MI5

For more than a century we have worked to protect the UK from a range of national security threats.

MI5 exists to protect the UK from threats to our national security, primarily terrorism and threats posed by states.

More than 5,000 people work at MI5, bringing together people with lots of different backgrounds, and lots of different skills. Everyone at MI5 has the same mission: to keep the country safe.

We have roles that you will not find anywhere else, like our investigators and surveillance officers. We also have roles that you'd expect to see at any large organisation, like data analysts and, of course, the security officers who work to keep our buildings safe.

A career at MI5 is like no other. Not only is it rewarding and unique, but the variety here is like nowhere else. Depending on your job, upon joining you will find yourself either classed as a specialist or a generalist and belong to a specific capability area. Staff are given significant autonomy to manage their own careers and typically move jobs every two to three years with the option to move across areas. Therefore it is not unusual for someone to have worked in counter-terrorism, recruitment, counter-espionage and corporate communications in the first few years of their career.

This variety means that most people stay at MI5 as they are able to fulfil all their career ambitions here and apply for promotion whilst doing so. Your career options can be further enhanced by opportunities to work in regional stations across the UK and secondment opportunities to our partner agencies, SIS and GCHQ.