Met Office

Working for us

Working at the Met Office means working for an employer whose operations have a real impact on the lives of everyone.

A lady explains the weather across the southeast of England on TV

Behind-the-scenes at the Met Office

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John Hammond takes you on a tour of the Met Office headquarters in Exeter and takes a look at some of the work we do.

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Behind-the-scenes transcript Download the transcript (PDF, 81 kB)


If you watched, listened to or read the news this morning it is likely that the Met Office played an important part in much of the coverage - we are the most well-known weather information supplier in the UK.

We employ around 1,800 people at 60 sites across the world, most (about 1,400) working out of our headquarters at Exeter.
  • 450 work in Research Science
  • 730 in Forecasting and Observations
  • 290 in IT
  • 40 in sales marketing and business development
  • 280 in corporate and business support functions like Human Resources, Finance, Procurement and Communications.
  • Overseas locations include the Falkland Islands, Ascension Island, Gibraltar, Cyprus and Germany.
  • We work with the RAF in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Qatar. 

Your career options

Career opportunities at the Met Office fall into six main categories:

Science and scientific software engineering
  • Forecasting research and development (including meteorology and oceanography)
  • Climate research and development (impacts and mitigation)
  • Scientific software engineering to underpin research
Forecasting and environmental monitoring
  • Meteorological training, forecasting and guidance
  • Monitoring the state of the atmosphere, oceans and climate
  • Meteorological observing systems research and development
Technology, computing and project management
  • Exploiting new technology from supercomputing to PDAs
  • Managing technical projects from design through to implementation
  • Web development
  • Software development lifecycle
  • IT development
  • Service delivery
Engineering
  • Installation, commissioning and maintenance of environmental observing systems
  • Mechanical and electrical engineering
  • Surveying
Marketing, sales and business development
  • Product marketing
  • Product and market development
  • Business and product development
  • Sales and customer relationships
  • Market intelligence and analysis
Corporate services and business support
  • Finance
  • Internal audit
  • Human Resources
  • Communications
  • Library and archive
  • Legal and Procurement
  • Property Management (including health and safety)
  • Corporate governance, management and business administration

With a wide variety of jobs in each of these categories, competition to work here can be high.

A quick guide to what you need to work for us:

  • If you would like a career in science and scientific software engineering, a sound background in physics or maths to at least degree level is essential.
  • To become a meteorological forecaster you will need a physical science degree in addition to physics at GCSE A-level or equivalent.

A 2:1 degree or above will increase your chances of securing employment in options above.

  • IT jobs vary for entry level, however, our main programming languages are Fortran, C and Java.
  • Entry requirements also vary for jobs in marketing and sales as well as in our corporate services and business support, but previous experience and/or a relevant degree or professional qualification would be to your advantage.

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Last Updated: 11 May 2011

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