Senior Operational Meteorologist - NATS / Heathrow

Job Introduction

We’re looking for Senior Operational Meteorologists to join our teams at NATS or Heathrow, to help us make a difference to our planet. 

As our Senior Operational Meteorologist, 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 opportunities are full time, 37 hours per week, based within NATS’ Swanwick operational control centre or Heathrow’s Airport Operations Centre (APOC). We’re recruiting to fill permanent vacancies at both sites and a 6-month temporary post at Heathrow. These roles involve working shifts on a 24/7 roster, including nights and weekends.

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 

As a skilled Senior Operational Meteorologist, you'll provide smart, tailored and focused meteorological information and impact-based forecasts to ensure customers and their stakeholders are as resilient to the weather as possible. Based on-site, you’ll integrate seamlessly with the customer, building strong relationships to enhance and develop Met Office services with the aim to further develop supporting science and technology. 

These are high-profile customers, and you'll need to adjust operational tempo dependent on the customers’ requirements, directly impacting their decision making around disruptive weather – benefiting and driving operational efficiencies for millions of passengers in the UK. 

• NATS provides air traffic navigation services to aircraft flying through controlled UK airspace and at numerous UK airports. As the UK’s sole provider of en-route services, NATS handles 2.2 million flights and 250 million passengers in UK airspace each year. NATS pride themselves on delivering a safe and efficient air traffic service across the UK, which involves managing some of the most complex airspace in the world. 
• Heathrow is among the busiest airports in Europe handling a record number 83.9 million passengers last year. Punctuality of arrivals and departures is a key indicator of its success. Our Heathrow team works with the airport and stakeholders to keep the airport operating at maximum capacity by ensuring that aircraft movements are run as efficiently as possible. Weather factors are the cause of 70% of all delays and so the impact of weather on the airport's operations is a significant factor. 

This is a fantastic opportunity to drive our understanding of Civil Aviation Operations and define future products and services in an important and continuously developing relationship. You will feed back learning and understanding of the customer, working with wider Met Office teams to help develop capability. 

Within the Met Office, you’ll work with managers to ensure that best practice is developed and promoted by the whole aviation team to enable a consistent and innovative approach to the service. Working with the Aviation Business team, you will ensure that information about customers is captured and used to promote continued service improvement and the development of a long-term relationship. You will also need to work flexibly with other operational teams across the Met Office to provide help and resilience across the network. This could include detaching to other sites such as Exeter, Aberdeen or locations across our defence network.  

Your key duties:

• Provide meteorological information and advice to NATS and Heathrow’s key decision makers regarding impacts on the network and operations. This ranges from tactical advice and nowcasting within the operations centres, to weekly and monthly forecast information for planning purposes, ensuring that the right person has the most up to date information in real time.
• Develop an in-depth knowledge of the customer, including a full understanding of the weather elements which impact on their operations and the contingencies which may be implemented to help to mitigate these impacts.
• Understand NATS and Heathrow organisational structures and communicate clearly with all parties within the organisations to ensure that technical information is conveyed in a relevant way to all interested parties.
• Build positive working relationships with stakeholders at NATS and Heathrow, as well as other commercial customers on both a regular and ad-hoc basis, supporting their forecasting and training needs.
• Manage workload effectively to respond flexibly and quickly to changing customer requirements, whilst maintaining a clear focus on operational priorities and ensuring consistent messaging of the forecast through liaison with other meteorological teams.

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.

As our Senior Operational Meteorologist, your total reward package will be up to £58,419 annually, which includes: 

• £41,725 base pay.
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• £4,200 as an Unsocial Hours allowance for shift working on a rota.
• £2,000 location allowance if based at Heathrow only.
• Relocation assistance may be available.
• 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. An expert by nature as a Qualified Operational Meteorologist, having completed a Forecaster Foundation Training Programme or equivalent (meeting BIP-M standard), with evidence of ongoing professional development. To work at Heathrow, you must hold or be willing to complete the Aeronautical Meteorological Observer (AMO) accreditation.
2. You live and breathe it, with a strong customer service focus, through excellent communication skills and a flexible approach that demonstrates a wide-ranging understanding of customer requirements, including airport and airline operations and decision making.
3. You demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of impacts of weather on aviation customers, with a proven track record of delivering operational forecasting.
4. You work better together with others as part of a team and have the capability to make independent decisions without direct supervision. 
5. You keep evolving by delivering innovative improvements to a service.
6. A willingness to deploy in person and remotely across our operational network – enabling resilience, knowledge sharing and consolidation.

Additional Information

Please note, that there is a potential Tupe situation which may apply to the role at Heathrow. It is anticipated that we hope to have further information to be able to confirm to candidates at interview stage.

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 14/07/2025 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 04/08/2025. 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. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.