Associate Director, People & Culture

Job summary

We are pleased to bring to the market the role of Associate Director, People & Culture at the Met Office.

As our Associate Director, People & Culture you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the Met Office People Strategy, ensuring the organisation has the engaged, skilled, and flexible workforce needed to achieve its strategic objectives.

Based in Exeter, you will be operationally responsible for delivery of all elements of the People and Culture area encompassing Strategic Planning, Operational Delivery, People Development and Health & Safety teams – ensuring that the Met Office remains an exceptional place for people to work, grow and thrive.

World changing work

As one of the world’s leading weather and climate organisations, the Met Office provides the most accurate weather forecasts, severe weather warnings and climate projections which are built on our deep scientific expertise. Our work supports everything from daily life and travel, to defence, agriculture, energy and emergency response.

Job description

Your world of expertise

As a strategic HR leader, you report to the Chief People Officer, driving operational delivery and continuous improvement across all elements of the People and Culture area, Strategic Planning, Operational Delivery, People Development and Health & Safety teams.

Equipping leaders to succeed, you will ensure a central focus on championing leadership excellence, inclusion, health and safety and wellbeing, and Met Office values.

Your key duties:

• Engage effectively with the Associate Director community and Executive to provide advice and direction on people matters across the organisation.
• Lead and empower the People Directorate promoting and implementing new ways of working and data driven decisions. Embedding strategic workforce planning as a discipline, overseeing talent and succession planning. Ensuring the organisation has an engaged, skilled flexible workforce and the organisational capability to deliver its strategic objectives.
• Developing relationships inside and outside of the Civil Service to be able to bring best practice to the organisation and become recognised externally.
• Collaborate constructively with trade unions, stakeholders, and senior colleagues to help drive sustainable change, organisational stability, and measurable improvements in engagement.
• Provide strategic leadership as the Head of Profession for Leadership and Management, partnering with the Chief People Officer as sponsor to champion best practice. Lead the development of leadership capability—strengthening confidence and competence in line with the Met Office skills framework and organisational culturehttps://careershub.metoffice.gov.uk/members/modules/ats/tracking.php?record=1116#_msocom_1.
• Working with the Head of Health and Safety to ensure health, safety and wellbeing is culturally embedded in the Met Office.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

We are seeking a permanent appointment for an passionate leader whose experience aligns with our criteria:

1. Chartered Member, or ideally Chartered Fellow, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or equivalent.
2. Demonstrable experience leading large teams, across the full range of HR disciplines (Organisational Development, workforce planning and resourcing, people systems and technology, pay and reward, conduct and capability, learning, leadership and management, talent management, employee and industrial relations) in a senior leadership capacity.
3. Proven track record of managing significant budget and headcount within agreed limits and extensive knowledge of corporate budgeting and financial processes.
4. Highly developed strategic thinking ability with proven track record in change management and capable of balancing both strategic, tactical and operational priorities; able to deliver strategy at pace, resilience to sustain the strategy, often through high levels of ambiguity and organisational change.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £74,856, Met Office contributes £21,685 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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’ and in addition has achieved a place on both the UK's 'Best Workplaces in Tech' and 'Best Workplaces for Women' lists.

As our Associate Director of People & Culture, your annual total reward package is potentially worth in the range of £103,591 to £113,446, which includes:

• Base pay in the region of £74,856.
• An outstanding Civil Service pension.
• A discretionary performance related bonus.
• 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.
• A relocation package is available.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

How to apply

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you. Apply below using your CV and a Cover Letter/Supporting Statement with evidence against each of the essential criteria. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date Sunday 8th February 23:59. Interviews will be in person at Exeter HQ and will commence from 26th February 2026.

How we can help:

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via careers@metoffice.gov.uk . 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.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Resourcing Team
• Email : careers@metoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : careers@metoffice.gov.uk