Scientific Software Engineer - Workflows Infrastructure
We’re looking for an exceptional Scientific Software Engineer - Workflows Infrastructure to help us make a difference to our planet.
As our Scientific Software Engineer - Workflows Infrastructure, 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, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 24 hours per week and we will also try our best to consider those intending to work a jobshare. 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
The Met Office’s world leading weather forecasts and climate research are incredibly complex and varied. They rely on high quality automation and orchestration pipelines (workflows) to get the best out of our software, staff time, and our world-class supercomputing. Our workflows keep a million CPU cores constantly busy, with hundreds of thousands of HPC-jobs flowing through our supercomputers per day, 24/7.
This is an opportunity to join the team that develops the workflow solutions to keep Met Office science running, scaling, and evolving.
Your role would include development, maintenance, communication and support of the open source software Cylc (https://github.com/cylc/cylc-flow ) and Rose (https://github.com/metomi/rose ), working as part of a team that includes international partners from New Zealand and Australia. It would also involve helping scientists and scientific software engineers develop and optimise their workflows that use Cylc and Rose. This is a wide role across many technical areas, and we would expect that training and learning are an important part of developing you in this role where necessary.
Design, develop, maintain and support specialised scientific software solutions, that enable Met Office Science and Technology to be recognised as world leaders in weather and climate science and services, in a rapidly changing world.
You will:
* Deliver meaningful advances in capability for colleagues and/or stakeholders through the effective application of scientific software engineering knowledge, understanding and skills.
* Provide proactive scientific and technical insight into the solving of scientific software engineering tasks or problems.
* Engage with others to understand the requirements for your work and its wider context, and contribute to the development of plans to meet these requirements.
* Proactively apply good Quality Assurance processes, best practice, standards and/or regulations to all aspects of your work to achieve the agreed standard.
* Communicate accurately and concisely with colleagues and wider stakeholders to develop trust and credibility, tailoring your method of sharing to a range of audiences.
* Develop your skills proactively and provide support to others to develop their skills leading to beneficial impacts.
You can expect to work specifically on topics like:
* Web app frontend development.
* Working with databases.
* Working with communication protocols (e.g. HTTP).
* Consulting on developing scientific software workflows.
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.
As our Scientific Software Engineer - Workflows Infrastructure, your total reward package will be up to £49,448 annually, which includes:
* An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
* 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 March 2026 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, skills and experience:
* Platform Skills. Evidence of automating software to achieve beneficial impacts. (value: Live and Breathe It)
* Understanding Requirements. Evidence of engaging with others to understand the requirements for software development and its wider context, and contribute to the development of plans and software to meet these requirements. (value: Better Together)
* Quality Assurance. Evidence of proactively applying good Quality Assurance processes, best practice, standards and/or regulations in your work. (value: Experts by Nature, Live and Breathe It)
* Communication. Evidence of communicating knowledge accurately and concisely in written documents and group discussions, tailoring communication for diverse audiences and building trust and credibility. (value: Better Together)
* Skills Development. Evidence of proactively developing your software development skills and supporting others in developing theirs, leading to beneficial impacts. (value: We Keep Evolving)
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.
Closing date 28/11/2025 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 08/12/2025. 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 careers@metoffice.gov.uk.
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.
Our rewards and benefits are as varied as our customers and our people, depending on your role, and which part of the business you join. The one thing they have in common is that they’re designed to recognise your contribution to our success.
Starting at 27.5 days and rising to 32.5 days after five years of service (both figures exclude bank holidays). As well as the flexibility to buy or sell annual leave annually.
You’ll automatically qualify to join our alpha pension scheme, part of the Civil Service Pension arrangements. The scheme is recognised as one of the most generous occupational pensions.
Lifestyle support
Whether you wish to utilise our excellent family‑friendly schemes, be paid up to 3 days for volunteering with your chosen organisation, have the reassurance of a generous sickness pay scheme or be part of an organisation that is happy to pro‑actively talk about flexible working the Met Office wants you to have a great work and lifestyle balance.
