About the job

Job summary

The Met Office is delighted to open our advertising for a number of progressive Industrial Placements, which will commence from July 2025 until July 2025.

What we are offering

We’re looking for an exceptional AI for Weather Forecasting Researcher - Industrial Placement 2024 to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our AI for Weather Forecasting Researcher - Industrial Placement 2024 you will work a hybrid pattern and will be on site at least one day a week, with more recommended to make the most of this opprtunity. You can choose to work more frequently in our state-of-the-art office if you'd prefer.

Our opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week.  Our people are at the heart of what we do and we'll do our best to agree a working pattern that works for everyone.

Why join us?

The Met Office is accredited as a 'Great Place to Work UK 2023' and in addition has achieved a place on both the UK's 'Best Workplaces in Tech' and 'Best Workplaces for Women' lists.

We invest in our people to unlock their full potential. As our Marine Forecasting - Industrial Placement 2024, we will support you to develop and thrive to be the best you can be.  We champion positive physical and mental health in the workplace and are committed to being an inclusive organisation, providing a working culture that actively values an equal and diverse workforce. 

As our AI for Weather Forecasting Researcher - Industrial Placement 2024, your salary will be £25606.00.

Whilst this is a temporary position until July 2025, there is potential for it to develop into an opportunity to join our Graduate Development scheme once you complete your University studies.

Your package includes:
- Flexible hours and homeworking
- Cycle to work scheme for the purchase of a bicycle and equipment to support healthy, low carbon travel
- Access to discounted shopping, inclusive of retail, leisure and lifestyle brands

Who we are:

We provide critical weather services and world-leading climate science to deliver extraordinary impact and benefit across the globe. Our work helps people make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.

Our Industrial Placement scheme offers ambitious and capable undergraduates the opportunity to gain valuable experience working alongside diverse and highly skilled experts in their field. You’ll be working on projects that really matter and will make a difference.

Together:

• We’re a force for good - focusing on our environmental and social impact
• We’re experts by nature - always learning and developing to do things better
• We live and breathe it - putting our purpose at the heart of decision-making
• We’re better together - understanding partnerships and inclusivity make us greater
• We keep evolving - pushing boundaries to make tomorrow better for our customers

Find out more about our values - https://bit.ly/3fokaRD

Job description

Job Purpose:

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Met Office on a 12-month Year In Industry placement, developing your skills and knowledge and ensuring you gain the most value possible from your experience with us. You will have the opportunity to network with our cohort of Industrial Placement all over the Met Office and understand what career opportunities we can offer you after you graduate.

We are looking for some one to work in and with the AI4NWP programme to explore new ways of working that are opened up by the much lower compute of ML weather model compared to traditional NWP system, for example interactive and explainable forecasting tools. The placement will work with the various research projects in the programme to translate the work done on the programme into materials that promote engagement with AI4NWP by the Data Science Community of Practice, including partner organisations, such as notebooks, tutorials and sample code. This will also involve researching new ways users can make use of these tools for research and operational purposes.

As our AI for Weather Forecasting Researcher - Industrial Placement 2024, your key responsibilities are:

• Learn about machine learning techniques for weather forecasting.
• Understand work of AI4NWP projects and create tutorial material and sample datasets to explain to Data Science community.
• Explore new, interactive ways in which ML weather models can be used by researchers.

You can find out more about the exciting work underway to apply Artificial Intelligence to Weather Forecasts on the web page for the project:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/approach/collaboration/artificial-intelligence-for-numerical-weather-prediction

Person specification

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

1. We're experts by nature - Experience of contributing to the development of software in Python for any of: data engineering, data analytics, machine learning engineering or scientific computing.
2. We're experts by nature - Good understanding of software quality assurance processes e.g. testing, documentation, version control.
3. We're better together - Evidence of effective communication skills (verbal, written, presentation and listening).
4. We're better together - Evidence of the ability to work as part of a team to deliver a common goal.
5. We live and breath it - Passion for applying the latest data science techniques to key challenges in earth sciences.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £25,606, Met Office contributes £27 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How to apply:

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you. Apply by clicking the link below and complete the application form making sure to providence evidence in your examples how you meet each of the essential criteria - we recommend candidates use the CARL (Context, Action, Result and Learning) method for presenting evidence of skills and taking a read through the application tips document attached to the bottom of this advert.

Closing date 21/01/2024 at 23:59 with interviews commencing from 20/02/2024. Please note we often receive a high volume of applications but we will contact everyone who applies once the closing date has passed.

If successful, please note we are unable to offer expenses for travel to your normal place of work. This post is contractually aligned to Exeter HQ, please ask at interview if you would like extra clarity on how often this requirement is likely to be.

How we can help:

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via askHR@metoffice.gov.uk. You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity. You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We understand that great minds don’t always think alike and as an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information. We require Security clearance, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.