Project Support Officer Apprentice

Job summary

As a Project Support Officer Apprentice, you will develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to support the successful delivery of projects, programmes, portfolios and PMO activities whilst undertaking the Associate Project Manager Apprenticeship.

Working alongside experienced delivery professionals, you will gain practical experience across planning, reporting, governance, stakeholder engagement, financial management, resource management, risk management and data analysis activities.

Through a combination of workplace learning and formal training, you will develop capability across the UK Government Project Delivery Capability Framework (PDCF) competencies and build the skills required to progress towards a substantive Project Support Officer role within the Project Delivery profession.

Your current situation:

You may have never worked in an office, be finishing sixth form, leaving the armed forces, looking for a career change, or not enjoying your current studies. No matter what your current situation is, if you are at least 18 years old you can join us as an apprentice.

You must be at least 18 years old in January 2026 to undertake this apprenticeship.

Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution.

Job description

In this role you will support the maintenance of plans, schedules and delivery documentation across projects, programmes, portfolios and Project Management Office (PMO) activities, gaining practical experience of planning and scheduling techniques.

You will maintain delivery documentation and records, apply version control and support meetings, reviews and administrative activities whilst gaining an understanding of governance, assurance and information management processes.

For more information on the role responsibilities, please see the job profile attached below.

Person specification

We are looking for someone who has strong organisational and prioritisation skills, you will have previous experience using Microsoft Office applications.

Important Information:

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats.

For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years.

Qualifications

Essential:
• 5 GCSEs at Grade C/4 or above, including English and Mathematics and hold a minimum of 48 UCAS points or equivalent.
• Meets the eligibility requirements for enrolment on the Associate Project Manager Apprenticeship.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Project Support officers need to work effectively as part of a team. Describe a time you worked effectively with others to achieve a goal.
• Project Support Officers help teams keep activities organised and on track. Describe a time when you planned and monitored, an activity, event or piece of work.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,039, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory contributes £8,122 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Benefits

Dstl’s full range of great benefits can be found in the information pack which includes:

• Financial: An excellent pension scheme starting from 26% employer contribution (find out more here). In Year Rewarding Achievement bonuses and thank you vouchers. Rental deposit scheme and cycle to work scheme.

• Flexible working: Options include alternative working patterns such as; compressed hours, job shares and annualised hours (agreed number of hours per annum paid monthly i.e. working term-time only).

• Working hours: Flexibility around your working day (e.g. start time, finish time). Ability to bank hours in a 12 month reference period including the ability to accrue and use 3 days per calendar month.

• Where you work: Depending on your role, blended working may be available including remote working to suit you and your team. This can be discussed at interview.

• Annual leave: 25 days pro rata (rising to 30 after 5 years) plus 8 public holidays with the ability to buy/sell 5 additional days per annum.

• Family: Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks with full pay, an additional 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid

• Learning and Development: Dstl encourages and supports charterships, accreditations and provides employees access to fully funded apprenticeships up to level 7 (Masters Degree). Dstl will pay for 2 memberships with relevant bodies/institutions. Employees also have access to Civil Service Learning.

• Facilities: Onsite parking, EV Charging points, restaurants, cafés and gyms.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so If at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team [email removed] and we will do all we can to support you.

At the application stage, we will assess your submitted application against the essential criteria set out in the job profile.

Sifting will take place week commencing 9th November 2026 with interviews will be held via MS Teams from 30th November 2026

Your interview