Network Engineer Industrial Placement 2027

Job summary

The Met Office is delighted to open our advertising for Industrial Placements 2027.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Met Office on a 12-month Year in Industry placement, commencing at the start of July 2027, developing your skills and knowledge and ensuring you gain the most value possible from your experience with us.

You will have the opportunity to network with our cohort of Industrial Placements all over the Met Office and learn what career opportunities are on offer at the Met Office after you graduate.

We’re looking for Network Engineer Industrial Placement 2027to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Network Engineer Industrial Placement 2027, the job may be suitable for hybrid working, enabling you to work 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. As an Industrial Placement in Network Services, we would expect you to attend the office three days a week as a minimum.

Our opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week. 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

Job description

Our Industrial Placement scheme offers ambitious and capable undergraduates the opportunity to gain valuable experience and work alongside diverse and highly skilled experts in their field. You’ll be working on projects that really matter and will make a difference.

Best-in-class technology expertise: As a Network Engineer Industrial Placement, you will gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies, helping to deliver secure and reliable connectivity across the Met Office and enabling world-leading science and operational services. (We keep evolving)

High-quality teamwork: As part of a team of around 20 skilled Network Engineers, you will work closely with colleagues across the organisation, contributing to a culture of knowledge sharing, collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement. (Better Together)

Exciting projects: you will get involved with a mix of complex, technical activities, and large-scale life cycle projects ranging from data centre networking, next generation firewalls, cloud-based security solutions to SD-WAN.

Your key duties

• Install, document, maintain and troubleshoot networking equipment.
• Assist in the supervision of network engineering works at Exeter HQ and remotely.
• Respond to and resolve incidents, investigate and diagnose network problems and work with users, other technical staff and suppliers as appropriate.
• Implement changes as required by the business to meet the demands of systems delivery, including switch, load balancer and firewall configuration.
• Maintenance of local and wide area networks for the delivery of weather data and enterprise communications.
• Work closely with experts and leading network specialists within the Met Office.

Person specification

Essential criteria, skills and experience:

1. Lead Criteria: Currently studying for an undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline with a significant networking, telecommunications or IT infrastructure component. (Expert by nature)
2. Demonstrates a genuine interest in information technology and networking, with a willingness to continually develop knowledge of current and emerging technologies. (Keep evolving)
3. Applies analytical thinking and problem-solving skills to investigate issues, identify solutions, and learn from experience.
4. Able to plan, prioritise, and organise work effectively, using initiative and taking responsibility for delivering agreed tasks.
5. Communicates clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing, building positive relationships and working collaboratively with others. (Better together)
6. Has awareness of at least one programming or scripting language, such as Python or PowerShell, and an interest in using automation to improve efficiency.

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

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,170, Met Office contributes £7,871 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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, 2025 and 2026 lists, as well as their ’54 Best Workplaces for Women’ 2023 list.

Your package includes:

• Your salary will be £27,170
• Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days
• Access to discounted shopping, inclusive of retail, leisure and lifestyle brands

Whilst this is a temporary position until July 2028, there may be an opportunity to apply for our Graduate Development scheme upon completion of your university studies. However, this is not guaranteed and would be subject to programme availability and a successful application.

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! 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. Please also look at the Early Careers Programmes Application Guidance at the bottom of this advert.

Closing date: 23:59 on 8th November 2026. Please note we often receive a high volume of applications, but we will contact everyone who applies once the closing date has passed.

Interviews will be completed by 16th December 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 without caveats and/or restrictions for this role, 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.

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

https://careers.metoffice.gov.uk/early-careers/industrial-placements

Attachments

ApplicationTips_EarlyCareers2027 (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 142kB)