Scientific Software Engineer

Details

### Reference number

486125

• ### Salary
• £35,145 - £37,701
• Your total reward package will be up to £51,448 annually, which includes an RRA £2,000 per annum as a market supplement to reflect the demand for your skills.
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• GBP
• ### Job grade

Higher Executive Officer

### Contract type

Permanent

### Type of role

Engineering

### Working pattern

Full-time

### Number of jobs available

1

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information
• Location

Exeter, South West England, EX1 3PB

About the job

### Job summary

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

As our Scientific Software Engineer, 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

Your world of expertise

This role as a Scientific Software Engineer sits within the data-driven climate modelling project in the AI4Climate initiative at the Met Office Hadley Centre, where we are combining machine learning, deep learning data science, climate science, and high-performance computing to develop faster, more flexible approaches to climate predictions for downstream applications. We are looking for an exceptional SSE with strong data science and software engineering skills.

You will work at the intersection of AI and climate science, developing and explainable novel machine learning approaches for climate prediction and understanding how data-driven models (DDCMs) represent the Earth system. You will help advance scientific understanding of DDCMs and their role within future climate modelling systems.

You will join a multidisciplinary group of climate scientists, data scientists and software engineers, working closely with partners across the Met Office and internationally. You will help to join our pioneering work in DDCM as part of the Met Office AI4Climate initiative.

### Job description

This is your chance to apply cutting-edge Ml and Deep Learning AI to one of the most urgent challenges of our time-understanding and predicting Earth’s changing weather in warming climate in the Earth System Data Science team.

Develop and apply machine learning and deep learning methods for climate-focused tasks such as projection, prediction and emulation.

Design, train and evaluate data-driven climate models using large-scale Earth system or simulated datasets.

Investigate the scientific behaviour, robustness, uncertainty and physical realism of DDCMs.

Develop new approaches for integrating physical understanding and machine learning methods.

Design and implement evaluation frameworks for assessing model skill and scientific credibility.

Contribute to research that advances understanding of Earth system processes through data-driven methods.

Work collaboratively with climate scientists, software engineers and internal and external research partners.

Contribute to the AI4Climate programme and wider Met Office strategy in data-driven modelling.

Publish high-impact research, collaborate internationally and help shape the scientific direction of a rapidly emerging field.

### Person specification

Lead Criteria: PhD, or equivalent knowledge and experience, in applying machine learning or deep learning to scientific, environmental or other complex datasets (Expert by Nature).

Evidence of programming skills such as Python, ML-optimised data libraries and good quality assurance processes (Keep Evolving).

Experience developing robust, maintainable and reproducible code in a scientific context.

Ability to design experiments and evaluate methods to answer scientific questions.

Understanding of statistical modelling, machine learning evaluation or uncertainty assessment.

Experience working collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams (Better Together).

Ability to communicate complex technical and scientific ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

The panel may perform a preliminary sift of the lead criteria as indicated above.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,145, Met Office contributes £10,181 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

Our work is life-changing, often life-saving and always life-enhancing. The Met Office is Great Place to Work UK certified. We are also featured on their ‘Best Workplaces in Tech’ 2023, 2024 and 2025 lists, as well as their ’54 Best Workplaces for Women’ 2023 list.

As our Scientific Software Engineer, your total reward package will be up to £51,448 annually, which includes:

£35,145 base pay

An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%

Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £2,000 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 2026 until March 2027 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

Things you need to know

### Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

### 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 01/11/2026 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 23/11/2026. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

Using AI in your application

We welcome applications that use AI tools for support in drafting or refining, as long as they accurately reflect your own skills and experience. All hiring decisions at the Met Office are made by people, not AI. For more details, visit our approach to recruitment.

How we can help

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please contact us at [email protected].

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 without caveats and/or restrictions for this role, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible, 2 of these years must be immediately preceding the point of your application.

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then in the first instance you should contact us at: [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: [email protected]

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 .

See our vetting charter .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

### Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

### 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)
• 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

### Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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 .

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.

### Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

### Contact point for applicants

#### Job contact :

Name : Resourcing Team

Email : [email protected]

#### Recruitment team

Email : [email protected]

### Further information

[email protected]

https://careers.metoffice.gov.uk/what-we-can-offer-you