Lead Developer - Management

We are looking for an exceptional Lead Developer – Manager. The role is within our Operational Technology Directorate within the Defence Tribe who work towards providing defence partners across the globe with a range of data, products and services, making use of the Met Office's world leading science and technology capability.

This role will sit within the Senior Leadership Team for the Defence Tribe and will be representing the Met Office in the Defence Sector. Please note this role does require a certain amount of international travel mainly across Europe and North America and dependent on our commitment to sustainability and achieving carbon neutrality. This includes travel to critical events and meetings across the globe.

As Lead Developer for the Defence Tribe, you will have oversight of all the development activities across the Tribe. You will be expected to engage and help those Development Teams deliver to the Defence Programme, including mentoring, troubleshooting and supporting the work they do.

From edge computing to supercomputing, at the Met Office, we use a diverse set of cutting-edge technologies to drive our innovative projects. Our tech stack includes Python and JavaScript for a wide range of applications, from scientific computing to web development. Our cloud infrastructure spans AWS and Azure, where we embrace containerization using Docker and serverless architectures to ensure scalability and efficiency. Additionally, we are making ever greater use of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to enhance our weather and climate predictions. Join us to work with these exciting technologies and more, as we push the boundaries of weather and climate science.

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

Why work for the Met Office

As our Lead Developer, your total reward package will be up to £77,318 annually which includes;

• £52,799 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Recruitment Retention allowance (RRA). You will be paid £3,800 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 to 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 the option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave.

What You'll Bring to the Role

We're looking for someone who meets the following Essential Criteria for this role:

• Availability and Capacity Management. You will ensure the implementation of availability and capacity management standards and procedures.
• Development process optimisation. You can analyse current processes and identity opportunities and implement optimisation of services.
• Modern Development Standards. You can identify and apply modern development standards to support complex projects, and you can lead others in applying these standards.
• Programming and build. 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 the right standards and tools.
• 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 risk, impact. You can apply efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology. You can define the integration build; co-ordinate build activities across systems to undertake and support integration testing activities. You can identify, locate and fix faults.
• User focus. You can collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally. 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.
• Information Security: You can understand information security, design solutions and services with security controls embedded, specifically engineered with mitigation of security threats as a core feature.

Our Working Arrangements

As our Lead Developer, 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.

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 mentioned in the 'What You'll bring to the Role' section 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.

As leaders in embracing AI technology in many areas of our business, we encourage the use of AI technology to enhance your application. However, all information provided must be honest, accurate, and a true reflection of your skills and experience.

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

Closing date 28/02/25 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 17/03/25. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

If you would like to better understand the organisation, the role or have any questions please contact us at .

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. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us

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