security, health, wellbeing, safety and environmental (HSEP) management,
Be aware of the downstream impact of their actions and the actions of their direct reports on those outside of their immediate control.
Implement Dstl's policies and ensure compliance with the Management System

Person specification

We are looking for someone who has:

Demonstrable experience in the leadership and production of complex intelligence analysis within defence or security contexts.
Strong ability to define analytical requirements and guide technical teams in delivering outputs.
Expertise in working with multi-source intelligence, including low-quality or ambiguous data.
Skilled in effectively communicating complex findings to a variety of stakeholders.
Proven ability to develop intelligence products collaboratively with external and internal partners.
Familiarity with working within regulatory and quality assurance frameworks.
Experience in identifying and mitigating systemic challenges to delivery.

Please see the full job profile within the candidate pack attached at the bottom of this page.

Important Information

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats. For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Communicating and Influencing
Seeing the Big Picture
Delivering at Pace
Leadership

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

“

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are a key component of modern warfare. How are they likely to evolve in future?”

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £46,900, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory contributes £13,586 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits

Dstl’s full range of great benefits can be found in the information pack which includes:

Financial: An excellent pension scheme starting from 26% employer contribution (find out more here). In Year Rewarding Achievement bonuses and thank you vouchers. Rental deposit scheme and cycle to work scheme.
Flexible working: Options include alternative working patterns such as; compressed hours (e.g. working a 4 day week/ 9 day fortnight), job shares and annualised hours (agreed number of hours per annum paid monthly i.e. working term-time only).
Working hours: Flexibility around your working day (e.g. start time, finish time). Ability to bank hours in a 12 month reference period including the ability to accrue and use 3 days per calendar month.
Where you work: Depending on your role, blended working may be available including remote working to suit you and your team. This can be discussed at interview.
Annual leave: 25 days pro rata (rising to 30 after 5 years) plus 8 public holidays with the ability to buy/sell 5 additional days per annum.
Family: Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks with full pay, an additional 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid
Learning and Development: Dstl encourages and supports charterships, accreditations and provides employees access to fully funded apprenticeships up to level 7 (Masters Degree). Dstl will pay for 2 memberships with relevant bodies/institutions. Employees also have access to Civil Service Learning.
Facilities: Onsite parking, EV Charging points, restaurants, cafés and gyms.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills. We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so If at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk and we will do all we can to support you.

Sifting will take place on 13th August 2025 with interviews to be arranged from the 4th September 2025, interviews will consist of a combined technical & behavioral interview to include a 15 minute presentation entitled “Hostile States rely on access to international supply chains for components to develop threat systems. What can the UK do to prevent this and what effect(s) could it achieve?”

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting .

See our vetting charter . People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles . The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : Dstl Recruitment Team
Email : dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk

Further information

Should you wish to raise a formal complaint about the Dstl recruitment process you should email dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk stating the nature of the issue. We will respond within 5 working days.

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory

Latest Jobs

Principal Exploitation Intelligence Analyst