Foundation Scientific Software Engineer Exeter 2024

We’re looking for an exceptional Foundation Scientific Software Engineer to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Foundation Scientific Software 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, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 22.2 hours per week and we will also try our best to consider those intending to work a job share.  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

As a Foundation Scientific Software Engineer you will be part of a large community of over 100 Scientific Software Engineers (SSE), supporting and enabling cutting-edge science at the Met Office.

The SSE role is a varied one, with many opportunities for development, progression and finding new challenges both within the SSE career family and beyond. Our SSEs develop innovative software solutions, provide technical support and oversee quality assurance processes with the common aim of developing and supporting scientific applications. Some SSEs have developed expertise in their chosen area, from HPC optimisation to coupled model simulations.

Other SSEs maintain a broader set of skills which, alongside their understanding of scientists’ needs, enables them to contribute their data and software skills to a wide range of scientific applications. It is a broad family with members from a very wide range of backgrounds – not surprising given the role exists at the edge of many disciplines: Software Engineering, Computer Science, Data Engineering, Physical Sciences, Earth System Modelling, and Mathematics to name a few.

Being a Foundation Scientific Software Engineer is about far more than just technical skills – you will need to be able to work alongside colleagues in a range of areas, both technical and scientific. We frequently require our SSEs to collaborate internally and internationally.

We encourage all our SSEs to develop their skills – we provide training and development opportunities across technical, project and soft skills.

We are currently in a major push to develop our Next Generation Modelling Systems, to help exploit our new world-leading supercomputer capability and to support our adoption of data science (specifically artificial intelligence and machine learning) across our national capability, and all our SSEs will be working towards this in some form.

Your key duties

These vacancies are within three different teams in Science IT (“Data Workflows”, “HPC Optimisation” and “Simulation Systems and Deployment”), each with their own specific remits but with common responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development of software applications that meet the needs of the scientific community within the Met Office
• Follow software engineering procedures and standards to ensure software solutions meet desired quality criteria
• Maintain, document and support software applications to facilitate their maximum utilisation and longevity
• Meet with scientific colleagues to understand their requirements for specialised scientific software solutions
• Willingness to learn and share new knowledge, enhancing the team’s capability and effectiveness.

Essential Criteria, skills and experience

• Show technical insight through creation of solutions showing the effective application of technical knowledge, understanding and skills † (We’re Experts by Nature)
• Engage with others to understand the requirements for your work and its wider context
• Consider good Quality Assurance processes, best practice, standards and/or regulations in your work (We’re Experts by Nature)
• Communicate knowledge accurately and concisely in written documents and discussions in small groups †† (We’re Better together)
• Proactively develop your skills and support others in developing theirs ‡ (We Keep Evolving)

At Foundation SSE level, this doesn’t need to be code-based or large – it might be a small project on the side, something you did to support another project, or as part of a module at university.

The Foundation SSE role often requires interacting with a written issue tracking system, documenting your work, and having technical discussions one-to-one or in small groups. This may be achieved using assistive technology.

Supporting others in their development can take many forms – fundamentally, this is about having explained something in a way that gave someone new knowledge or skills. At Foundation SSE level, there is no requirement for this to be a technology-related example.

Why join us

Our work is life-changing, often life-saving and always life-enhancing. The Met Office is accredited as a 'Great Place to Work UK 2023' and in addition has achieved a place on both the UK's 'Best Workplaces in Tech' and 'Best Workplaces for Women' lists.

As our Foundation Scientific Software Engineer, your total reward package will be up to £37,776 annually, which includes:

• £26,954 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 27%
• In addition, you will be paid a Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) - £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 September 2025 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