Met-Office Industry Scientists & Consultants

Salary Information

The Met Office Scientist and Scientific Consultancy professions have a range of levels depending on the capabilities of the job holder. We are open to applications across three of these levels from those just starting their career (Foundation Scientist / Trainee Scientific Consultant), to those with moderate levels of experience (Scientist / Scientific Consultant) to those with considerable levels of experience (Senior Scientist / Senior Scientific Consultant) – none of these are positions with line management responsibilities. Your skills will be assessed from the application and interview and the level offered will be based on this. We have a clear career family for both professions, allowing you the opportunity for career progression as your skills are developed.

Foundation Scientist / Trainee Consultant: £23,673-£26,119

Scientist / Consultant: £30,325-£33,260

Senior Scientist / Senior Consultant: £36,684-£40,352

Salaries effective as of 1 April 2019.

Please note, when joining the Met Office all new employees will start on the salary band minimum.

Background

Here at the Met Office, we’re proud to be a world-leader in forecasting. Using a range of numerical weather prediction models, we’re able to not only produce the latest weather forecasts, but also deliver a wide range of cutting-edge products to customers all over the world. The focus of the Business Group, our commercial area, is to innovatively employ our world-leading weather and climate science to ensure our customers are able to make the best possible use of forecast information in their decision making. At the heart of this is our Scientific Consultancy team, working with our customers to understand the challenges they are facing and to develop and deliver bespoke consultancy services to solve these critical industry problems.

Within the Scientific Consultancy team, we are seeking to recruit up to 3 self-motivated and enthusiastic people into our multi-disciplinary team. The roles sit within our Scientist and Scientific Consultant professions; both professions require a strong scientific and technical background. We are looking for talented individuals who have real potential and will work well within our team. We are not constrained by the split of the positions between the professions nor by the split between the levels. We will provide the relevant support to ensure you are a fully integrated member of the team with opportunities for your future.

You will gain an understanding of a range of industries and sectors, complementing this with your relevant scientific and technical background to complete the scientific analysis to deliver projects. You will demonstrate an ability to adapt to a variety of projects and provide innovative solutions to develop services to customers. You will show your skills in building relationships whether internally or with customers and stakeholders; leverage these to develop a pipeline of scientific consultancy opportunities; and coordinate the end to end delivery of resulting projects.

But why work for us? We will help combine your passion for world-leading science and cutting-edge technology, through a career that will challenge and excite you; delivering the best possible meteorological advice and guidance to key industry partners. Work that matters.

We’re constantly moving forwards, looking to optimise our abilities. Which is why, on joining us, we’ll invest in your development to help you be the very best you can be. Our award-winning Headquarters in Exeter is home to amazing facilities and world-class employees and there are plenty of benefits to working for us too, including:

• Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days (+ Bank Holidays) rising to 32.5 days.
• Flexible working hours to promote work/life balance.
• A choice of pension schemes, so you can plan for your future.
• ‘Cycle to work’ scheme to enable affordable, healthy travel.
• Onsite modern, fully functional gym + classes.

Full-time, part-time and job share applications are invited. Though these roles are nominally based at HQ in Exeter, the Met Office is an equal opportunities employer and flexible and home working applications will be considered. There will be a requirement for staff to attend training and induction in Exeter initially for 3-4 days per week.

Job Purpose

These roles involve working with business and industry consultancy teams on the delivery of weather and climate consultancy projects: exploiting the Met Office’s scientific and technical capability to answer the questions relevant to the safe, successful and efficient operation of businesses.

As a Scientist, you will focus on the science, scientific computing and delivery of high-quality projects to customers, gaining industry insight and contributing to the wider socio-economic benefit provided by the Met Office.

As a Scientific Consultant you will use your scientific and technical knowledge combined with your aptitude for engaging with customers to provide high-value advice, growing sustainable and profitable revenue streams, gaining industry insight, delivering consultancy projects and contributing to the wider socio-economic benefit delivered by the Met Office.

