Principal Project Manager

Department Project and Programme Office
Salary £53,000 to £64,841,depending on your skills and experience, plus a concessionary payment of £2,758.

Job description 
Flexible working: We support a range of flexible working arrangements, including part time hours, compressed working patterns, and flexible start and finish times. All roles require on-site working. We are happy to discuss individual requirements.

About us

GCHQ is an intelligence, cyber and security agency with a mission to keep the UK safe. We use cutting-edge technology, ingenuity, and partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats. Working with our intelligence partners MI5 and MI6, we protect the UK from terrorism, cyber-attacks and espionage. At GCHQ, you’ll do varied and fascinating work in a supportive and inclusive environment that places the emphasis on teamwork.

The role

As a Principal Project Manager, you’ll be responsible for delivering a variety of complex, high-impact projects, taking them from initiation through to completion. The portfolio you cover will be broad and varied, spanning business change to technical programmes. Across every project, you’ll be trusted to shape the delivery approach, set expectations, guide multi-disciplinary teams and keep projects moving forward in environments where priorities shift and challenges evolve.

Alongside this day-to-day delivery leadership, you’ll also operate at a strategic level, leading whole projects or major elements of larger programmes, driving governance and assurance activity, and writing and managing business cases that support informed decision-making.

The projects you lead will directly enable major organisational outcomes. Your leadership will span the full project lifecycle, planning, scheduling and coordinating; managing time, cost, quality and benefits; and proactively controlling risk, issues, dependencies and change. This involves bringing structure to uncertainty, creating momentum during periods of change, and offering clarity when key decisions are required.

You’ll engage and influence stakeholders at all levels, including senior leaders, partners, suppliers and customers, producing clear reports, briefings and recommendations that support confident decision-making. Delivery methods will be tailored to each project to suit the context and unlock progress and value.

Some projects will be led independently; others will place you within larger, multi-disciplinary delivery groups. In every case, you’ll be supported by a well-established project management community, and the outcomes you deliver will have real-world impact across the organisation. The role also includes line management responsibilities, with opportunities to take on mentoring as part of your continued development. Occasional UK travel may be required to meet teams and engage with stakeholders.

About you

You have a recognised project management qualification, such as the Association for Project Management (APM) Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ), the APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ), or an equivalent certification. You’ll also have at least four GCSEs at Grade 4/C or above (including English and Mathematics), or equivalent Level 2 qualifications, or relevant experience demonstrating solid numeracy and communication.

You have experience delivering projects across varied environments and are ready to take on more complex, higher-impact work. You’ve led significant workstreams, engaged with senior stakeholders, and maintained progress when challenges arise. You understand the foundations of project management, planning, reporting, financial tracking, risks, issues and change, and can apply these with confidence in environments where detail, judgement and clear communication matter.

You know how to influence, negotiate and collaborate with a wide range of colleagues, from technical specialists to business generalists. You adapt your communication style to suit different audiences, presenting information clearly to support informed decision-making. Your credibility, consistency and reliability help you build trust quickly across teams.

Experience delivering projects in environments such as agile delivery, digital or engineering settings,  Government Digital Service (GDS) frameworks, cyber security, or emerging technologies (including artificial intelligence) would be beneficial, though not essential.

You bring qualities that define successful project managers at this level: flexibility in shifting environments, calmness under pressure, a proactive approach to problem-solving, and curiosity about how to deliver the best possible results. You value collaboration and shared learning, and you’re committed to your own development, ready to stretch your leadership skills and continue progressing.

Training and development

A structured induction will help you understand our mission, ways of working, and the delivery community you’ll be joining. During your first weeks, you’ll meet your line manager and a dedicated buddy who will support your transition, build your confidence, and help you navigate the organisation. 

Development continues through a blend of internal and external training, practical experience, and community support. As a corporate member of the Association for Project Management (APM), we encourage you to explore relevant courses, frameworks, and accreditation pathways. Access to mentoring, coaching, regular career check-ins and project management forums, will provide you with  opportunities to share learning and strengthen your professional network.

Ongoing development is integral to the role. Support is available to deepen expertise across planning, risk, financials, reporting and benefits, as well as to build leadership capabilities  needed for increasingly complex delivery. Whether the aim is to broaden experience, specialise in a particular area or progress into more senior project roles, guidance and opportunities are in place to help you grow with confidence. Throughout this journey, an active and generous project management community contributes to shared learning and professional growth.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary £53,000 to £64,841 dependent on skills and experience, plus other benefits including:

•    25 days’ annual leave, rising automatically to 30 days after 5 years' service, plus an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
•    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 GCHQ, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a workforce that truly reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: people of 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 individuals from groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce, such as women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

We’re Disability Confident

GCHQ is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. The scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident organisation, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria for this position, assessed at sift, are offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. This is known as the Offer of Interview. To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are: 

•    You will be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Organisational Situational Judgement Test which looks at your ability to problem solve. If you meet this criteria, you will be directed to complete an application form.
•    You must hold a minimum of four GCSEs at Grade 4/C or above, including English Language and Mathematics, or equivalent Level 2 qualifications. Relevant experience demonstrating solid numeracy and communication skills may be considered as an alternative.
•    You must hold a recognised project management qualification, such as the Association for Project Management (APM) Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ), the APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ), or an equivalent certification.
•    Experience delivering projects across varied environments, with accountability for managing projects or significant workstreams.
•    Effective stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with experience influencing senior stakeholders and presenting clear, concise information to a variety of audiences.

We offer a range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to perform at your best. 

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.    Application sift, which will assess your motivation for the role, the organisation and your relevant experience.
3.    Interview to assess competency and suitability for the role.
4.    If successful, you’ll receive the conditional offer of employment, subject to a drugs test and vetting.

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 continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply

To work at GCHQ, you must 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. 

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 applying, we recommend setting up a separate email address for your contact with us to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate.  Try to avoid including 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 manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Cheltenham, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application, as we do not offer relocation costs.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments 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 hard copy 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 begin your application. Applying from outside the UK will affect 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 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.