Developer

We're looking for two exceptional Developer to help us make a difference to our planet.

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.

This opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 30 hours per week

Additionally, 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

Your world of expertise

These two roles are part of the Defence Capability Programme which encompasses the science and technology required to deliver the data and tools to customers in the Defence sector for civil and military application around the world.

As a Developer in our Defence Squads, you will help develop tools that allow users to view a range of weather and marine data in ways that allow them to make better decisions, keeping individuals safe.

You will work with your team to understand, design and implement a range of tools to meet the needs of our customers. These deployments are configured and deployed to a range of public and private cloud environments to best meet the performance, availability and resilience needs of each use case.

This is an exciting opportunity to work in a development team whose work delivers impact around the globe for its users.

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 key duties

  • Designing, coding, testing, and documenting software solutions
  • Participate in the agile development process
  • Collaborating with other disciplines, to fully understand the required development
  • Find ways to improve system robustness, resilience and stability

    Why join us

    Our work is life-changing, often lifesaving 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.

    As our Developer, your total reward package will be up to £49,174 annually, which includes:

    • £33,794 base pay
    • An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 27%
    • Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £2,200 per annum as a market supplement to reflect the demand for your skills. Whilst in post, you will be paid this market driven allowance from April 2024 until September 2025 in your monthly pay
    • Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising to 32.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) after 5 years and option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave

      Essential Criteria:

      1. 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 modern standard technologies including Python and/ or Java. (Expert by nature)
      2. Service support. You can follow agreed procedures to help fix faults and diagnose problems. You will be able to carry out agreed maintenance tasks on infrastructure as well as create and update documentation as required.
      3. Systems integration. You are able to build and test simple interfaces between systems as well as work on more complex integration as part of a wider team.
      4. Team Membership: You approach your work as a team activity, actively working with others across multi discipline and geographically dispersed teams.

         How to apply

         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 (Context, Action, Result and Learning) method the help best demonstrate your experience and skills. When providing examples, you should include the context of the example, The action you took, what the result was and any learning you took from this example.

         We suggest 300 to 500 words per answer to keep your response focused and impactful.

         Closing date 3/ 11/ 24 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 11/ 11/ 24. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

         How we can help

         If you would like to better understand the organisation, the role or have any questions please contact us at

         If you're considering applying and need support to do so, please get in touch. 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.