Km-scale global climate modelling Scientist

The Met Office is seeking a Km-scale global climate modelling Scientist in Exeter, UK. This full-time role focuses on developing advanced climate models to enhance climate change assessments for policymakers. The position may allow for hybrid working, requiring at least three days in the office weekly. The salary ranges from £33,794 to £36,235, with a Civil Service Pension plan included.
Details

Reference number

407532

Salary

£33,794 - £36,235

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

Higher Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Type of role

Science

Working pattern

Full-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents
• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

Exeter, South West England, EX1 3PB

About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Km-scale global climate modelling Scientist to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Km-scale global climate modelling Scientist, 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, with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office. 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. 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 world of expertise

You will play a key role in developing the next generation of global climate models (GCMs), capable of resolving down to kilometre scales in both the atmosphere and the ocean (k-scale models). This is exciting and important research since the transition to k-scale promises to yield a step change in the scientific assessments of climate change available to policy makers, enabling them to take more effective action.

On country and continental scales, it has been convincingly demonstrated that k-scale models offer a much-improved representation of local precipitation, including extreme events, compared to more traditional climate models with coarser resolution. Future changes in short-duration precipitation extremes from k-scale models are thus more credible, which is particularly important for assessing the socio-economic impacts of a warming climate.

Moving to k-scale in global simulations has the potential to overcome some of the long-standing precipitation biases afflicting conventional coarse-resolution GCMs, particularly in the tropics, leading to more reliable future projections. The improved representation of tropical precipitation is also expected to modify the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere, affecting the mid-latitude jet streams and associated weather patterns. Identifying these up-scale effects in k-scale GCMs, and their implications for climate projections, is an active area of research in the community and you will contribute to improving our understanding.

One of the key challenges of global climate modelling at km-scale is the tremendous computational expense. You will tackle this by combining the power of the new Met Office supercomputer with our new modelling system (LFRIc), designed for the world of exascale computing.

Your key duties:
• Engage in technical work required to achieve the goal of running k-scale global climate simulations with the LFRIc model on the new Met Office supercomputer, working closely with model developers in Foundation Science to find solutions to problems. Evaluate these simulations to identify their biases, feeding back into underpinning model development activities, ensuring that climate priorities are accounted for.
• Produce the first ever set of Met Office k-scale global climate change projections. Exploit these to gain new understanding of future changes in local weather extremes, particularly relevant for the impacts of climate change on society. Contribute to research to identify up-scale effects of the improved representation of small-scale processes and associated impacts on climate projections.
• Communicate scientific results and promote Met Office research to the wider community through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at workshops/conferences. Forge links with others working towards k-scale global climate models, within the Met Office, at UK universities and internationally.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:
• Evidence of postgraduate research experience in physical, environmental or computational science (we’re experts by nature).
• Evidence of ability to design, set up and run numerical experiments, and analyse their output to gain new scientific insight (we’re experts by nature).
• Evidence of strong programming skills and a demonstrated ability to use them to solve technical problems and/or answer scientific questions (we’re experts by nature).
• Evidence of excellent written and oral communication skills, with an ability to communicate complex scientific and technical information to a range of audiences via a variety of media.
• Evidence of ability to work effectively as a member of a team to deliver successful outcomes (we’re better together).

Desirable Criteria:

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but we’re also keen to discover if you have:
• Evidence of prior experience working with numerical models of the atmosphere, land or ocean, or coupled systems.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,794, Met Office contributes £9,790 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 and 2024 lists, as well as their ’54 Best Workplaces for Women’ 2023 list.

As our Km-scale global climate modelling Scietist, your total reward package will be up to £47,606 annually, which includes:
• £33,794 base pay
• 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

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.

Closing date 15/06/2025 at 23:59 with interviews commencing from 07/07/2025. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

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. 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 .

See our vetting charter .

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)
• 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

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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 .

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 the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

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