Job Description

Flexible working:

whilst this is a full-time office-based role, we support job sharing and compressed and flexible hours (within our core hours), subject to business need.

About us

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.

The role

Our Wellbeing team helps us to look after our most important asset - our people. In these challenging and exciting roles, you'll work on behalf of the UK's Intelligence Services to support and promote staff wellbeing. Acting alongside a multi-disciplinary team comprised of outreach delivery teams, clinical psychologists, wellbeing senior advisors, wellbeing practitioners, counsellors, occupational health nurses and workplace adjustment advisors, you'll ensure staff wellbeing remains a key priority within the intelligence community.


You will be supporting the senior advisors in triaging, prioritising and contributing to the delivery of day-to-day wellbeing services, including providing focused support sessions and signposting to appropriate services. It will also involve assisting in delivering sessions in relation to the Psychological Risk Management Policy. You will be delivering training sessions, presentations and group work along with contributing to outreach support. You will also work alongside the wellbeing administration team helping to ensure effective and efficient service delivery, monitoring resources (including the updating of internal and external support sources), and Management Information collection.

About you

We are looking for those who are empathetic, calm under pressure, and with the skills to engage and quickly build rapport with a range of people. You'll have a background working in mental health or wellbeing environments, with experience delivering one-to-one and group interventions. This could be in the public or private sector. Your knowledge will include working with adults and delivering support services in different formats including guided self-help, face-to-face and online. You'll also have experience of working with people who may be in difficult situations and be able to empower them towards supporting their own wellbeing. It's also key that you can demonstrate your own skills and strategies to handle the demands of the role.


Mental Health First Aid or Mental Health Awareness training is essential in these roles. Most importantly, you'll have a genuine interest in people and seek to contribute to the wellbeing of others in the organisation.

Training and development

You'll receive plenty of opportunities for internal training across a wide range of subjects, including risk management, triage, supervision, specific interventions provided by wellbeing psychology colleagues (as required, based on the individual), motivational interviewing, listening skills and on the job shadowing. You will be provided with supervision and clinical oversight and support in order to deliver your role.


You won't be expected to take on all your responsibilities immediately. Instead, you'll be given an incremental approach to the full role, supported with internal training. Upon joining, you'll also be given an induction to the organisation and your team to help you settle quickly.

Rewards and benefits

You'll receive a starting salary of 36,534, plus other benefits including:

25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme Dedicated Development Budget Interest-free season ticket loan Excellent pension scheme 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 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:


https://www.MI5gov.uk/careers/diversity

We're Disability Confident

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP's Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

Eligibility questions - You will be asked a series of questions. If you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be directed to the initial application form. Application form - You will be asked a series of questions relating to this vacancy and are required to meet the minimum pass mark set and meet the essential criteria for these roles. On successful completion of these stages, you will be invited to attend an Interview.

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

The first thing we will ask you to do is complete our pre-screening questions to find out if you meet our initial criteria. If you do meet these criteria, we will then ask you to fill out a full application form where you will need to create a log-in and provide your full name, email address and a memorable password. Our recruitment team will conduct a sift of your application. Successful applicants will be invited to an interview, where you will have the opportunity to demonstrate key behaviours relevant to the role. If you are successful at this stage, we will then start the vetting process, which includes a Security Interview. This interview is an important part of the selection process. It's an interview to explore your life and experiences, and it's not a competency or capability-based interview.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take up to 12 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply

To work at MI5, you need to 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. You can find out more about the vetting process.


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 you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having 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 to manage your application with us more securely.


The role is based in Manchester, so you'll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application.

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 launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on 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 hold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date 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.