Marine Applications Scientist

We're looking for an exceptional Marine Applications Scientist to help us make a difference to our planet. 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. Our opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 29 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

Your world of expertise: The successful candidate will be joining the Marine Applications team in the wider Industry Science and Consultancy team. You will be joining a team which applies marine weather and climate information to protect the safety of human and marine life, improve efficiency of maritime operations and define maritime industry standards through user requirement and science-driven development. We work closely with Energy & Environment, and Regulated Transport markets teams to identify both industry and government marine requirements particularly in energy/food security, ecosystems, coastal risks, marine autonomy, and offshore efficiency and safety. You will work closely with your marine applications team members, academic partners and across other marine teams in the office to continue development and application of innovative machine-learning techniques to address these customer requirements.

Your Key Duties:

• Use and contribute to the development and application of machine learning techniques for observation driven marine forecasting to address marine customer requirements.
• Contribute to growth and development of marine climate project work within the team through working with markets teams to identify customer requirements and working in collaboration with other marine teams within the office to address these gaps.
• Work closely with the energy, environment and maritime markets teams to ensure user needs are pulled through into scientific innovation.
• Respond to routine consultancy requests from the offshore maritime sector customers.
• Give regular project updates at markets team meetings, internal seminars and customer/user meetings.
• Present project outputs through customer reports, and peer-reviewed science publications.

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 and 2024 lists, as well as their '54 Best Workplaces for Women' 2023 list.

As our Marine Applications Scientist, your total reward package will be up to £47,606 annually, which includes:

• 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

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

• An Expert by Nature with evidence of a track record in scientific and/or technical delivery demonstrating scientific insight and independence in weather/climate/ocean projects.
• Evidence of good programming (e.g. Python), machine learning or AI skills with a demonstrated ability to develop, and quality assure science, software or systems for weather, ocean or climate prediction.
• Strong organisational skills, with demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality output successfully, both independently and as part of a team, meeting tight deadlines, planning and organising own work within a project.
• An ability to help us be Better Together through building and maintaining effective working relationships with team members, key stakeholders and collaborators, both internally and externally.
• Evidence of excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to convey complex information to both technical and non-technical audiences.

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but we're also keen to discover if you have:

• Relevant background in weather/climate/marine science at PhD level, or equivalent experience.

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. Closing date 04/03/2026 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 30/03/2026. 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.

How we can help: If you have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please contact us. 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 within your first 6 months with us.