Network Engineer Industrial Placement

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Met Office on a 12-month Year in Industry placement, commencing at the start of July 2027. You will develop your skills and knowledge and gain the most value possible from your experience with us.

You will have the opportunity to network with our cohort of Industrial Placements all over the Met Office and learn what career opportunities are on offer after you graduate.

Working Pattern

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, enabling you to work 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. As an Industrial Placement in Network Services, we expect you to attend the office three days a week as a minimum.

The opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week. We will do our best to agree a working pattern that works for everyone.

Your World of Expertise

Our Industrial Placement scheme offers ambitious and capable undergraduates the opportunity to gain valuable experience and work alongside diverse and highly skilled experts in their field. You’ll be working on projects that really matter and will make a difference.

Best-in-class technology expertise

As a Network Engineer Industrial Placement, you will gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies, helping to deliver secure and reliable connectivity across the Met Office and enabling world-leading science and operational services.

High-quality teamwork

As part of a team of around 20 skilled Network Engineers, you will work closely with colleagues across the organisation, contributing to a culture of knowledge sharing, collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement.

Exciting projects

You will get involved with a mix of complex, technical activities, and large-scale life cycle projects ranging from data centre networking, next generation firewalls, cloud-based security solutions to SD-WAN.

Your Key Duties

• Install, document, maintain and troubleshoot networking equipment.
• Assist in the supervision of network engineering works at Exeter HQ and remotely.
• Respond to and resolve incidents, investigate and diagnose network problems and work with users, other technical staff and suppliers as appropriate.
• Implement changes as required by the business to meet the demands of systems delivery, including switch, load balancer and firewall configuration.
• Maintenance of local and wide area networks for the delivery of weather data and enterprise communications.
• Work closely with experts and leading network specialists within the Met Office.

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, 2025 and 2026 lists, as well as their ’54 Best Workplaces for Women’ 2023 list.

Your Package Includes

• Your salary will be £27,170
• Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days
• Access to discounted shopping, inclusive of retail, leisure and lifestyle brands

Whilst this is a temporary position until July 2028, there may be an opportunity to apply for our Graduate Development scheme upon completion of your university studies. However, this is not guaranteed and would be subject to programme availability and a successful application.

Essential Criteria, Skills and Experience

• Currently studying for an undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline with a significant networking, telecommunications or IT infrastructure component.
• Demonstrates a genuine interest in information technology and networking, with a willingness to continually develop knowledge of current and emerging technologies.
• Applies analytical thinking and problem-solving skills to investigate issues, identify solutions, and learn from experience.
• Able to plan, prioritise, and organise work effectively, using initiative and taking responsibility for delivering agreed tasks.
• Communicates clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing, building positive relationships and working collaboratively with others.
• Has awareness of at least one programming or scripting language, such as Python or PowerShell, and an interest in using automation to improve efficiency.

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. Please also look at the Early Careers Programmes Application Guidance at the bottom of this advert.

How We Can Help

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please contact us at careers@metoffice.gov.uk.

If you’re considering applying and need support to do so, please get in touch. 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 can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK. We require Security clearance without caveats and/or restrictions for this role, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible, 2 of these years must be immediately preceding the point of your application.