Engineer - Systems Engineering Team

Job Introduction

We’re looking for an Engineer to join our Systems Engineering Team to help us make a difference to our planet. 

As our Systems Engineering Team - 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, based in Exeter.  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. Whilst this is a temporary position for twelve months, there is potential for it to develop into a permanent position. 

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 

You will be key to helping us evolve, by integrating environmental observation sensors and systems. You will help deliver the development and lifecycle management of our land-based weather observing sensors, systems and networks. Working alongside operational, and research and development (R&D) teams, you'll help to prepare and install the systems for operational use.

Your key duties:

• Developing and delivering work plans, which embrace and drive the evolution of Met Office systems and products. Providing advice and services for the benefit of Met Office Customers
• Writing design specifications for environmental monitoring systems. Planning for the hardware installation of hardware components and equipment. 
• Using practical and IT skills to build, configure, quality check, and troubleshoot system and sub-system builds of Automatic Weather Stations in a workshop environment.
• Commuting to sites to complete field-based installations. Using physical skills for digging and electro-mechanical construction.
• Use excellent communication skills in both written and verbal formats to support other team members and improve the effectiveness of the team.

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 Systems Engineering Team - Engineer, your total reward package will be up to £50,406 annually, which includes: 

• £33,794 base pay.
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £2,800 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 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: 

1. Demonstrable experience of proficiently providing deep and/or broad engineering and technical insight into the solving of hardware and software tasks or problems.
2. Evidence of working better together by engaging with internal and external stakeholders to understand the requirements for your work. Significantly contributing to the development and evaluation of plans to meet these requirements.
3. Examples of applying, promoting and supporting good Quality Assurance processes, best practice, standards and/or regulations in both yours and others work to ensure agreed standards are maintained.
4. Demonstrable experience of health and safety competence in an engineering environment.
5. Evidence that you embrace and keep evolving by delivering and evaluating meaningful advances and development in technical knowledge, capability and ability for yourself, colleagues and/or stakeholders.
6. Evidence of being an expert by nature through communicating engineering and/or technical knowledge accurately, concisely and in the most appropriate way in a range of situations to increase the impact of your work and reputation.
7. Possess a valid UK driving licence and be prepared to drive officially provided pool vehicles; Colour Perception CP2 or better is required to utilise vehicles on airports or ports.

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 21/07/2025 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 31/07/2025. 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.