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 2024 until July 2025.

What we are offering

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

As our Engineering - Industrial Placement 2024 you will work mostly in our state-of-the-art Exeter HQ office where the rest of the team and their facilities are based. There could be occasional day trips to radars sites in the southwest, and opportunities to work from home when tasks allow. There's also the potential for overnight trips to more distant sites if you're interested.

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?

We invest in our people to unlock their full potential. As our Engineering - 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 Engineering - Industrial Placement 2024, your starting 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.

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 Placements all over the Met Office and understand what career opportunities we can offer you after you graduate.

The Met Office operate a network of 15 weather radars across the UK. We're unique in having designed, built and installed these ourselves. The Radar Hardware Team are a small team of engineers who continue to develop the system - enhancing data quality, adding new capability, improving reliability and reducing running costs. We also provide expert advice and support to the operations and field engineering team.

The team are currently working on several major hardware improvements. In 2024 we'll be installing a radar at a brand new site in East Anglia. There could be an opportunity to join the installation and commissioning team in Summer 2024.

We're also working with the R&D teams developing a new radar receiver and transitioning this into operational use. The team will be reworking a bench prototype into something suitable for installation and test on the R&D radar. The design will need to consider their maintenance & repair as well as how we efficiently build 20 of them in the coming years. This will be a major project with many different engineering aspects - mechanical, electrical, electronics and manufacturing as well as specifying and sourcing components, building and testing parts (considering in-house vs contracting out) and drafting documentation. So they'll be many different tasks you could get involved in depending on your area of interest and the stage of work we've reached when you join us.

As our Engineering - Industrial Placement 2024, your key responsibilities are:

• Gain experience in the real-world application of engineering skills and knowledge.
• Under supervision, design and implement modifications to existing radar equipment or design and assemble new radar components to help develop the Met Office weather radar design.
• Draft assembly and modification instructions for other engineers to follow.
• Help with problem solving as the team provide expert technical support.
• As a new member of the team offer a different insight and new ideas to improve the performance, reliability or maintainability of the radars.
• Share key aspects of acquired knowledge and work experiences with the rest of the team both formally and informally. Present regular progress reports on the work undertaken to colleagues, and contribute to project and team meetings.

Person specification

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

1. Have a passion to design & implement technical changes to deliver engineering improvements. (Keep evolving)
2. Evidence of practical skills and ability to use common engineering hand tools and test equipment. (Expert by nature)
3. Possess good written and verbal communication skills to record or convey technical information clearly and concisely. (Expert by nature)
4. Can demonstrate ability to analyse and solve technical problems. (Expert by nature)
5. Proven ability to work as part of a team. (We’re better together)
6. Can plan and organise their work independently and using their own initiative.

Benefits

Your package includes:
- Flexible hours and homeworking
- 27.5 days annual leave (plus Bank Holidays)
- Access to discounted shopping, inclusive of retail, leisure and lifestyle brands

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.