About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Scientist - Vegetation-Climate Interactions to help us make a difference to our planet.

Our Senior Scientist - Vegetation-Climate Interactions will work a hybrid pattern of homeworking and in Exeter HQ .

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 Scientist - Vegetation-Climate Interactions , 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 help people make better decisions to stay safe and thrive. We are looking for a highly motivated scientist to work on understanding vegetation-climate interactions, processes and implications for ecosystem services. The work will utilise a range of earth system data from individual sites to global earth observations and models. As well as leading the development of code and performing appropriate analyses, this role will require extensive collaboration with international and multi-disciplinary scientists, and dissemination of results to other scientists and end users. The candidate will take a leading role in the Met Office’s contribution to the newly funded Horizon Europe project CARMINE (‘Climate Resilient Development Pathways in Metropolitan Regions of Europe’).

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 Scientist - Vegetation-Climate Interactions , the key duties are:

• Drive forward the work for the CARMINE project and subsequent team projects on vegetation-climate interactions.
• Collate and analyse environmental (including climate and vegetation) data from diverse sources, e.g. site observations, satellite products..., to improve scientific understanding and guidance on vegetation-climate interactions.
• Develop code and run models to assess vegetation-climate interactions for CARMINE and subsequent projects.
• Develop and maintain robust software code for data analyses and visualisations.
• Develop/maintain strong collaborations with team members, project stakeholders and other national and international experts.
• Write project reports and communicate relevant science to a range of audiences, including presentations at meetings or conferences and leading on peer-reviewed publications.

Person specification

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

1. A PhD and research experience in a relevant physical, biological or computational science.
2. Research experience in environmental observations and/or modelling, with evidence of working independently to provide high class research outputs, supporting the Met Office’s core value ‘Experts by Nature’.
3. Excellent data analysis, computing and programming skills in R, python (or other similar coding language).
4. Ability to produce clear written and oral scientific communications, including leading scientific papers or project reports and presenting at conferences.
5. Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders to deliver joint goals, supporting the Met Office's core value 'We’re Better Together’.

Desirable Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but your application will be even stronger if you have:

1. Experience analysing vegetation or other ecological data, e.g. site observations, ecological models, satellite products.
2. Understanding of Digital Twin models.
3. Evidence of scientific work on urban climate and/or environment.
4. Evidence of relevant scientific writing, e.g. published papers on vegetation-climate interactions.
5. Practical understanding of nature-based solutions relating to vegetation.

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 Cover Letter/Supporting Statement (which must bullet point how you meet each of the essential criteria).

Closing date 18/02/2024 at 23:59 with interviews commencing from 06/03/2024 . You will hear from us once the closing date has passed. Our interviews are taking place remotely via Microsoft Teams.

If successful, please note we are unable to offer expenses for travel to your normal place of work. 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 assistance 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 (Guaranteed Interview) Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We are an equal opportunities employer, welcoming 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.