About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Strategic Analyst to help us make a difference to our planet.

Job description

As our Strategic Analyst, 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, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 30 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.

Whilst this is a temporary position for 12 months, there is potential for it to develop into a permanent position. This position is mapped to Business Support Manager and is known internally as Business Support Manager / Strategic Analyst.

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

Your world of expertise

The Met Office is approaching an exciting time in its history, with lots of large-scale pieces of transformational work and technology changes around the corner. This opportunity will give you a chance to work with senior stakeholders, report and analyse multiple new metrics and sit in a team at the centre of all the action. In doing so you will play a pivotal role in helping to shape and inform the strategic direction of the hub of the Met Office, helping it on its transformational journey towards helping people stay safe and thrive. 

You will support strategic planning and performance activities to meet and delivery current and future Directorate's requirements and objectives, producing and analysing robust management information to help with decision making.  

Your key duties

• Provide a central point of expertise and support across the directorate for common corporate and professional tools and processes, including (as relevant) but not exclusive to: Risk, performance, budgeting and resourcing, strategic planning, horizon scanning, metric development and business analysis.  
• Lead, guide and deliver improvements to the creation, integration and communication of management information, as outlined above. 
• Document, interpret, analyse, and communicate complex management information, through the co-ordination of the monthly Director’s report with the collection of commentary, embedding and improving of update process and development of contingencies, interpret and summarise key information and highlights to present to Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Plans and Performance (P&P) Team.  
• Own the Services Power BI Dashboard and provide back-up resource for Dashboard troubleshooting and development.  
• Proactively monitor Directorate and Group performance against targets and perform trends analysis, providing relevant reports for a variety of audiences, taking action to ensure any deviations, issues, threats or opportunities are resolved or escalated as appropriate.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. As an expert by natureyou will have strong analytical and business analysis skills with a proven ability to understand issues quickly, simplify complexity and provide insight and recommendations for improvements and successfully implement these improvements. 
2. Excellent communication skills, specifically an ability to translate and present complex information in simple and understandable terms. 
3. Excellent relationship management skills, including the ability to persuade and negotiate to successful conclusion with staff at all levels. 
4. As a proven self-starter and motivated individual, you keep evolvingwith an ability to overcome challenges to get results. 
5. Excellent team working skills, demonstrating we are better togetherthrough supporting and guiding your colleagues.  
6. Strategic Planning – methods and approaches and working with senior leadership in developing outcomes and objectives.
7. Workshop planning and facilitation tools and methods. 

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. Familiarisation with Excel, and the Microsoft Power Suite (Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate CoPilot). 
2. Coaching and/ or mentoring experience.
3. Understanding of business change management, approaches and methodologies. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,725, Met Office contributes £11,307 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 share our values, we’d love to hear from you! Click apply to begin your application. Please complete your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date 29/07/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 12/08/2024. 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.