Shh, don’t tell anyone but Mi5 is currently recruiting for a number of roles in Manchester and it could be the perfect chance for a 2020 career change.
Are you looking for your next career opportunity? Fancy switching paths? Can you keep a secret?
Mi5 has recently published a number of job specifications for a varied range of roles online, which can be worked from either the central London or Manchester office, and are listed are within in the IT, Science & Technical department.
Salary is also reflected depending on the location of the role.
According to the gov.uk website, the UK’s domestic counter-intelligence and security agency – which also includes MI6 and GCHQ – is “responsible for protecting the UK from threats to our National Security” and is dedicated to “keeping our country safe”.
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It’s the responsibility of the Mi5 to “ensure the safety and prosperity of our country” by “countering threats from terrorism and espionage” and anyone who applies for a role within the service must hold these values in the highest regard.
Day in day out our people help to keep the country safe.
Our Director Jeremy Fleming outlines the role we play.
Want to play your part in our mission? Explore the wide range of careers available at GCHQ
Are you intrigued then? Here’s a few of the Manchester-applicable roles on offer.
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Software Engineer
Mi5 is looking for experienced Software Engineers who can take more of a senior role in their team.
The successful candidate will be providing technical direction to their products and mentoring more junior colleagues, as well as sharing collective responsibility to keep the country safe and striving to develop your team.
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The job description states that “it’s important that you’re able to communicate and share your knowledge”.
As a more senior engineer, the successful candidate will be expected to:
Take ownership of large problems, break them down and work with the team to deliver new features through the whole engineering lifecycle.
Support products owned by the team, providing on-call if necessary, working with users to identify and fix defects.
Build automated tests to maintain the assurance of our continuous integration pipelines.
Support and mentor junior colleagues, helping them to understand what great software engineering looks like.
Participate in guilds and cross-organisation initiatives to build our community of engineers.
The salary for this role is: Manchester – £48,932 – £54,232 or London – £53,140 – £58,314.
The closing date for applications is 31/12/2020 at 11pm, and you can find out more or to apply here.
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Senior Software Engineer
Similar to the above, successful applicants to the Senior Software Engineer role will need to “share our collective responsibility to keep the country safe and be keen to constantly improve yourself and your team”. The job description states that “our teams work closely with each other and with mission customers, so it’s important that you’re prepared to communicate and share your knowledge”.
As a Lead Engineer, you’ll be expected to:
Lead the development across a small number of teams or take responsibility for a particular technical specialism where you will act as a subject matter expert.
Support decision making and risk taking within teams using your experience and technical knowledge.
Coach and mentor junior colleagues to help develop their skills, bringing on their engineering thinking.
Promote best practice and help to set standards across the organisation.
Participate in guilds and cross-organisation initiatives to build our community of engineers.
As a technical role, Mi5 is looking for a software engineers who have experience of working with a broad range of technologies, leading engineering teams and taking responsibility for making technical decisions.
The salary for this role is: Manchester – £59,824 – £64,558 or London – £63,097 – £69,630.
The closing date for applications is 31/12/2020 at 11pm and you can find out more or apply here.
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Application Architect
If strategy is your thing, then how about the role of Application Architect? This role is about gathering and interpreting requirements from the business and technical teams.
The job description states that as an application architect, you’ll be expected to:
Work with Dev Ops teams and fellow architects to identify and design end to end architectural solutions, advising on and contributing to the implementation of application architecture and system/component interfaces.
Contribute to system roadmaps and future visions to help stakeholders understand where and how technology benefits them.
Use your experience, as well as industry best practice and emerging trends, to initiate new ideas and conduct options analysis to recommend optimum solutions.
Design interface specifications, writing high level design and detailed design for chosen solutions.
Be involved in the implementation of new technologies and methods.
Successful candidates for this role should be “passionate leaders in the technology world who are excited to take the initiative, be creative and drive engineering change across the intelligence agencies.” and you should also have experience of successful application design and integration in large scale enterprise organisations.
The salary for this role is: Manchester – £63,091 – £67,677 or London – £66,276 – £71,081.
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The closing date for applications is 31/08/2020 at 11pm, and you can apply or find out more here.
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Didn’t really find a path that suits you?
For alternative roles and more information, you can visit the Mi5 – The Security Service website here.
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Neighbourhood Festival’s return to the city centre is looking great with after revealing second wave
Danny Jones
Neighbourhood Festival’s city centre all-dayer is returning to Manchester for 2026 after a year off, and with the second wave of the lineup having just dropped, it’s looking very promising.
