Careers in Technology & IT

The Met Office was recognised on Great Place To Work UK’s list of the ‘UK’s Best Workplaces for Tech 2023’. 

Technology and IT matter to us

Technology and IT are crucial to everything we do at the Met Office – from science and forecasting to marketing and consultancy. Without technology, our world-leading meteorological forecasts and products would not exist. Furthermore, our vision - to be recognised as global leaders in weather and climate science and services in a changing world - would be unachievable.

We’re constantly pushing ourselves to stay ahead of the game, exploiting technology to keep people safe, enable industries to operate, aircraft to take off and land safely, and Government to make key decisions. Our supercomputer is one of the most powerful of its kind in the world, capable of 14,000 trillion arithmetic operations per second. It has enabled the UK to continue to lead the world in weather, climate and environmental science high-performance computing.

Behind our cutting-edge, world-class technology and IT are innovative, world class people. They manage the systems that deliver our forecasts every day to people around the world.

Technology opportunities with the Met Office 

We have regular opportunities to do the following roles with us:

  • IT Service Owner: accountable for the quality of a portfolio of our services and improving how we support services in a DevOps environment. Responsible for managing finances – including development, appropriate forecasting and management through the financial lifecycle. Manage relationships with suppliers to ensure they build and deliver services on our behalf effectively.
  • Lead Developer: guides the team’s ways of working, identifies appropriate technology and approach, provides technical leadership, coaching and mentoring, and promotes knowledge sharing and contributions to the developer community. Aligned to the role of Lead developer – management within the Government Digital and Data Profession (formerly Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Profession).

  • Solutions Architech: leads and mentors delivery teams to meet goals in a secure sustainable manner, translates technical concepts relating to software engineering, delivery management and service management so they are understood by all. Works with stakeholders to turn business problems into solution designs, and makes and guides effective decisions.
  • Senior Delivery Manager: supports software delivery teams to apply the most appropriate tools and techniques to deliver products and services. Identifies obstacles and solutions, as well as inspiring the team to develop and be the best they can be.

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Read Tom Dufall's story of being a Met Office Software Developer

What we look for

From trainees through to experienced technology and IT professionals, we need people with analytical, inquisitive minds. We also need people who aren’t afraid to think differently, and people who don’t shy away from complex challenges and love applying their skills to solve problems. And we need hands-on, get-up-and-go people who are as genuinely passionate about technology as we are. Whether you have just started your career or have worked in tech for a long time already, you will be enthusiastic about technology and keen to understand current and future developments.

Your softer skills are just as important as your technical ones. Although we don’t expect you to know everything, it’s fundamental that you’re keen to learn and develop your skills.  You’ll be a real team player but also comfortable working at your own initiative and managing your time. As an organisation, we’re dedicated to delivering excellent services to our customers and you will be a part of that. User-focused, your work will demonstrate how well you understand the needs of our customers.

Our values are embeddded into our recruitment process to reflect who we are. Traditionally we have recruited people based on skills and competence, focussing on what people can do rather than how. Now we want to attract and employ people whose personal values and behaviours match our organisational values. We also recognise many people choose organisations based on their purpose and values. This aspect of our recruitment process is helping us to select the best talent for our organisation and ensure we are right for them.

Career development at the Met Office

We offer career development opportunities and focus on developing our people every day through continuous learning, on-the-job training and additional formal training opportunities.

We recognise some of our systems and applications are unique, and we don’t expect you to come in knowing it all. Nor do we necessarily expect you to come from a meteorological background. We invest in your development: we’ll give you the right tools, the training and the support to help you to make the most of your career with us.

You won’t be limited to your team either. We’ll be able to help you to spend time with other teams to enable you to see how interconnected we are and how vital your work is to other areas of the organisation.

Why work at the Met Office 

We invest in our people, so they can continually develop and be the best they can be. We actively encourage positive physical and mental health in the workplace, and we also prioritise learning and development.

Our benefits and rewards include an instant reward scheme, discounts at leading supermarkets and high street retailers, and generous employer pension contributions. We do our best to agree a suitable working pattern for everyone, being as flexible as we can, and we give our staff plenty of annual leave.

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