Public sector jobs in Cheltenham

GCHQ, the government’s intelligence, security and cyber agency, has its headquarters in Cheltenham and is the town’s largest employer. The rest of the public sector work is spread across Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at Cheltenham General Hospital, Cheltenham Borough Council, Gloucestershire County Council, schools and Gloucestershire Constabulary. Gloucester is about ten miles away, and most county-wide employers recruit from both places.

Working at GCHQ

GCHQ recruits analysts, software engineers, data scientists, mathematicians, linguists and cyber security specialists, plus the staff any large organisation needs: HR, finance, facilities, project managers and administrators. It also runs apprenticeship and graduate schemes. Jobs are advertised mainly on GCHQ’s own careers site.

Every role needs national security vetting at the highest level, which looks in depth at your background, finances, relationships and conduct, and includes interviews. It takes much longer than ordinary pre-employment checks, so offers are conditional for months in some cases. Posts of this kind are reserved for UK nationals, as Civil Service nationality rules explains. Security clearance for public sector jobs sets out the levels of vetting and what each involves.

GCHQ sets its own pay ranges and shows the salary on each advert, so there is no national figure to quote. Its staff are civil servants and can join the Civil Service pension scheme, where member contributions in alpha for 2026/27 depend on pay:

Pensionable pay	Member contribution
£0 to £36,199	4.6%
£36,200 to £56,000	5.45%
£56,001 to £150,000	7.35%
£150,001 and over	8.05%

These are lower member rates than the NHS, teachers’ and local government schemes at most salaries. The Civil Service pension (alpha) explains how the pension builds up each year.

Cheltenham General Hospital

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal in Gloucester. The trust has been concentrating particular specialties on one site or the other, so check where the job is based and whether it rotates. Cheltenham General houses the Gloucestershire Oncology Centre, the county’s main cancer centre.

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust provides community, mental health and learning disability services across the county, and South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust covers 999 calls. From 1 April 2026, Agenda for Change band 3 runs from £25,760 to £27,476, band 5 from £32,073 to £39,043 and band 6 from £39,959 to £48,117.

Councils

Cheltenham Borough Council handles housing, planning, waste, environmental health and licensing in the town. Gloucestershire County Council, based at Shire Hall in Gloucester, runs adult social care, children’s services, highways, libraries and public health, plus the county fire and rescue service. Both councils pay on the NJC spine as their base, starting at £25,614 (SCP 3) from 1 April 2026, and both offer the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Schools

Cheltenham has Pate’s Grammar School, which selects by test, alongside comprehensive academies and maintained primaries. Schools pay teachers on the rest of England ranges, which start at £34,069 (M1) and reach £46,940 at M6 from 1 September 2026 under the accepted 3.5 per cent award. Support staff are generally on the NJC spine and paid term-time only. The University of Gloucestershire, with campuses in Cheltenham and Gloucester, runs teacher training and health courses, so local schools and trusts regularly take students on placement.

Gloucestershire Constabulary and the fire service

Gloucestershire Constabulary starts constables on £32,255 from 1 September 2026, rising to £52,015. Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service is part of the county council and pays national rates of £31,539 in development and £40,358 once competent, from 1 July 2026.

Government technical jobs outside GCHQ

Other government departments also advertise digital, data and cyber posts on Civil Service Jobs, usually tied to a regional office with hybrid working, and many of those need a lower level of security clearance. Public sector jobs in Gloucester covers the employers down the road.