Job Introduction
The Met Office is delighted to open our advertising for Industrial Placements 2026.
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Met Office on a 12-month Year in Industry placement, commencing at the start of July 2026, developing your skills and knowledge and ensuring you gain the most value possible from your experience with us.
You will have the opportunity to network with our cohort of Industrial Placements all over the Met Office and understand what career opportunities are on offer at the Met Office after you graduate.
We're looking for a User Researcher Industrial Placement 2026 to help us make a difference to our planet.
As our User Researcher Industrial Placement 2026, 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. As an Industrial Placement, we would expect you to attend the office once a week as a minimum.
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
Our Industrial Placement scheme offers ambitious and capable undergraduates the opportunity to gain valuable experience working alongside diverse and highly skilled experts in their field. You'll be working on projects that really matter and will make a difference.
The Met Office purpose is to help people stay safe and thrive. To achieve this, we need to understand the people we serve and their needs. The user-centred design team at the Met Office includes user researchers, interaction designers, content designers, service designers and accessibility specialists, working across different areas of the business to help solve real world problems by putting the user at the heart of Met Office products and services.
The Industrial Placement for user research will work closely with the user researchers in the team to provide support in gathering evidence about our users and their needs.
They will be involved in activities to enable our user researchers and user-centred design team, including maintaining guidance documentation and research insights, providing support with user recruitment and testing, and advocating user-centred design across the business.
Your key duties
The Industrial Placement for User Research will:
* provide support for user-centred design teams including user recruitment, note taking, presenting research findings, creating research reports, and maintaining guidance documentation and templates
* be supported to work collaboratively with teams, understanding the importance of team dynamics, collaboration and feedback
* be aware of the need for careful analysis of research data to produce clear findings
• support in conducting basic user research methods
* work to a user research plan and follow standards for user research
* work in an open-minded and iterative way
* follow the Government Digital Service Standards and user-centred design best practice guidelines
* communicate effectively with technical and non-technical colleagues, supporting multidisciplinary discussions
* be an advocate for the UCD team within the Met Office and be able to explain why user research and user-centred design is important
* be part of the UCD community of practice and champion user-centred design
Why join us
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 and 2024 lists, as well as their '54 Best Workplaces for Women' 2023 list.
Your package includes:
* Your salary will be £27,170
* Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days
* Access to discounted shopping, inclusive of retail, leisure and lifestyle brands
Whilst this is a temporary position until July 2027, there may be an opportunity to apply for our Graduate Development scheme upon completion of your university studies. However, this is not guaranteed and would be subject to programme availability and a successful application.
Essential Criteria, skills and experience:
* Lead criteria: Knowledge of user research. You understand the need for user research to drive good product decisions and can bring this knowledge to the role. You can explain some basic user research methods and are passionate about putting these into practice.
* Analysis and synthesis. You have an awareness of the need for careful analysis of research data to produce clear findings and to help us be 'experts by nature'.
* User focus and advocacy. You can explain how user-centred practices can be used to build products that 'keep evolving' to changing user behaviour and needs. You are willing to champion a user-focused approach with your colleagues.
* Better together. You are able to communicate effectively with stakeholders and team members and present user evidence that is relevant to them. You can be an active member and advocate of the user-centred design community.
* Agile thinking. You understand the benefits of agile working and the different roles in a multidisciplinary team. You are willing to evolve and iterate in your work.
The panel may perform a preliminary sift of the lead criteria as indicated above.
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 method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills. Please also look at the Early Careers Programmes Application Guidance at the bottom of this advert.
Closing date: 23:59 7th December 2025. Please note we often receive a high volume of applications, but we will contact everyone who applies once the closing date has past.
Interviews will be completed by February 2026.
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
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, 2 of these years must be immediately preceding the point of your application. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.