Met Office
HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software Engineer
HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software Engineer at Met Office, based in Exeter, South West, paying £29,744 - £32,423 per annum. This is a contract role with hybrid working.
- Pay
- £29,744 - £32,423 per annum
- Hours and contract
- Contract · Hybrid
- Location
- Exeter, South West
- Closing date
- Sector
- Software Developer
57% below the typical rate for software developer
Reference 1501
About the role
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Apply for this job Manage my job alerts HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software EngineerJob Reference metoffice/TP/46838/1501
Apply for this job Contract Details: Permanent Working Hours: 37 Location (City/Town): Exeter Closing Date: 22/11/2026 Profession: Science Region / Division: UK Region Careers website category: ScienceJob Introduction
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.
Your key duties:
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.
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 HPC Optimisation Foundation Scientific Software Engineer, your total reward package will be up to £44,084 annually, which includes:
- £29,744 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: Demonstrate insight in software development, and in particular computational performance aspects, through the delivery of new capabilities for scientific appli
Reference: 1501 · Posted 2 hours ago · Closes 6 Dec 2026 · Listed via Met Office
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