Ocean Forecast Verification 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, gaining valuable experience.

You will have the opportunity to network with other Industrial Placement students across the Met Office and learn about potential career paths after graduation.

Your Work

As an Ocean Forecast Verification Industrial Placement, you will contribute to making a difference to our planet. The role may be suitable for hybrid working, with a minimum of one day per week in the office. The role is full-time, 37 hours per week.

World Changing Work

The Met Office is a leader in weather accuracy and climate prediction, helping individuals, industries, and government make better decisions.

• Force for good: Focusing on environmental and social impact.
• Experts by nature: Continuously learning and developing.
• Live and breathe it: Purpose-driven decision-making.
• Better together: Valuing partnerships and inclusivity.
• Keep evolving: Pushing boundaries for a better tomorrow.

Your World of Expertise

This Industrial Placement scheme offers undergraduates valuable experience working with skilled experts. You'll work on impactful projects.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly important in weather and ocean forecasting. You will work with the Ocean Forecast Verification team to develop a prototype Agentic AI capability for Operational Ocean Monitoring and Event Attribution. The goal is to create an intelligent monitoring assistant that can:

• Automatically monitor daily marine forecasts.
• Detect anomalies and explain their likely causes.
• Contextualise forecasts against current and upcoming weather and oceanic events (e.g., El Niño, tropical cyclones, marine heatwaves).

Key Duties

• Work with marine experts on quality assurance and anomaly detection for marine forecast models and observations.
• Develop an Agentic AI-driven monitoring workflow to replicate existing manual monitoring.
• Train AI Agents to assess model outputs, detect missing or erroneous diagnostics, and highlight marine climate anomalies.
• Train Agents to summarise system status in natural language for end users.

Why Join Us

Our work is life-changing, life-saving, and life-enhancing. The Met Office is Great Place to Work UK certified and has been recognised on their ‘Best Workplaces in Tech’ lists for multiple years, as well as their ‘Best Workplaces for Women’ list.

Your Package

• Salary: £27,170 per year
• Annual Leave: Starting at 27.5 days
• Benefits: Access to discounted shopping (retail, leisure, and lifestyle brands)

This is a temporary position until July 2028. There may be an opportunity to apply for our Graduate Development scheme upon completion of your studies, subject to availability and successful application.

Essential Criteria, Skills and Experience

• Lead Criteria: A clear interest in AI and machine learning, with a strong motivation to build skills in this area.
• Studying for a degree in a mathematical or physical science, with an industrial placement year included.
• Experience with programming or scientific computing tools such as Fortran, Python, or MATLAB.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate technical information clearly and concisely, while working effectively and collaboratively with others.

How to Apply

If you share our values, please click apply to begin your application. Complete your career history and provide evidence against each essential criterion in the supporting statement questionnaire, using the CARL method (Context, Action, Result, Learning). Refer to the Early Careers Programmes Application Guidance at the bottom of this advert.

Closing Date: 23:59 on 8th November 2026.

Interviews will be completed by 16th December 2026.

Application Support

We welcome applications that use AI tools for support, as long as they accurately reflect your own skills and experience. All hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions or need support with your application, please contact careers@metoffice.gov.uk. Adjustments can be requested within your application or by contacting us. A selection exercise may be part of the interview process.

We welcome applications from all backgrounds and recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition.

Eligibility: You must be eligible to live and work in the UK. Security clearance is required, with specific residency requirements (at least 3 of the last 5 years in the UK, with 2 immediately preceding the application).