Climate Monitoring Scientist

Were looking for 3 exceptional Climate Monitoring Scientists to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Climate Monitoring Scientist, 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, but we would also consider applicants wishing to work a minimum of 30 hours per week and we will also try our best to consider those intending to work a job share.  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.

• Were a force for good - focusing on our environmental and social impact
• Were 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
• Were 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

The Climate Monitoring and Attribution group (CMA) at the Met Office Hadley Centre is an internationally recognised group that specialises in working with observations to monitor and understand our climate.

We work closely with experts both within and outside of the Met Office, and with international agencies and initiatives, such as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the European Space Agency and EUMETSAT, the European meteorological satellite agency, and we provide climate information to customers and end users, including the UK government and the public

We are recruiting into three different positions in CMA:

• Global Surface Temperature Climate Monitoring Scientist: This position sits within the Observing Climate: Marine and Cross-Domain Analysis team. In this role, you will develop global observational data sets and use them to monitor and report on the Earths climate across land, ocean and ice, with a focus on temperature change at the Earths surface. You will use your data analysis skills to combine current and historical instrumental data to quantify observed changes, assess uncertainty in those changes, and put current observed climate into historical context. You will develop data sets that have a wide range of applications in climate science and that are relevant to informing international climate policy and agreements.
• Satellite Climate Observations Scientist: This position sits within the Observing Climate: Land and Atmosphere team. The role is primarily focused on using satellite data for UK and global climate monitoring. This includes development of novel satellite-based climate indicators to characterise and track impactful climatic events, such as extreme heat, drought, vegetation stress and wildfires, and combining satellite and station data to produce new blended datasets for key variables. This role provides the opportunity to contribute new satellite-based metrics to our Met Office Climate Dashboard, which is used internationally as a trusted source of global climate monitoring information.
• UK Climate Scientist: This position sits within The National Climate Information Centre (NCIC) team. We are looking for a scientist with strong data management and communication skills to work closely with the existing team developing the flagship climate data sets HadUK-Grid and HadCET and supplying UK climate information to a variety of users. We communicate our analysis through regular reports and media output, most notably the high-profile annual State of the UK Climate report.

Through your work and through collaboration with experts both within and outside of the Met Office, you will utilise observational data to quantify climate change and variability by applying your analytical and scientific software skills. This role will include opportunities to apply cutting edge research such as ML approaches and new data gridding/mapping methods.

We welcome applications for all three roles from candidates with a range of scientific backgrounds. We are particularly interested in individuals who are motivated to apply their scientific and analytical skills to climate observations and climate monitoring, and who are enthusiastic about developing a career in this area.

Your key duties:

• Working with data from a variety of sources, including UK and global weather stations, satellites, ships and buoys to create new observational climate data sets and update existing data sets.
• Effectively conveying confidence in results through robust quantification of observational uncertainty and evaluation.
• Analysing new and existing observational data sets to characterise and monitor global, regional and UK climate change.
• Documenting and disseminating scientific findings via peer-reviewed papers, reports, webpages, press releases and through presentations at national/international meetings and conferences. Providing guidance to internal and external users of climate observation data.
• Working collaboratively within a team of scientists and scientific software engineers to deliver and communicate high-quality scientific output.

1. Lead Criteria: Demonstrated understanding and application of statistical/data analysis methods to environmental or other complex data sets, including, for example, characterising relationships, variability, trends and/or uncertainty, together with a systematic approach to verifying your results. (Were experts by nature)
2. Expertise in physical, mathematical, environmental or data science gained through postgraduate research experience (e.g. PhD, or demonstration of equivalent experience). Evidence of a proactive approach to your own development. (Were experts by nature, We keep evolving)
3. Demonstrated experience of writing and adapting computer code in Python (or a similar programming language) to process and analyse scientific data, including implementing or applying analytical methods and carefully checking results. (Were experts by nature)
4. Evidence of good communication skills (written, oral, presentation and listening) with a demonstrated interest in communicating scientific results (e.g. in research papers or at conferences), and adapting the approach for different audiences. (Were experts by nature)
5. Evidence of the ability to balance competing demands on your time, plan and deliver your own work with an understanding of its wider context and to work in a collaborative scientific/research team to successfully deliver a common goal. (We live and breathe it, Were better together)

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