About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Infrastructure Engineer - Supercomputer Support to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Senior Infrastructure Engineer, 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 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.

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

Job description

Your world of expertise

The Supercomputer Support Team is responsible for managing the operating systems and core application software of the Met Office supercomputer complex. The estate currently comprises of one test, one development and two large operational Cray XC40 systems located at Exeter HQ. Our largest Cray XC40 supercomputer is dedicated to research and collaboration and is located at the Exeter Science Park.

We are currently in the process of replacing our current systems with next-generation HPE Cray EX supercomputer systems which will come online in the next year as part of our agreement with Microsoft to deliver supercomputer capability for the next 10 years.

Your key duties

As a Linux System Administrator (Supercomputer) in our Supercomputer Support Team, you will support, monitor and manage the supercomputer users and systems which in turn support the running of our meteorological forecast and climate prediction models.

Additionally, you will work, as part of the team, delivering the next-generation HPE Cray EX supercomputer.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Experience of system administration; running and managing a high performance computing environment, catering for the needs of many users with a mixture of business critical and research workloads to deliver a high quality service. Ideally in the SuSE Linux environment (Expert by nature)
2. Experience of configuring and managing shared system resources in a multi-user environment, such as allocation of compute resources, managing job priorities, setting and managing group and individual disk quotas
3. Experience of configuring and troubleshooting a high performance computing schedular, PBS or SLURM
4. Proven analytical ability and problem-solving skills for complex technical issues in an multi-user environment. (We live and breathe it)
5. Experience of working in an ITIL-based support environment to deliver a high quality, high availability service for all the system users

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,725, Met Office contributes £11,265 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 with evidence against each of the essential criteria. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date Monday 27/05/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 10/06/2024. 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.