Job title: Head of Business Intelligence
Location: UK (hybrid)
Salary range: £70,000 – £100,000 – dependent on experience
About Blacksmiths
Blacksmiths is a full-spectrum intelligence, security and cyber consultancy. We help organisations understand risks to their critical assets and help build human, digital and physical capabilities to defend them. We use a range of innovative methodologies, senior advisers, technical specialists and creative ideas to provide clients (both government and commercial) with high-end, holistic security advice and capability.
We currently have three teams:
1. Intelligence Capability: Building intelligence and security capability for governments and companies;
2. Security Management. Delivering programmes, training and assessments and to help understand and mitigate security risks, including insider risk;
3. Cyber Security: Advisory, assessments and pen testing for Corporate IT, Operational Technology and Cloud infrastructure.
Delivery of business intelligence to our clients is currently shared between these teams. Those teams have grown and specialised and so we are building out a team dedicated to this capability, which the successful candidate will lead:
4. Business intelligence: Commercial intelligence collection and assessment for clients who need timely access to real-world insights.
About the role
This is a hands on role, combining business development, project delivery and team leadership. Responsibilities include:
1. Business development
Shaping the range of services on offer.
Building and managing a credible pipeline of work.
Networking and sales activity, in close collaboration with the wider leadership team, to identify and win new opportunities.
Ensuring the commercial success of the team and the profitability of every project.
2. Managing Clients
Building and owning strong relationships with new and existing clients.
Scoping engagements, developing proposals, and overseeing delivery.
Translating client needs into clear intelligence requirements, plans and deliverables.
3. Managing and delivering projects
Leading, designing, overseeing and delivering intelligence collection projects, drawing on human networks, physical and technical surveillance, data analysis and online research.
Ensuring all projects are delivered to Blacksmiths’ high security, quality, ethical and governance standards.
Ensuring all supplier activity complies with legal, ethical, and contractual standards.
Integrating multi source intelligence into coherent assessments, threat analyses, and briefing products suitable for senior decision makers.
Managing high risk and sensitive projects with judgement and discretion.
4. Building and leading the team
Establishing the new team and establishing its operating rhythm.
Contributing to the development of Blacksmiths’ trusted supplier network across specialist intelligence disciplines.
Identifying when and how to scale the team, including recruitment of specialist roles (e.g. OSINT practitioners and data analysts).
Building on existing Blacksmiths processes to create supportive, inclusive and sustainable working practices that enable people to do their best work.
Examples of the sort of work the team delivers:
Market entry reports: political dynamics, security threats, key stakeholders etc.
Executive risk assessments: defensive, open source review of senior executives to identify digital exposure, personal vulnerabilities, and reputational risks.
Due diligence investigations.
Threat assessments, including from hostile states, terrorists and competitors.
Requirements
Candidates must have:
- A background in government or commercial intelligence or investigations.
- Experience and skills in human intelligence collection, OSINT, surveillance, all-source assessment and/or investigations.
- The ability to manage people to Blacksmiths’ high standards.
- The ability to oversee projects being conducted by the team. This means: ensuring projects are profitable and on track; maintaining standards; managing risks; and solving problems responsibly (in a supportive environment!).
- The ability to make sound commercial decisions. This includes understanding pricing and financial risks. There is an experienced team within the business to offer support and to help develop skills in this area if needed.
- An understanding of cyber, data and technology capabilities in the intelligence world.
- Proficiency with digital and tech tools (Microsoft suite, digital tradecraft etc).
- Creativity and enthusiasm in spotting opportunities for expanding work with existing clients, seeing new markets and developing new capabilities.
- A collaborative, non-hierarchical willingness to contribute across all areas of the business. As a small business, we need low-ego people with the flexibility to take on a range of different tasks from the strategic to the tactical.
- Current or recent UK security clearance – or the ability to obtain one.
Candidates would benefit from having:
- A strong understanding of current threat actors, methodologies, trends, and relevant geopolitical developments that may be affecting clients.
- One or more relevant professional qualifications.
- A network of people and companies.
We are committed to building an inclusive organisation where different backgrounds, perspectives and lived experiences are valued and respected. We actively seek candidates from backgrounds under-represented in the intelligence community and will ensure our process evaluates all candidates equitably against mission-relevant criteria.
What Blacksmiths can offer:
- £70,000 – £100,000 base salary, depending on experience.
- A generous bonus depending on company results. To reflect our team ethos our annual bonus scheme is run as a profit share – everyone gets an equal slice of the allocated operating profit regardless of role, grade or experience.
- A non-contributory 9% pension scheme, fully flexible leave policy and private healthcare.
- We are “remote first”, with many of our team choosing to work from home. Our head office is in Cheltenham where the majority of our technical team are based.
- Flexible working opportunities. This is a full-time role but we are open to different working hours and arrangements – flexible working is the norm in Blacksmiths.
- An inclusive, supportive organisation that values diversity of background and thought.
- Really decent colleagues. We are a tight-knit team and pride ourselves on being a diverse and friendly place to work.
- Share options will be on offer to the right candidate.
If you are interested:
Please complete our application form.
We understand that applicants with government intelligence experience will be unable to properly represent their experiences in an unclassified application. That is fine – please submit an outline application in any case. Where needed, we will arrange a conversation with one of our DV’ed staff to ensure you are not unfairly disadvantaged.
Feel free to send any questions to careers@blacksmithsgroup.com.
Applications will be open until 23 June. We do not have a fixed start date: we will wait for the right candidate and adapt our timescales to match their needs.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace.
We strongly encourage applications from women, LGBTQ+ people and people from other backgrounds that are under‑represented in the security industry.
All appointments are made on merit.