Foundation Operational Meteorologist

Job summary

Join the Met Office as a Foundation Operational Meteorologist.

Kickstart your meteorology career with a global leader in weather and climate science and services!

This role offers pathways to qualification as an Operational Meteorologist combining meaningful ‘hands-on’ experience with training and development. You will work in a team with the largest customers of our weather services nationwide. From day one you will be making a direct, real-life impact to our armed forces, airports and the safety of the public.

Our opportunities are full time, 37 hours per week, starting in August 2026 and you will be deployed to various UK Met Office sites.

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

Job description

Why you should join

• Comprehensive and world-leading training with a variety of development pathways. Your route will be determined by your previous meteorological experience and performance during recruitment selection days, but you can typically expect to be qualified within 18 to 24 months.
• A supportive and collaborative team environment with an opportunity to shape your own development within the Met Office, supported by dedicated People Leaders (who specialise in career development) and experienced Meteorologists.
• A range of potential development pathways, leading to diverse and rewarding careers in areas such as operational meteorology, customer service delivery, business analysis or scientific research.
• Varied work designed to help you gain a broad understanding of our business and customers including time at your primary location as well as other sites across the UK. There is also potential for overseas secondments at our defence locations - more information at Met Office Frontline Stations.

What you'll do

Your role will be dependent on the pathway you take. Based on your experience and the needs of our business when you join you may focus more on some of the following areas than others, or you may proceed directly to study for your qualifications. Either way you will build the experience and skills to deliver across these areas.

• Weather Observations & Analysis: Real time analysis of the local weather and environmental conditions, conveying technical data to your team, contributing to the creation of products for a range of customers.
• Delivering weather-based environmental services: Using environmental data to deliver a range of services that allow customers to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive. You will gradually increase in responsibility to deliver these independently.
• Customer Engagement: You will actively partner with a range of users, which may include defence, aviation, or media customers, responding to initial queries and engaging with the Met Office team if required. Building and maintaining working relationships through provision of meteorological advice and developing an understanding of how this adds value for our users and their decision making.
• Business Support: As a core part of your team, you will contribute to day-to-day office operations. Maintain local knowledge management (how and why we carry out tasks), processes such as updating guidance and communicating changes to the wider team.
• Network: Make an impact to the wider network (of bases and offices including our headquarters in Exeter) by collaborating with colleagues across the organisation, sharing knowledge and building strong working relationships with peers.
• Project Work/Activity: Contribute to business-critical Met Office-wide projects such as key change initiatives, events, software testbeds or the creation of educational materials.
• Self-Development: Create and be responsible for a personal development plan ensuring that you understand the wider organisation, our products and services and keep learning throughout your career.

Person specification

1. An expert by nature with a degree in meteorology, a physical science, mathematics or engineering (at 2:2 or higher) or experience in Operational Meteorology. Ideally you also hold A-level mathematics or physics or the direct equivalent qualification (e.g. IB, Scottish Highers). (Lead Criteria)
2. Excellent communication skills and fluency in both spoken and written English; this is important as you will need to communicate in a technical and public-facing capacity. Able to engage with users and understand their needs helping them to make better decisions.
3. You’re team-orientated, demonstrating that we are better together. Contributing to your team will also require a can-do attitude to do the less exciting but important jobs that keep our services running.
4. A positive approach to change is necessary to be agile in the way you work and demonstrate that we keep evolving. Challenge the way things are done if you can think of a better way of working.
5. A genuine interest for what we do. That could be the weather, our customers or service delivery. You will be expected to understand and be willing to uphold and role model Met Office values.
6. The requirement for a full UK driving licence is highly desirable and sometimes essential depending on location. Travel to some locations can be difficult without access to a vehicle or transport when public transport isn’t available.

The panel may perform a preliminary sift of the lead criteria as indicated above.

Am I eligible to apply?

In addition to the criteria listed above, you must also meet the following:

• The role requires resilience and willingness to work shifts including ‘unsocial’ hours (such as night shifts and working weekends or public holidays) as required by your role and/or location.
• Flexible to be able to work across the UK as the business requires. You may deploy up to three times during your training and although we will take your preferences into consideration, we cannot guarantee locations.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,600, Met Office contributes £8,285 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 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 a Foundation Operational Meteorologist, your total reward package will be up to £41,724 annually, which includes:

• £28,600 base pay.
• Unsociable Hours Allowances (UHA) available when you join an operational roster:
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• 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.

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

Our recruitment process

If you share our values and are ready to take the first step in your meteorology career, we’d love to hear from you.

• Apply: Submit your application online following the guidelines given; incomplete responses or CV’s alone will not be accepted. Please complete your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire.
• Closing Date: 23/02/2026 at 23:59. Please note we often receive a high volume of applications, but we will contact everyone who applies once the closing date has passed.
• Initial Sift: Based on evidencing the essential criteria. We strongly suggest candidates structure their answers using the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) when presenting evidence of experience and skills.
• Selection Centre: A full day in-person experience at one of our customer bases, currently planned for mid-March in Edinburgh and Exeter (reasonable expenses within the UK covered). Through group and individual exercises and conversations, you’ll demonstrate your attributes and skills. There will be time to ask us questions and get a sense of your future working environment and customers. Our selection process uses multiple methods to assess the essential criteria, helping us identify great candidates who find interviews challenging and allowing you time to decide if the role and organisation are right for you.
• Offer: Successful candidates will receive an offer and confirmation of the pathway we believe is best suited to them. You will move through our onboarding stage which includes obtaining a full security clearance – see details below.
• Start Date: Begin your journey with us in August 2026.

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, 2 of these years must be immediately preceding the point of your application. You will need to achieve full security clearance without caveats and/or restrictions before we can confirm your start date for this role.mailto:info@csc.gov.uk

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 : careers@metoffice.gov.uk
• Email : careers@metoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : careers@metoffice.gov.uk

Further information

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