HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software Engineer

Met Office; Devon and Torbay; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Civil Service pension

Market supplement £2,000 p.a. (RRA)

Annual leave 27.5–32.5 days

Job summary

The Met Office is seeking an exceptional HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software Engineer to help us make a difference to our planet. This full-time role (37 hours per week) offers hybrid working with a strong emphasis on development and collaboration across teams.

You will contribute to large-scale climate and weather applications on HPC systems and help push our Next Generation Modelling Systems and data science capabilities.

Qualifications

• Demonstrate insight in software development and computational performance for scientific applications.
• Engage with stakeholders to understand requirements and context.
• Apply QA practices, standards and regulations in work.
• Communicate knowledge with diverse audiences.
• Develop skills and support others’ development within the team.

Responsibilities

• Analyse and optimise the performance of scientific applications.
• Benchmark scientific applications on current and future supercomputer hardware.
• Develop software, tools and methods to improve performance and portability of large-scale HPC apps.
• Collaborate with scientific and technical colleagues to improve HPC applications.
• Learn and share knowledge of optimisation tools, parallel programming techniques and HPC capabilities.

Skills

Computational performance

Stakeholder engagement

Quality Assurance

Effective communication

Skill development & mentoring

Job description

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

As our HPC Optimisation Foundation 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

As a HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software Engineer you will contribute to the development, support, and optimisation of large-scale parallel climate and weather applications on HPC systems.

We are currently in a major push to develop our Next Generation Modelling Systems, to help exploit our new world-leading supercomputer capability and to support our adoption of data science (specifically artificial intelligence and machine learning) across our national capability, and you will be working towards these objectives in some form.

The Foundation Scientific Software Engineer (SSE) role is a varied one, with many opportunities for development, progression and finding new challenges both within the SSE career family and beyond.

Being a Foundation Scientific Software Engineer is about far more than just technical skills - you will need to be able to work alongside colleagues in a range of areas, both technical and scientific. We frequently require our SSEs to collaborate internally and internationally.

• Analyse and optimise the performance of scientific applications.
• Benchmark scientific applications on current and future supercomputer hardware.
• Develop software, tools and methods to improve the performance, scalability and portability of large-scale scientific applications on current and future HPC architectures.
• Collaborate with scientific and technical colleagues to develop and improve HPC applications.
• Learn about and share knowledge of optimisation tools, parallel programming techniques and algorithms, and current and future supercomputer capabilities.

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 HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software Engineer, your total reward package will be up to £44,084 annually, which includes:

• 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: Demonstrate insight in software development, and in particular computational performance aspects, through the delivery of new capabilities for scientific applications. (We're Experts by Nature)
• Engage with stakeholders to understand the requirements for your work and its wider context. (We're Experts by Nature, Better Together)
• Apply good Quality Assurance processes, best practice, standards and/or regulations in your work. (We're Experts by Nature, We Live and Breathe it)
• Communicate knowledge accurately and concisely, adapting your approach to effectively communicate with diverse audiences. (We're Better Together)
• Develop your own skills and support the development of others, demonstrating the positive impact this has had. (We Keep Evolving, Better Together, Experts by Nature)

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.

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: