About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Software Developer to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Senior Software Developer, 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

Why join us

Our work is life-changing, often life-saving and always life-enhancing. 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 a Senior Software Developer, we will support you to develop and thrive to be the best you can be. You will be given up to half a day per week to improve your skills through non-project learning. 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.

Job description

Your world of expertise

As a Senior Developer, you will lead a team of developers working within the Data Services area of Met Office. You will plan, support, and guide builds of new initiatives and capabilities providing critical weather services to Met Office customers.This role is within the Data Services team in Technology.

Data Services provide a suite of internal interfaces for querying, subsetting and processing our forecast and observation data. These interfaces form part of the Met Office National Capability that underpins our weather and climate services. They are essential for providing data to many of our public facing systems, for example, the app and the website.

As a Senior Developer in Data Services, you will create systems which bridge the gap between our front-end products and the back-end science, ensuring that we are able to make the very best use of our ever-evolving supercompute capability. Many terabytes of data pass through the Data Services estate each day, so the role requires an acute understanding of system scaling and performance optimisation. 

Your key duties

This is an exciting opportunity to work in a cutting-edge development team that has a wide-reaching and positive impact, helping people to stay safe and thrive.

You will work with your team to understand, design, and implement modern, full stack, cloud-based solutions. You will also work collaboratively with your peers in the Science and Technology community, building relationships and sharing your knowledge. This position includes line management.

This developer role is aligned to Software developer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (Software developer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk) on the GOV.UK website.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Availability and capacity management.  You can ensure the correct implementation of standards and procedures. You can identify capacity issues, and stipulate and instigate the required changes. You can initiate remedial action.  
2. Programming and build (software engineering). You can collaborate with others when necessary to review specifications. You can use the agreed specifications to design, code, test and document programs or scripts of medium-to-high complexity, using cloud native technologies and Python.
3. Prototyping. You can approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes and testing with others. You can establish design patterns and iterate them. You can use a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate.  
4. Service support. You can identify, locate and fix faults. 
5. Systems integration. You can define the integration build. You can co-ordinate build activities across systems. You can understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities. 

Desirable Criteria:

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

1. Experience of geospatial/environmental data.
2. Using file types like NetCDF/GRIB and OGC open standard web services

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 Sunday 05/05/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 14/05/2024. 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

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.