The Ministry of Defence and intelligence agency GCHQ have launched separate recruitment campaigns to find chief scientific advisers – with at least one of the successful candidates potentially in line for a salary of more than £160,000 a year.
GCHQ is offering a salary of up to £156,163 for its next CSA, with the potential for an extra "London pay addition" of £6,250 if the adviser chooses to be based in the capital. Alternative locations include GCHQ's main site in Cheltenham or Manchester.
The MoD's campaign offers £149,000 a year to the successful candidate, and a civil service pension with an employer contribution of 29.97%. The role is based at the ministry's Main Building in Whitehall, but requires travel to other MoD sites.
Both roles are offering the director-general level postings on a three-year fixed term contract, with the potential to extend for a further two years after the initial period. Both roles are at SCS Pay Band 3. The GCHQ role's pension is described as "excellent", but the applicant pack gives no further details.
The full title of the GCHQ role is "chief scientific adviser – national security". They will lead on advising MI5, MI6 and GCHQ on science and technology, reporting directly to GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler. Additionally, they will provide strategic advice on national-security science and technology across government and to the wider national-security community.
An extensive list of responsibilities for the role also includes being senior responsible owner for the UK intelligence community's "STEP" transformation programme and bringing science and technology to bear on the community's "sharpest problems".
Former venture-capital investor and entrepreneur Alex van Someren was appointed chief scientific adviser for national security in July 2021.
The MoD's chief scientific adviser is described as exercising "pivotal influence" over the "future trajectory of defence" by supporting decisions on military operations, equipment-acquisition, and helping the delivery of "future battle-winning technologies".
According to the department's job-specification, the role requires "ensuring objective analysis of the department's investment programme and of defence-related risks across a broad scope of science, engineering, analytical and technology subjects".
It adds: "The CSA brings together specialised defence areas of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and missile defence and promotes technology-led modernisation across a range of areas including autonomous systems, cyber deterrence, artificial intelligence, big data, space technology and synthetic environments."
The advertisement also notes that the next MoD chief scientific adviser can expect to find themselves working closely with government chief scientific adviser Prof Dame Angela McLean – who served as CSA at the MoD until April last year.
The MoD's current CSA is Prof Vernon Gibson. He initially held the role from 2012-2016 but returned as a temporary measure in May last year.
Applications for the GCHQ role close at 11pm on October 17. Applications for the MoD role close just under one day earlier – at 11.55pm on October 16.