Lead Developer

Job Introduction

We’re looking for a Lead Developer to help us make a difference to our planet. 

As our Lead Developer, 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 30 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 

Working alongside another Lead Developer, you will provide technical leadership within our Transport Tribe. Our focus is delivering new services to the global aviation community, as part of our responsibility as a World Area Forecast Centre, as well as delivering new services to the rail and marine sectors.  You will be working with cutting edge technology on some unique projects which help to ensure safe flight operations, rail journeys and marine voyages. When you join us, you'll be fully supported by your teams to enable you to succeed and further develop your career at the Met Office. 

We use a diverse set of technologies, working mainly with Python and JavaScript programming languages for a wide range of applications, from scientific computing to web development. Our cloud infrastructure spans AWS and Azure, where we embrace containerization using Docker and serverless architectures to ensure scalability and efficiency. Additionally, we are making ever greater use of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies across the organisation to enhance our weather and climate predictions. 

Join us to work with these exciting technologies and more, as we push the boundaries of weather and climate science. 

Your key duties:

• Provide authoritative technical leadership to define, apply, and evolve modern development standards and practices across teams and complex projects. 
• Be proficient in a wide range of technical systems.
• Be involved in identifying appropriate technology and approaches, deciding when software should be written
• Contribute to the developer community, promoting knowledge sharing and adoption of good practice.
• Provide technical leadership, coaching and mentoring your teams, acting as a task and/or line manager when required.

We operate an on-call roster in Technology to provide 24/7/365 support to respond to operational service requirements. This post may be part of an on-call roster and the post holder would be required to participate in an on-call roster where in operation. 

This role could include line management and is aligned to the Government Digital and Data (GDaD) Profession Capability Framework Lead Developer - Management role level. For further information on these please refer to the relevant GDaD description on the GOV.UK website. 

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, 2024 and 2025 lists, as well as their ’54 Best Workplaces for Women’ 2023 list.

As our Lead Developer, your total reward package will be up to £79,657 annually, which includes: 

• £54,515 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA): you will be paid £3,800 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

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Technical Leadership and Modern Development Standards: You can identify and apply modern development standards to support complex projects and programmes, operating with limited guidance and a high degree of autonomy. You can lead others in applying and adopting modern development standards across multiple teams. (Lead Criteria)
2. Software Engineering for Complex, Large-Scale Systems using Cloud technologies: You can hold technical responsibility across the full software development lifecycle, providing expert guidance on programming, build, tooling, and compliance. You can set and maintains team standards for engineering quality, security, and maintainability when solving complex or novel problems. You have experience working with Cloud technologies, such as AWS or Azure. 
3. Systems Design and Organisational Alignment: You can lead on the design of systems with high complexity, impact, or risk, ensuring solutions align with wider organisational architecture, security constraints, and standards. You collaborate with team members to help guide and influence design decisions to achieve best outcomes.
4. Stakeholder Engagement, Decision‑Making, and Influence: You can engage senior technical and non‑technical stakeholders, clearly communicating complex information to enable informed decisions. You exercise significant decision‑making authority over technical approaches, influencing outcomes across multiple teams within their area of responsibility.
5. Line Management, Mentoring, and Team Leadership: You can act as a task and/or line manager in addition to technical leadership, supporting, mentoring and developing staff across multiple teams. You ensure individuals are coached effectively, performance is managed appropriately, and technical capability is grown within the organisation.

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. 

Closing date 16/11/2026 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 30/11/2026. 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 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 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: careers@metoffice.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: info@csc.gov.uk