By Natasha Lomas, 23 June 2008 15:54
NEWS
Psst! MI5 is on the hunt for techies with killer design skills.
The UK's security intelligence agency is looking to recruit enthusiastic IT architects to work in Central London with experience in "IT solutions design" for large-scale organisations - and who are keen to work on business change programmes.
Candidates must also boast strong comms and "influencing skills".
CIO50 2008: Top 10
The UK's leading CIOs revealedÂ…
1.Robin Dargue Royal Mail
2.David Lister Royal Bank of Scotland
3.Neil Cameron Unilever
4.Catherine Doran Network Rail
5.John Suffolk UK government
6.Gordon Lovell-Read Siemens UK
7.Paul Coby British Airways
8.Tania Howarth Birds Eye Iglo Group
9.Simon Post Carphone Warehouse
10.Ben Wishart Whitbread
A job ad published in The Sunday Times reads: "We require [IT] Architects with technology domain experience; you will be responsible for ensuring a coherent solution architecture for specific business change programmes, encompassing business, application and infrastructure architecture.
"Part technical lead and part strategic-shaper, you will work closely with the Security Service's front-line and Enterprise Architecture teams to set the overall technical direction for each programme and develop detailed solution designs."
As well as being able to demonstrate broad experience of IT solution design, candidates must have more in depth experience in at least two of the following areas: data centres; servers and storage; messaging; telephony; application design using Windows, IBM WebSphere, AIX, Oracle, Java and .net technologies; networking; desktop; mobile working; data warehousing; and security.
Candidates also need experience of "the full project and software lifecycle" - using "recognised design methods, modelling processes and tools" - including software selection, procurement processes and systems integration, the job ad states.
According to the ad, successful candidates can expect a competitive salary and excellent benefits. The closing date for applications is 17 July 2008.
Last year the security agency ramped up the number of tech staff it employs as part of a wider staff recruitment drive, describing IT as "absolutely central, not peripheral, to our business".
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. JD
a survey at InfoSec concluded that 'Pilot' was the most desired occupation (14.5%), closely followed by 'Astronaut' (9%) and 'Footballer' (8%). 'Doctor', 'Train Driver', 'Soldier', 'Fireman' and then ....'Spy'.
Just 6% dreamed of a career in IT. Some of the more obscure selections were 'Bruce Lee' (two respondents), 'Bill Gates' (two respondents), and 'Seagull' (just the one).
IT has always suffered an image problem - and those that do wish to swell our ranks would rather be programmers or engineers - or even Bill Gates! Todays' network managers face a harder task than ever, and so it comes as no surprise that at least one beleaguered soul would rather spread his wings and go nicking chips down the seafront. Hopefully M15 will be able to attract the specialist, ‘changeable’ people the agency requires.
2. Tony Norris
That BS word score is off the chart, kudos to MI5 HR dept.
What they mean is, can you use Dreamweaver and BS as well as we can?
3. Matt H
I'd love to work for an organisation like MI5, it'd be great to put my technology skills towards helping the country, however, living in sunny Stoke-on-Trent prevents me from offering my services and I can't afford a move to the big smoke! How come all these cool jobs are always in London?! There's a whole country north of Watford!! Ever thought of spreading the wealth a little up north?
4. Radical Meldrew
So MI5 could end up being run by project managers! Heaven help us. I can just envisage them trying their best to improve our stand against potential terrorist threats ..."Bin Laden, Bin Laden ah, here you are, well according to my gantt chart we can't possibly fit you until the middle of August; will that okay with you?"
5. Karen Challinor
so they'd have to be fluent in VisualBS then ?