Port Met Officer - South East England

at  Met Office

JOB SUMMARY

We’re looking for an exceptional Port Met Officer to help us make a difference to our planet.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As our Port Met Officer for southeast England, the job may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in the office, the field and 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, based in Southampton.

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• A proven ability to work proactively in an unsupervised, independent manner and utilise excellent time management skills. You keep evolving by planning and prioritising a busy and dynamic work schedule.
• Evidence of excellent inter-personal skills and working better together in a team with a proven ability to influence, negotiate and develop mutually beneficial relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• An expert by nature with a broad knowledge of surface marine observing systems, both manual and automatic; and an understanding of the challenges faced in the operation of marine observing networks.
• A force for good with a proven ability to communicate technical information clearly and concisely in a range of formats to audiences with varying levels of technical understanding.
• Evidence of excellent IT skills and a high degree of competence, in particular, with the Microsoft Office suite of tools; and the ability to learn and adapt to new tools and processes quickly and efficiently.
• Hold a valid UK driving licence with a willingness to drive regularly for work purposes, as well as being physically able to transport and install equipment on ships in a port environment, sometimes at height or in poor weather and occasionally outside of normal working hours.
  Benefits
  Alongside your salary of £33,794, Met Office contributes £9,094 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
  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 Port Met Officer, your total reward package will be up to £46,974.00 annually, which includes:

• £33,794.00 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 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

Things you need to know

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

TYPE OF ROLE

Environment and Sustainability
Operational Delivery
Quality
Other

YOUR KEY DUTIES

• Managing the southeast England region; installing, inspecting and maintaining observing equipment onboard ships in ports extending from Southampton to Harwich
• Establish and build relationships with shipping companies, ship captains and observing officers, providing help to resolve issues and communicating the needs of both the Met Office and the WMO VOS Programme so that the observations consistently meet the required standards for timeliness, availability & quality.
• Work with national and international partners, including shipping companies and other National Met Services to ensure best practice, consistency and knowledge sharing across global marine observing networks.
• Arrange ship inspections in an efficient and organised manner, both as part of a routine maintenance schedule and in response to real-time incidents.
• Collect, manage and archive essential site and asset metadata in accordance with both Met Office and international requirements.
• Assist with the annual deployments of drifting buoys for both the Met Office and ESURFMAR contributions to the Global Drifter Array.
• Undertake appropriate training and development to ensure skills remain current and evolve with business need.