Data Science Scientific Software Engineer –Data-Driven Climate Models

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Job Reference metoffice/TP/29515/1442

Apply for this job Contract Details: Permanent Working Hours: 37 Location (City/Town): Exeter Closing Date: 01/11/2026 Profession: Science Region / Division: UK Region Careers website category: Technology

Job Introduction

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 supplemen