Data Science Scientific Software Engineer -Data-Driven Climate Models

Met Office; Devon and Torbay; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Civil Service pension

Market supplement (£2,000 p.a.)

Annual leave 27.5–32.5 days

Job summary

The Met Office is seeking an exceptional Scientific Software Engineer to join the AI4Climate initiative within the Hadley Centre. You will work at the intersection of AI and climate science, developing explainable machine learning approaches for Earth system modelling and data-driven climate predictions.

You will collaborate with climate scientists and software engineers, contribute to research, and help shape the scientific direction of a rapidly emerging field with impact on weather and

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent knowledge and experience in applying ML/DL to scientific data.
• Programming skills with Python and ML-optimised data libraries; quality assurance.

Responsibilities

• Develop and apply machine learning and deep learning methods for climate tasks.
• Design, train and evaluate data-driven climate models.
• Investigate robustness, uncertainty and physical realism of DDCMs.
• Develop approaches to integrate physical understanding with ML methods.
• Design evaluation frameworks for model skill and scientific credibility.
• Collaborate with climate scientists, software engineers and partners.
• Publish high-impact research and contribute to AI4Climate program.

Skills

Python

ML libraries

Experiment design

Statistical modelling

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Clear communication

Education

PhD or equivalent (ML/science)

Tools

Python

Job description

We're looking for an exceptional Scientific Software Engineer to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Scientific Software Engineer, 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. 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

This role as a Scientific Software Engineer sits within the data-driven climate modelling project in the AI4Climate initiative at the Met Office Hadley Centre, where we are combining machine learning, deep learning data science, climate science, and high-performance computing to develop faster, more flexible approaches to climate predictions for downstream applications. We are looking for an exceptional SSE with strong data science and software engineering skills.

You will work at the intersection of AI and climate science, developing and explainable novel machine learning approaches for climate prediction and understanding how data-driven models (DDCMs) represent the Earth system. You will help advance scientific understanding of DDCMs and their role within future climate modelling systems.

You will join a multidisciplinary group of climate scientists, data scientists and software engineers, working closely with partners across the Met Office and internationally. You will help to join our pioneering work in DDCM as part of the Met Office AI4Climate initiative. This is your chance to apply cutting-edge Ml and Deep Learning AI to one of the most urgent challenges of our time-understanding and predicting Earth's changing weather in warming climate in the Earth System Data Science team.

Your key duties:

• Develop and apply machine learning and deep learning methods for climate-focused tasks such as projection, prediction and emulation.
• Design, train and evaluate data-driven climate models using large-scale Earth system or simulated datasets.
• Investigate the scientific behaviour, robustness, uncertainty and physical realism of DDCMs.
• Develop new approaches for integrating physical understanding and machine learning methods.
• Design and implement evaluation frameworks for assessing model skill and scientific credibility.
• Contribute to research that advances understanding of Earth system processes through data-driven methods.
• Work collaboratively with climate scientists, software engineers and internal and external research partners.
• Contribute to the AI4Climate programme and wider Met Office strategy in data-driven modelling.
• Publish high-impact research, collaborate internationally and help shape the scientific direction of a rapidly emerging field.

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, 2024 and 2025 lists, as well as their '54 Best Workplaces for Women' 2023 list.

As our Scientific Software Engineer, your total reward package will be up to £51,448 annually, which includes:

• £35,145 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £2,000 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 2026 until March 2027 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 option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

• Lead Criteria: PhD, or equivalent knowledge and experience, in applying machine learning or deep learning to scientific, environmental or other complex datasets (Expert by Nature).
• Evidence of programming skills such as Python, ML-optimised data libraries and good quality assurance processes (Keep Evolving).
• Experience developing robust, maintainable and reproducible code in a scientific context.
• Ability to design experiments and evaluate methods to answer scientific questions.
• Understanding of statistical modelling, machine learning evaluation or uncertainty assessment.
• Experience working collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams (Better Together).
• Ability to communicate complex technical and scientific ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

The panel may perform a preliminary sift of the lead criteria as indicated above.

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 have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, 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 without caveats and/or restrictions for this role, 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.

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then in the first instance you should contact us at: If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at:

Closing date 01/11/2026 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 23/11/2026. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.