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Dstl employs some of the world’s brightest people. We’re always on the lookout for talented, creative, dedicated and innovative individuals to join us.
It’s not too late to apply for our student industrial and summer placements for 2023 and our apprenticeship schemes have also opened for applications.
We’re currently recruiting large numbers of the following roles to help us meet the government’s priorities for science and technology in defence and security:
There are also opportunities to apply for two PhD machine learning projects, run in partnership with Dstl at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Distributed Algorithms.
All our vacancies are advertised on Civil Service jobs.
At Dstl, you’ll be part of the science inside UK defence and security, helping to protect our nation.
We employ a broad range of talented people, from specialist scientists and engineers, to analysts, programme and project managers, and finance, logistics, medical and communications personnel.
You’ll get:
Our values were developed by our people, who told us what means the most to them. These 3 words capture our culture and what’s special about Dstl. They reflect who we are, what we are proud of and how we behave both individually and collectively.
Dstl is a place where everyone can thrive, succeed and achieve their ambitions, regardless of background, different circumstances, experiences, or characteristics.
Dstl is recruiting
Hear from some of our employees about their career paths and experiences working at Dstl:
Read more stories from the people inside Dstl and find out about our divisions.
As well as a rewarding career in defence science and technology, Dstl offers its staff (including graduates, industrial placement students, summer students and apprentices) a wide range of benefits and training opportunities in a supportive, encouraging and flexible environment.
The flexible working scheme allows staff to arrange their working day to suit their lifestyle and circumstances. Dstl is strongly encouraging blended and flexible working, including working from a site, working from home or a mixture of both. We want our employees to work from the most appropriate location for you. You may still be required to travel to your home site, other Dstl site and MOD sites when necessary.
Dstl can also consider alternative working patterns in some cases, including:
We have multiple schemes for rewarding achievement, including cash bonuses and vouchers for outstanding work. Our inventive employees are rewarded for coming up with ideas that can be patented or commercially exploited, through our Rewards to Inventors scheme and regular opportunities to be nominated for awards.
All employees are entitled to 25 days’ leave (pro rata) when they start; this increases to 30 days after 5 years.
In addition to this our people are entitled to 8 bank holidays and you can buy or sell up to 5 additional days each year.
All staff are entitled to up to 12 months’ paid sick leave (6 months at full pay and 6 months at half pay). Staff also have access to occupational health advisers who are able to provide a confidential advice service on health concerns in the workplace.
We value our employees’ health so we also operate an employee assistance programme providing support and advice. The HELP Employee Assistance Programme (HELP EAP) offers you confidential, independent and unbiased information and guidance on a range of emotional, health and social subject areas; support is for both work related and personal matters. Support is available 24 hours, 365 day a year.
Employees have the opportunity to choose between 2 pension schemes when they join Dstl:
For full details of the schemes, visit the Civil Service pensions website.
Employees have access to:
Our main sites have a variety of on-site facilities for staff, including:
We offer the following benefits:
Our employees are strongly encouraged to manage their own career progression. This is supported through a number of opportunities, including:
We recruit around 80 graduates and offer around 150 student-placement opportunities every year from a wide-range of scientific, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines and backgrounds.
We also recruit new apprentices each year, mixing formal classroom-based study alongside practical hands-on training in our workshop, laboratory and office facilities.
You’ll have opportunities to learn and develop in a hands-on and supportive environment from some of the top experts in their fields.
Learn more about early careers at Dstl including our current vacancies
While each role will have its own individual qualification and technical requirements, there are some standard requirements all our candidates need. Because of the nature of our work, all our successful candidates will need to be security cleared before working for us. To gain the high level of security clearance needed you must:
To understand more about reserved posts and what this means, read section 3 of the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
If you would like more information about any of the opportunities available or the application process please email dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk.
We are Dstl
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