Upper Air Observations Placement

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Upper Air Observations Placement

Our Industrial Placement scheme offers undergraduates the opportunity to gain valuable experience working alongside some of the UK’s most talented and enthusiastic professionals.

Why should I choose the Met Office?

As an Industrial Placement within the Upper Air Observations team at the Met Office, you will be paid £17,000 pa and have the opportunity to spend 12 months (between July 2020 - July 2021) working within an operational team responsible for collecting high quality weather observations. The Observations Industrial Placement scheme is an exciting opportunity to see first-hand what we do, as well as make a real impact that the Met Office truly values.

You will be joining other placements on this scheme, who will be working in other departments across the office, and past cohorts have supported each other with projects, set up lunch groups and socials.

Tell me a little more about what you do…

Meteorological observations underpin Met Office operations, being essential to forecasting and climate services. They are used to initialise numerical models, verify our forecasts, provide consultancy services and monitor climate change. The Upper Air Observations team in Exeter is responsible for the collection of high quality weather observations from observing networks including weather radar, radiosonde, lidar, lightning detection and aircraft based observations.

This role will focus on operational activities, working closely with specialists to improve the performance of observing networks and systems. This will include data monitoring, diagnosing the cause of problems and producing performance statistics. You will make a difference from the very beginning of the placement. Our observing networks are continuously evolving as new instruments, systems and processes are developed. Therefore, there will also be opportunities for you to play a valuable part in change projects.

The Upper Air Observations team regularly interacts with colleagues in research & development, engineering and IT teams, allowing you to discover the range of activities undertaken in the Observations group.

Can I apply?

To become an Upper Air Observations Industrial Placement at the Met Office you will need to be someone who:

• Studying for an undergraduate degree with a significant numeracy, science and/or IT element, which MUST incorporate a placement year (i.e. sandwich course)
• An appreciation of customer needs and the importance of good customer service
• Works well as a member of a multi-skilled team
• Able to analyse a problem and identify the root cause
• Able to plan and organise work using own initiative
• Comfortable communicating technical information to a range of stakeholders

Desirably, you would be someone who can also demonstrate:

• A keen interest in meteorology and instrumentation used to monitor the environment
• Practical knowledge or experience of IT, use of Office 365 toolset

When will I hear if I have been shortlisted?

We will be accepting applications until Sunday 8th March. During this time, we may get in touch if you are unfortunately not eligible or we have spotted something missing from your application. Otherwise, you can expect to hear from us before the 31st March once the hiring manager has reviewed all the applications received. We often receive a high number of applications so it can take a little while to look at each one but we always let people know the outcome.

The next stage is a face to face interview and that’s it! Good luck!

Additional Information

For operational reasons this post will be based in Exeter.

This full-time recruitment post is not offering UK Visa and Sponsorship and therefore requires all applicants to be eligible to work within the UK / EU without restriction. If you are a non–EU candidate, you will be required to provide and attach all relevant eligibility documentation to your application at the time of applying.

Please note that successful candidate/s will be required to satisfactorily undergo security clearance checks. This will generally require the candidate to have lived in the UK for at least three out of the last five years, but applicants not meeting this criteria may be considered.

We are a “Disability Confident” employer, Mindful Employer, with an Athena Swan Bronze award for our work on gender equality and an LGBTi network.

About the Met Office

One area of the Met Office cannot function without the others. Our engineers keep data flowing; our science and scientific software engineers make data meaningful; and our sales, marketing, consultancy and communications professionals ensure that our forecasts and meteorological products and services reach our customers. The breadth and depth of our work is incredibly varied but whatever area you work in, you’ll be challenged, developed and fascinated in a career where whatever you do, your work will make a valuable contribution to the bigger picture. A career to be proud of.

How to apply

To apply for this role and to find out more, please click on the apply button.