Following teasers over the past month or so, it didn’t take long for us to figure out that NBHD Festival was coming back, especially with the Weekender in Warrington having taken a similar hiatus in 2024.
However, when festivals like these take time out, it can be easy to worry whether or not they’ll lose momentum or come back stronger.
Judging by this follow-up batch of acts alone, there’s no doubt NBHD Fest ’26 will be another cracker.
As you can see, as well as the fast-rising grungey alternative and garage rock quartet, KEO, being announced as one of the first big hitters on the list, there are some other familiar names on the lineup.
Especially for us Mancs.
With both Bolton and Altrincham youngsters, Florentenes and The Guest List, both joining the roster, as well as the likes of Bury-born ‘rockabilly’ revivalist Elliot James Reay also featuring on there, there’s a good deal of local talent to be enjoyed as always.
That goes for the regional delegation in general, too, with the likes of Jos River heading back up this way from her base in London, and Leeds’ fittingly named indie four-piece, The North, also booking a slot.
We’ll admit there are plenty of bands and artists coming up from the capital for the all-day festival, but at least they know where the UK’s real home of music is.
For instance, we’re buzzing to see the Red Rum Club boys returning to the NBHD stage once again – they never disappoint, and there are so many other guaranteed top performers on the bill. And that was just this year’s Weekener…
It’s worth reminding, once again, that since its inception in 2016 (yes, it really has been a decade now), Neighbourhood Fest has continued to serve as a proper launchpad for the next wave of superstars, not just here in the North West but across the country.
We still remember seeing the likes of Sam Fender, Holly Humberstone, Declan McKenna, Mahalia, The Lathums and more – some for the very first time – on these city centre stages, and it’s crazy to see how big some of them have gone on to become.
Set to take over some of Manchester’s most iconic venues along the Oxford Road Corridor once again, this is, without a doubt, one of the best dates for independents on the annual live music calendar.
Hosting a total of 11 stages on Saturday, 17 October, for a full day of live music, tickets for this year’s Neighbourhood Festival are on sale now right HERE.
And if you’ve already sorted yours, why not read our review of NBHD Weekender ’26 down below to get you in the mood for the next two editions.
Major DJ forced to pull out of Parklife festival on doctor’s orders
Thomas Melia
A well-known techno and trance DJ will no longer be playing at Parklife this weekend, he’s announced, with just one day to go until his major set.
Anyone heading to Heaton Park over the weekend for Manchester-based festival, Parklife, may notice the lineup looks a little different after one distinctive DJ has pulled out due to doctor’s orders.
Marlon Hoffstadt, who also goes by the moniker ‘DJ Daddy Trance’, was expected to play out on the Matinée stage on Saturday 20 June from 6.30pm – 8pm.
The Germany-based act was taking to the decks right before Manchester’s own Morgan Seatree, who has become recognised for his material which is an ode to house music and is likely to be one of the busiest sets of the weekend.
Hoffstadt had two gigs this weekend; the first being Parklife in Manchester and the second Fête de la Musique in Paris, both of which he has since pulled out of in a newly-published social media announcement.
The Berlin-born music maker has reluctantly called off these upcoming appearances and justified his decision by saying: “As much as I hate missing shows, I need to put my recovery first”.
To much dismay, Hoffstadt received doctor’s advice who deemed him ‘currently not fit to fly’ following surgery, urging him to rest and recover.
Marlon posted today: “I’m so sad to have to share this, but unfortunately I won’t be able to play Parklife in Manchester and Fête de la Musique in Paris this weekend.
“I recently had a surgery and, following my doctor’s advice, I’m currently not fit to fly and need rest and recover.
“I know many of you made plans and were looking forward to it, and I’m so sorry to let you down.
“As much as I hate missing shows, I need to put my recovery first so I can get back to doing what I love as soon as possible.”
As much as the presence of this world-class performer will be missed, there’s still plenty of notable names set to make their mark on Parklife including Zara Larsson, Calvin Harris, Skepta and more.
The outdoor big music weekender has established itself as a rave haven with mainly dance artists and DJs making up its lineup through a variety of curated b2b sets and live performances.
If you’re after immersing yourself in some jungle music, Bradford-native Nia Archives will have you transfixed over at The Valley with her jungle-heavy tunes from 6.30pm – 7.30pm or there’s three more stages to take your pick from.
We’re sure that anyone eager to see the ‘Hands Up In The Sky’ producer live may be frustrated by this brand-new social media announcement however as Hoffstadt mentions it’s so he can “Get back to doing what I love as soon as possible”.