About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Engineer - Observations R&D to help us make a difference to our planet.

This 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. 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.

Whilst this is part time, there is potential for it to develop into a full time role position.

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 Senior Engineer - Observations R&D, 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.

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. 

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:

As our Senior Engineer - Observations R&D, your key responsibilities are:

• Carry out research and innovation into new and improved engineering techniques to improve our observation instruments and systems.
• Work as part of a mixed team of scientists, software engineers and engineers to pull your engineering ideas through to instruments for testing.
• Work with teams in Technical Services to ensure that prototype designs meet the necessary technical requirements to be pulled through to operations.
• Take a leading role in Health and Safety and Technical standards to ensure our work is fully compliant with all relevant standards and law. 

Person specification

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

1. Evidence that you keep evolving by delivering and evaluating meaningful advances in capability for colleagues and/or stakeholders through the effective application of deep and/or broad engineering and/or technical knowledge, understanding and skills.
2. Demonstrable experience of proficiently providing deep and/or broad engineering and technical insight into the solving of hardware and software tasks or problems.
3. Evidence of working better together by engaging with internal and/or external teams to understand the requirements for your work and significantly contribute to the development and evaluation of plans to meet these requirements.
4. Evidence of being an expert by nature through communicating engineering and/or technical knowledge accurately, concisely and in the most appropriate way in a range of situations to increase the impact of your work and enhance the Met Office's reputation.
5. Examples of applying, promoting, and supporting good Quality Assurance processes, best practice, standards and/or regulations in both yours and others work to ensure agreed standards are maintained.
6. Evidence that you put values and purpose at the heart of your decision making, while also understanding the wider context of capabilities and needs in the area of which your work is part and applying this knowledge to help inform strategic planning in your area or beyond (we live and breathe it).

Desirable Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but we’re also keen to discover if you have:

An interest in the weather and techniques for measuring key atmospheric variables (such as temperature, humidity, lightning, and clouds

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,838, Met Office contributes £10,486 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 below using your CV and a Cover Letter/Supporting Statement which evidences 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.

Closing date 24/02/2024 at 23:59 with interviews commencing from 04/03/2024. You will hear from us 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 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.