About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Observations Quality Team Leader to help us make a difference to our planet.

Job description

As our Observations Quality Team Leader, the job may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in the office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and the location advertised will be your contractual place of work.

Our opportunity is part time, 18.5 hours per week, based in based in Edinburgh, Eskdalemuir, Lerwick, Aberdeen or Belfast.  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.

World changing work

From science to technology, from meteorology to management, and from planning to communication, our expertise helps us stand out as the authority on weather accuracy and climate prediction. We help individuals, industries and government to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive. This is the Met Office. This is who we are.

• 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

Your world of expertise

Observations are fundamental to almost all the services that the Met Office provides and there's an increasing demand for more observational data along with supporting metadata. Our quality monitoring team are responsible for recovery and archive of observations for many applications as well as providing the specialised tools and process for general quality management activities.

You will lead, manage and develop a small team across a number of task areas including observational metadata, data recovery and small projects. These areas are fundamental to the work of the quality monitoring team and to our wider services.

You will uphold and amplify the Met Office values through your actions and leadership.

Your key duties

• Manage the work of the metadata specialist, data recovery specialist, and climate database software developers within Observational Quality monitoring area.   To ensure services meet agreed levels of quality and cost and are in line with observation programme targets.
• Develop and maintain relationships with external partners to agree policies and standards in the management and exchange of data and metadata so that Met Office customer requirements are met.
• Develop work plans for these services and contribute to the development of Observations programme plans to ensure customer services are delivered.
• Lead on the development and implementation of successful changes to these services that reduce operating costs and/or ensure customer services are improved. 
• Define and develop process documentation and standards for these services and provide training and mentoring for the teams involved.
• Lead and develop the team so that staff reach their potential and have the skills required to deliver the agreed observational services.  

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. A degree in physical science or mathematics, or equivalent experience.
2. Knowledge and skills in the processing, archiving of observations or observational metadata, with the ability to use databases to extract and analyse.
3. Expert by nature: Knowledge of historic data recovery process or the collection and utilisation of observational metadata. Including an understanding of characteristics and potential strengths and weaknesses of observations data. 
4. Proven organisational and planning skills demonstrating the ability to prioritise work and deliver successfully to tight time scales.
5. Better together: Excellent communication skills with strong evidence of contributing to projects, building good working relationships with stakeholders.
6. Keep evolving: Ability to lead and develop a team and/or strong evidence of mentoring and training colleagues.
7. Ability to write process documentation, present technical information clearly and act as a specialist for observations data or observational metadata.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,725, Met Office contributes £11,307 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

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you! Click apply to begin your application. Please complete your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date 10/07/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 28/07/2024. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via careers@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 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.