Job Responsibilities

This is an exciting opportunity for an individual who has a relevant scientific or technical background who is passionate about the transformation of their expertise into products & services that solve customer problems for industry. Your job will encompass a range of activities, where the balance between responsibilities varies depending on whether you are a Scientist or a Consultant, including:

• Efficiently working as part of a multi-disciplinary team to successfully deliver a range of scientific consultancy projects.
• Researching new and improved analytical methods to utilise weather and climate data as well as customer data to produce outputs to the benefit of our customers.
• Designing and developing high quality scientific computing code to undertake the required data analysis.
• Clearly communicating science through reports and presentations to customers and peers.
• Supporting the development of bids for new consultancy projects.
• Engaging with customers throughout the work to foster relationships, to understand their values and requirements and to ensure the project is fully meeting their needs.
• Developing & maintaining a good working knowledge of latest weather & climate science, Met Office capabilities and their relevance to customer needs to develop and deliver solutions that address their issues.
• Using and developing appropriate customer contacts to build trust, credibility and influence and to understand their drivers, strategies, structure, and processes.
• Providing ideas and feedback on customer requirements, to retain customers and produce growth in consultancy revenue.

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities

• A background in a quantitative scientific discipline including experience demonstrating an ability to apply scientific and mathematical skills to a research problem.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to understand customer needs and translate complex scientific and technical information between the customer and Met Office environments.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to apply scientific methods to solve customer problems. This will include the ability to recognise potential for scientific investigations and to learn and apply new techniques or knowledge.
• An ability to develop and deliver projects, that meet customer requirements on quality, cost and to delivery date, prioritising tasks as necessary.
• Strong team player with the ability to work and collaborate as an active and productive member of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver projects including the provision of scientific/technical advice to other team members.
• Strong scientific computing skills (e.g. in Python) and demonstrated ability to learn and apply software tools and/or programming languages including experience of writing and modifying complex code and producing high quality analyses.
• Aptitude to develop valuable relationships with customers, stakeholders or colleagues; and able to leverage these relationships to identify customer needs and deliver business results.

Desirable Qualifications, Skills & Abilities

We are open to applications from talented individuals whose skills meet the essential criteria. In addition, there are a number of areas where we would be particularly interested in hearing of your relevant experience, but these are not essential for the roles and we would not expect any individual candidate to meet them all.

• Good general knowledge of weather and climate science and Met Office capabilities, or a strong understanding of a relevant market sector.
• Demonstrable expertise in statistical modelling and/or complex statistics.
• Practically applied knowledge and experience in climate change and/or long-range forecasting, including the aptitude to advise and guide on the use of relevant datasets (e.g. UKCP18, seasonal forecast output) to address customer problems.
• Background in marine meteorology and/or oceanography with an appreciation for how such knowledge can or should be deployed by customers in the marine, maritime and offshore energy sectors.

The level expected for each of the criteria listed will depend on the role, you’ll need to meet all the essential criteria, providing some evidence for each and for the higher levels more evidence is expected for each criterion with examples showing your leadership and initiative. The weighting between the 7 essential criteria varies between the Scientist profession and the Scientific Consultancy profession, with Scientist Consultants expected to have more of a weighting towards the development of proposals, customer engagement and relationship management and the Scientists expected to do more of the research and delivery of consultancy projects, but the roles overlap and both would use and develop all of the skills.

Additional Supplementary Information

To apply, please click on the link below and attach the most recent version of your CV, along with a cover letter which briefly (no more than two-pages) states your experience against each essential and desirable criteria.

Closing date 17/11/2019 with interviews expected 27/11/2019. Please note that you will be notified if you are successful or unsuccessful.

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. If you require any reasonable adjustments during these exercises, please include this information in your application.

These roles will nominally be based in Exeter but we will consider applicants wishing to work elsewhere within the UK. There will be a requirement for staff to attend training and induction in Exeter initially for 3-4 days per week.

This recruitment post is not offering UK Visa and Sponsorship and therefore requires all applicants to be eligible to work within the UK / EU without restriction. If you are a non–EU candidate you will be required to provide and attach all relevant eligibility documentation to your application at the time of applying.

Please note that successful candidate/s will be required to satisfactorily undergo security clearance checks. This will generally require the candidate to have lived in the UK for at least three out of the last five years, but applicants not meeting this criteria may be considered.