Senior Operations Analyst - IT Ops (Service Delivery)

We’re looking for a Senior Operations Analyst to join our service delivery IT Operations team to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Senior Operations Analyst, 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, working on a rolling 24/7 shift working pattern including day and night shifts.

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

You will be responsible for delivering customer support to a range of services. This may include the dissemination of products to vital operational systems, the underlying web-based infrastructure and forecast production systems, all to save and improve lives and infrastructure in the UK and around the world.

You will monitor and maintain the dissemination of products and data created at the Met Office, working with international partners to ensure data transfer via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and global message switching systems. You'll also monitor our web services and a large network of remote defence sites and systems, ensuring service delivery both on-premises and in the cloud.

Based from our Exeter HQ, you will typically work 12.25 hour shifts over a rolling eight-day pattern; with two day shifts, two night shifts, followed by a sleep day and three days off.

Your key duties:

• Coordinate and manage customer data and IT infrastructure incidents based on ITIL Incident Management framework in order to restore services as quickly as possible minimising the disruption to the business.
• Support critical operational services running over a variety of platforms.
• Provide first and second line support to customers and colleagues to ensure 24/7 service continuity.
• Become the focal point for incident escalation with customers, suppliers and colleagues, and responsible for managing several incidents at any one time.

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

As our Senior Operations Analyst, your total reward package will be up to £49448 annually, which includes:

• £35,145 base pay.
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £2,200 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 2026 until March 2027 in your monthly pay.
• Unsocial Hours Allowance (UHA) - Shift Disturbance Allowance of £1,200 pro-rata, for working on an operational shift roster.
• Unsocial Hours Allowance (UHA) - Hourly Rate of £4.50 per hour for qualifying hours working in unsocial hours (20:00hrs - 06:00hrs and weekends).
• Unsocial hours bank holiday allowance when applicable.
• 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. An expert by nature with experience in operating and supporting IT Systems in an operational environment, with evidence of managing and adapting to change. (Lead Criteria)
2. Proficient in Linux and Windows operating systems, command line interfaces and standard network protocols (e.g. FTP or HTTP).
3. A better together ethos to deliver a strong customer and service focused approach, being able to communicate technically complex information effectively with customers at all levels.
4. Experience with Cloud Based Technology (e.g. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure) and a desire to keep evolving by staying abreast of developments in technology.
5. Able to apply technical knowledge flexibly to solve complex problems, whilst prioritising team workloads to ensure service continuity and customer satisfaction.
6. Good team working skills and when appropriate, the ability to work on your own initiative.

The panel may perform a preliminary sift of the lead criteria as indicated above.

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 10/06/2026 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 22/06/2026. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

Using AI in your application

We welcome applications that use AI tools for support in drafting or refining, as long as they accurately reflect your own skills and experience. All hiring decisions at the Met Office are made by people, not AI. For more details, visit our approach to recruitment.

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 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, 2 of these years must be immediately preceding the point of your application. You will need to achieve full security clearance without caveats and/or restrictions before we can confirm your start date for this role.

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then in the first instance you should contact us at: careers@metoffice.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: info@csc.gov.uk