Established hybrid working
We have bases all over the UK and some roles allow for you to work abroad so there is the option to travel for work also, we have established amazing hybrid working practices across all of our offices and have enhanced technology to enable office and home‑based meetings. We work with employees to agree on a suitable working pattern that works for us both and have various working patterns in place.
Investing in your development
The world around us is constantly changing. New technologies, shifting climate patterns, artificial intelligence. These factors and more shape the need for us to develop our skills and knowledge as a business and as individuals. Our investment in learning and development is testament to this and we have partnered with external bodies in each profession to help shape the way we develop the incredible talent right across the Met Office. We help everyone to understand their strengths and opportunities and tailor learning programmes that match their career. For us, this is world‑leading learning and development.
Coming from an academic background I wanted to be able to develop new research approaches, but I also wanted a change towards being more impact‑focused, where the science I produced would be both useful and used right away. My work is supporting customers to better understand the impact of climate change on their business, with the added benefit of gaining experience on a wide range of projects - there is always something new to learn!
Emily Wallace
Science Fellow, Weather and Climate Extremes and Impacts Team
The Weather and Climate Extremes and Impacts Team was formed in response to multiple extreme events in the UK. Our customers are dealing with the impacts of severe weather and are more routinely asking questions that blur the lines between what would have traditionally been thought of separately as weather services and climate services. The work we do is critical in our changing world as we bring together teams to provide seamless services to help people stay safe.
Senior Scientific Software Engineer
There is a great variety of work here, sometimes I can be applying new science to one of our models, improving some of our internal tools, reviewing code, helping someone get the most out of their development plan, or attending a talk to learn new skills. Sometimes I work with older code cleaning it up, so it works better and is more future‑proof. It’s always satisfying to see other people working with my improved code.
Managing Scientific Consultant
I have been at the Met Office since graduating and have been able to work my way from a foundation scientist to a manager. I enjoy working with customers on the application of science, helping them operate more safely and efficiently and enabling them to be more resilient to the weather both now and in the future. I get to see how the work of the team is directly having impact and benefit to industry and society.
Anna Whitford
Scientific Consultant
Our typical recruitment process
2. Application
Apply through our careers website. Each application will be assessed against the essential criteria detailed in the job advert. We recommend that you use the CARL or STAR method to answer the key questions. Evidence your answers and reference our values to bring your application to life.
3. Screening
The sift panel will assess all applications against our essential criteria. Our screening process usually takes one to two weeks following the closing date of the advert. After which, we'll be in touch to let you know whether your application has progressed to the next stage.
4. Interview
Most recruitment processes will include a single‑stage interview, some of which are virtual interviews and some may be in‑person. Our interviews tend to blend competency questions, which focus on the essential criteria, with values‑based questions.
5. Assessment
Some roles may require you to attend an assessment day. Any job‑specific assessments will be outlined in the job advert and more details will be provided at the interview stage.
6. Offer
If you are successful following the interview, the hiring manager will contact you to offer the role. The Resourcing Team will then follow up with an offer letter and start your onboarding.
7. Onboarding
Before we can confirm a start date, we will first need to complete security clearance and reference checks. These usually take between eight to ten weeks to complete. We'll also discuss any workplace adjustments that you may need. So they are in place on your first day.
On your first day your new manager will introduce you to the team and you’ll start our online corporate induction. You’ll also be asked to update your details in our People Hub system including bank details ready for your first pay day.
For those living outside of the UK, there are some roles where we can sponsor Skilled Worker visas. However, you will still need to pass security clearance which requires you to have resided in the UK for 30 months in the last three years.
Ready to apply?
Scientific Software Engineer - Workflows Infrastructure
If you can't see a job that interests you, why not register for our job alerts by email service? And we’ll email you when a job that matches what you're looking for is uploaded onto the site.
#J-18808-Ljbffr