Senior Developer

Job summary

We’re looking for two exceptional Senior Developers to help make a real difference by supporting our armed forces, wherever their work takes them around the world.

Your world of expertise

As a Senior Developer in our Defence Data Services, you will create and maintain systems which bridge the gap between our front-end products and the back-end science, ensuring that we are able to make the very best use of our ever-evolving supercomputer capability.

This is an exciting opportunity to work in a development team that has a wide-reaching and positive impact, helping people to stay safe and thrive around the globe.

You will work with your team to understand, design, and implement modern, full stack, cloud-based solutions. You will work collaboratively with your peers in the Science and Technology community, building relationships and sharing your knowledge.

Within our applications team, you will develop and support systems that help our users understand the impact that weather has on their operational safety and effectiveness.

The team primarily develops in Java, JavaScript, and Python. They deploy to a variety of environments including Windows devices and Linux on AWS, utilising AWS CDK, CloudFormation, and Docker containerisation.

To find out more about Technology at the Met Office, please take a look here.

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

Your key duties

• Lead agile development projects
• Plan and lead development of sets of related user stories
• Find ways to improve system robustness, resilience and stability
• Design,code,test, and document software solutions
• Mentor and support junior developers
• Collaborate with other disciplines to fully understand the software requirements

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

1. Programming and build (software engineering): You can collaborate with others, when necessary, to review specifications. You can use the agreed specifications to design, code, test, and document programs or scripts of medium-to-high complexity, using modern standards and technologies including Python and/or Java. (Expert by nature)
2. Systems Design (Integration and Service Support): You can design and review cost efficient systems using design standards, methods tools, and ensure they are applied effectively. You can identify and articulate risks and their potential impacts. You can apply efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology. You can define the integration build and co-ordinate build activities across systems to undertake and support integration testing activities. You can identify, locate, and fix faults and design support processes for others to follow to keep services operational. (We live and breathe it)
3. User focus: You can collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally. You can explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. Champion user research to focus on all users. Prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so. Offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use.
4. Information Security: You understand information security and can design solutions and services with security controls embedded, specifically engineered with mitigation of security threats as a core feature.
5. Team Membership: You approach your work as a team, working with others across multi-disciplinary and geographically dispersed teams. You can share your expertise with others in the team as needed including mentoring and coaching junior members. When needed, you can lead a team and ensure that work is done to the highest quality and in a timely manner.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,081, Met Office contributes £12,480 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 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 Senior Developer, your total reward package will be up to £65,568 annually, which includes:

• £43,081 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £5,300 per annum as a market supplement to reflect the demand for your skills. Whilst in post, you will be paid this market driven allowance until 31st March 2027.
• 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

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.

This opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 30 hours per week

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.

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 (Context, Action, Result and Learning) method the help best demonstrate your experience and skills. When providing examples, you should include the context of the example, The action you took, what the result was and any learning you took from this example.

We suggest 300 to 500 words per answer to keep your response focused and impactful.

Closing date 08/02/2026 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 02/03/2026. 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 would like to better understand the organisation, the role or have any questions 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, this will include a Codility Test prior to the interview. 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.

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