GCHQ hunts for CISO with £130K top salary • The Register
GCHQ hunts for CISO with £130K top salary • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/gchq_ciso_job/
Publish Date: 2026-02-26 05:13:00
Source Domain: www.theregister.com
GCHQ is looking to recruit a chief information security officer (CISO), a job it describes as “one of the most influential cybersecurity leadership roles in the UK,” at a salary of £96,981 to £130,000.
According to the security agency’s recruitment ad, the job involves protecting the UK against “the most capable and persistent adversaries” and balancing “capability, acceptable risk, and technological progress.” Work includes regular reports for management, risk assessments, and designing incident response and business continuity plans.
Candidates will ideally have one or more professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, or CCISO, experience leading a cybersecurity function, and a “deep understanding of cloud security.”
They must be British citizens or holders of dual British nationality and should apply from within the UK, preferably using a separate email address from their usual one that does not contain identifying features.
GCHQ employed the full-time equivalent of 7,162 people at the end of March 2023, according to the redacted public version of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee annual report published in December [PDF].
Major projects in fiscal 2023 included an expansion of capabilities for computer network exploitation, preparation for a new cloud platform – which may explain the CISO’s cloud security requirement – and improved support for the UK’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent, on which the redacted report said the agency had made “*** progress.”
The CISO position is based at GCHQ’s Doughnut headquarters in Cheltenham or the agency’s offices in London or Manchester.
“A small amount of home working is possible but there is an expectation that most of this role will be office-based,” the ad says. There is a cycle-to-work scheme in some locations.
Applications, which can take six…
