Job Vacancy Lead Technical Architect

Summary

We're looking for an exceptional Lead Technical Architect to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Lead Technical Architect, 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. 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 Technology leader, you will be responsible for defining and collaborating on solutions that make a difference to lives and livelihoods. Underpinning all our weather and climate services are meteorological observations of the atmosphere, land and ocean. We need great people to join us to help build the technologies that will enable us to manage, understand and exploit these billions of data points every day and ensure that we deliver all the benefits that the £1.2B investment in our supercomputer will bring.

Your key duties

• Leading the strategic thinking about the future technologies and systems needed to transform our observations data estate
• Defining, designing and supporting the implementation of solutions that meet Met Office needs
• Communicating and justifying design decisions within the context of the Met Office strategic direction
• Making and driving decisions, managing change and taking part in wider Met Office initiatives that affect you and the teams around you

Why join us

Our work is life-changing, often life-saving and always life-enhancing. The Met Office is accredited as a 'Great Place to Work UK 2023' and in addition has achieved a place on both the UK's 'Best Workplaces in Tech' and 'Best Workplaces for Women' lists.

As our Lead Technical Architect, your total reward package will be up to £79,530 annually, which includes:

• £52,799 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £7,000 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 2024 until September 2025 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:

1. Leadership and Governance - We're better together and therefore your ability to lead and collaborate with internal and external project and delivery teams with differing degrees of maturity is a key part of this role.
2. Turning business problems into solution designs - We keep evolving and as part of that you need the ability to make and guide effective decisions, working with business and technology stakeholders to translate complex business problems into coherent technical designs.
3. Communicating between technical and non-technical audiences - We are experts by nature and you will work with a variety of professions, you must be able to present the key design ideas in a manner suitable for different audiences, demystifying the technical complexities and relating these back to real business problems.
4. Understanding the whole context - At the Met Office we live and breathe technology, you understand the trends and practices in the wider industry around large-scale data storage and accessibility, with the ability to quickly adapt and apply this knowledge to new areas.

How to apply

If you share our values, we'd love to hear from you! Click apply to begin your application. Please complete your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date 22/09/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 30/09/2024. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via . 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, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.