About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Scientific Software Engineer - Industry Post-Processing 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 full time, 37 hours per week, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 3 days per week/22.2 hours per week and we will also try our best to consider those intending to work a job share.  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.

Job description

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 Purpose:

If successful, you will develop an excellent understanding of how weather and climate information is used in industry across the surface transport, energy, retail and infrastructure sectors. Your work will combine this with your relevant scientific and technical background to develop and support the next generation of weather forecast services for existing Met Office customers and new opportunities, for example in the fast-moving Connected and Autonomous Vehicle sector or supporting the UK’s clean energy transition.

Forming a crucial part of the team, you will work in a dynamic and multidisciplinary environment and with a range of teams from across the Met Office: exploiting the Met Office's scientific and technical capability to build new production processes for services and to implement new scientific models; including using machine learning techniques. You will investigate how to exploit cloud computing technologies to build scale and efficiency into our operational services, supporting our scientists across Industry Science and Consultancy in the deployment of high-quality technical implementations of their research into emerging applications for weather and climate data.

Your work will include a variety of software development, IT system development and quality assurance related activities, including:

1. Plan, design and develop operational data services exploiting cloud computing technologies to efficiently produce forecasts and contribute to setting the strategic direction for production of data services
2. Support Met Office scientists to develop high-quality code and implementations of their research, lead activities to develop their capabilities
3. Influence and negotiate with stakeholders to understand their requirements and ensure that forecast services fully meet their needs,
4. Lead a motivated team to deliver projects that solve real world challenges.

Person specification

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

1. Software development: Experience of leading significant scientific software developments and maintaining scientific software applications across multiple or complex platforms.
2. Evidence of the ability to prioritise and manage areas of responsibility to deliver outcomes.
3. Evidence of applying your software development knowledge to help shape the strategic direction of your company or equivalent.
4. Evidence of a high level of experience in coding in Python.
5. Software quality: Evidence of promoting and applying best practice in software quality assurance, such as version control, standards, testing, and reviewing, to scientific software applications.
6. Experience of solving deep and/or broad complex software coding problems.
7. Evidence of effective communication of scientific and/or technical knowledge to a variety of audiences which increased the impact of your work and/or influenced the strategic direction of your colleagues.
8. Team and customer support: Evidence of team working skills, including the development of scientific, technical or software engineering skills in yourself and others, and evidence of customer support and training.

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

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.

Additional information:

In line with the Science Progressions framework, if you are a current Met Office employee within the Science or Scientific Consultancy career families (within the Science Profession) in a fluid-grade role, please ensure that you submit your application at the same Pay Group level as your current job.

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. 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.