Defence Partnerships Team Leader

Met Office; Devon and Torbay; Hybrid; GBP 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading meteorological organization is seeking a Defence Partnerships Team Leader to foster key relationships within the UK defence community and international counterparts. The role offers the possibility of hybrid working, involves managing strategic partnerships, and requires travel both domestically and internationally. This position emphasizes collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and a strong understanding of scientific and technological applications in the defence sector. A competitive salary package, including pension benefits, is offered.

Benefits

Civil Service pension

Relocation Assistance

Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days

Qualifications

• Excellent stakeholder management skills to gain trust and credibility.
• Broad knowledge of scientific, technological and meteorological capabilities within a defence context.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Track record of delivering successful outcomes against targets.
• Ability to assess complex situations and develop pragmatic recommendations.
• Excellent team collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Defence Partnerships Team in developing strategic partnerships.
• Manage relationships between the UK defence community and international counterparts.
• Ensure alignment with UK Government policy and MoD priorities.
• Represent Met Office in national and international discussions.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of defence funding.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Scientific and technological knowledge

Strong communication skills

Proven delivery experience

Sound judgment

Team collaboration

Job description

We're looking for a Defence Partnerships Team Leader to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Defence Partnerships Team Leader, 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.

This post may be based at Exeter or Reading.You will travel regularly between Exeter HQ, London and our defence network as well as internationally when required. 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

You will lead our Defence Partnerships Team in the development, maintenance and execution of key partnerships. Providing leadership and guidance, you'll develop and inspire your team to ensure a high level of job satisfaction and professional fulfilment.

You will manage, develop and exploit the strategic relationships between the UK defence community and international counterparts ensuring that our collaboration delivers real impact. Building and strengthening relationships with Met Office suppliers, you'll support contractual delivery of Met Office capabilities to our partners.

Your key duties

• Proactively build and maintain relationships with key influencers and decision-makers in both the UK defence arena, NATO, NATO nations, FVEYs and US Air Force and broader community. Using these relationships to build trust, credibility, influence and effective communication channels to deliver the objectives of the relationships.
• Build and maintain a sustainable pipeline of defence funding through proactive external engagement and strategic account management, delivering Defence Partnering trading revenue and profit and ensure compliance with all relevant policies and processes.
• Successfully plan, influence and negotiate mutually beneficial outcomes for partners and Met Office, protecting Met Office equities as required.
• Maintain relationships with UK MoD Joint Geospatial Intelligence to ensure partnerships are aligned with UK Government policy and MoD priorities.
• Represent the Met Office at bilateral and multilateral discussions, often requiring national and overseas travel. Candidates should consider the need for this role to travel abroad at least monthly.

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 Defence Partnerships Team Leader, your total reward package will be up to £75,857 annually, which includes :

• £54,515 base pay.
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Relocation Assistance may be available.
• 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

• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to l ive and breathe it by gaining trust and credibility whilst understanding complex themes to generate opportunities, manage expectations and predict potential issues. (Lead Criteria)
• Broad knowledge of scientific, technological and / or meteorological capabilities and their application within a defence environment.
• Strong written and oral communication skills. Experience of communicating complex information in a way that is easily understood and interpersonal skills to work with a variety of stakeholders at all levels.
• Proven track record of taking ownership and responsibility for delivery of successful outcomes against multiple milestones and targets.
• Sound judgement, with the ability to assess complex situations, develop balanced and pragmatic recommendations, and to adjust priorities to meet a changing environment.
• Excellent team working and collaboration skills with the ability to adapt to wide ranging perspectives and work better together towards mutually beneficial outcomes.

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

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 :

• Knowledge of defence Meteorology and Oceanographic work.
• Good awareness of international current affairs / politics.

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 01 / 12 / 2025 at 23 : 59 with first stage interviews commencing from 17 / 12 / 2025. 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. 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, 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.