Mobile Surveillance Officer

Location: Central London
Salary: £45,837

Flexible working: shift work, including working two weekends in five. We will discuss your shift pattern with you towards the end of the recruitment process. It will always be organised well in advance, and you’ll be able to book your leave around it. Due to the nature of the role, travel is common and remote or home working isn’t possible.  

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.

As a Mobile Surveillance Officer, you’ll blend into the environment, observe people and places, and report back to MI5’s Intelligence Officers. Surveillance is a key investigative resource we use to protect against threats to the UK, and your key objective will be to follow subjects who’ve been identified as potential threats to national security.

This is a uniquely impactful, one-of-a-kind role, so we don’t expect you to have all the skills when you join. In fact, our Mobile Surveillance Officers come from all sorts of backgrounds including nursing, teaching and customer service. Some are recent graduates, and some have spent years working in another industry.

To begin with, you’ll attend an intensive 20-week training programme, where you’ll learn how to turn your existing skills to surveillance. We’ll teach you how to safely observe and blend into your surroundings – and keeping you safe will be our priority. Plus, you'll get the chance to bond with your fellow officers, which will matter once you're out in the field, travelling and carrying out surveillance on foot or in a car, often at short notice, as part of a close team tracking subjects across changing environments.

You don’t need any qualifications to join us, but you will need a full UK manual driving licence and should have no more than three points on your licence. You’ll also use maps in your role, so you should be willing to learn how to navigate yourself between two points using an ‘A-Z’ map.

Since you’ll be working closely with a partner, you’ll need to have a strong sense of teamwork and people skills that you might have learned from working in a team, playing sports, travelling, or coaching. Being there for your fellow officers will be important, just as they’ll be there to support you. So, you’ll be energised by working with others and able to build good, lasting relationships.

You’ll also be observant, someone who’s able to accurately remember details of what you’ve seen and heard. And a skilled multi-tasker – able to learn how to watch, plan and think ahead, drive and communicate with your team, all while making risk assessments and decisions on the go.

Due to the nature of the work, there are also some physical requirements around tattoos, height, fitness, hearing and vision. You can find a full list of these requirements on our website. These will all be tested as part of the recruitment process.

Once you pass your training, you’ll have ongoing mentoring to support you in your role. You’ll need to remain in-post for five years, during which time you’ll have the opportunity to apply for internal postings and promotions. And once you finish the five years, you’ll be able to grow your career within surveillance, or move into a new role in another department within the organisation.

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: www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/diversity

To find out more and apply, please visit our website.

To be eligible to apply, you must be a British Citizen. If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will nonetheless be considered. Candidates must normally have been resident in the UK for seven out of the last ten years. This is particularly important if you were born outside the UK. You can apply at the age of 17 years, if successful you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday. Full eligibility details can be found on our website: www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/applying-for-jobs