Combine your love of travel with work
As a field services technician, no 2 days are the same. You'll travel far and wide in 4WDs, planes, boats and helicopters to look after our vast observing network.
This work takes you to some of Australia's most unique and isolated environments. You'll be one of 200 staff across 8 technical operations centres and remote weather stations.
Video: Field technician jobs at the Bureau
Work for the Bureau of Meteorology's Observing Operations.
We maintain Australia's weather observation networks.
Your daily commute.
We recruit technicians. We recruit schedulers and planners. We recruit team leads. We recruit operations managers.
We provide on the job training.
Do work that touches the lives of all Australians.
A job like no other. Search: BOM Careers.
Technician jobs across Australia
Technicians maintain the service delivery of our observation network. This ranges from radars to flood and rainfall monitoring systems, to space weather instruments and more.
We employ qualified electronics, electrical or instrumentation technicians or engineers. You can also apply as a recent graduate or candidate with a few years of industry experience in:
- engineering trades
- hydrography
- applied science
- metrology
- measurement science.
We regularly recruit for roles across Australia. Our locations include Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Staff can also apply for temporary postings to Giles weather station, Willis Island, Antarctica and more.
Observing operations staff on a supply trip to Willis Island weather station, 450 km east of Cairns. Credit: Alex Cossu.
Personal and professional requirements
We're looking for people who:
- have qualifications or work experience in electronics, instrumentation, engineering, hydrography, applied science, metrology or measurement science
- have an appetite for working in remote locations and a willingness to travel
- are team players who can get hands-on in the field
- take responsibility for managing projects and are able to balance competing priorities
- build productive working relationships and communicate with influence
- have a reasonable level of physical fitness.
The responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:
- maintenance and operations
- asset and service management
- documentation and record keeping
- travel and incident response
- data quality
- liaison and representation
- quality management
- compliance
- workplace health and safety.
Our technician roles are advertised as technical officer jobs. Add your name to the talent register, and explore job descriptions and current opportunities on our BOM Careers website.
What it's like to work as a field services technician
Find out what Darcy and Nathan experienced as technical officers in the field.
My background is marine biology and I was doing hydrographic work when this opportunity came up at the Bureau. I started out working on the flood warning network. It's very similar to the hydrographic work that I was doing at my previous state government job – water resource monitoring, looking after rain gauges and water level sites.
When you come into the Bureau as a technical officer (TO), you have the opportunity to learn about all sorts of different equipment. They train you up in different areas, and that's been great because I've been exposed to heaps of different things, like learning about the sea level network. And because of that, in the 12 months I've been at the Bureau, I've been overseas 4 times!
The Adelaide Hub's Sea Level Network team look after the majority of the country's sea level sites and we also look after the sites in the South Pacific. So I've been to Nauru twice, Vanuatu and then I went to Tonga about 6 weeks ago as well.
Before you can go on a trip, even the local ones, you need to do a mandatory 3-week course at the Bureau of Meteorology Training Centre (BMTC) in Melbourne. It's an introductory course on automatic weather station systems. It covers basic electrical theory and then they teach you how to connect to the systems and do data verifications in the field.
Darcy inspects a weather station at Cawnalmurtee in New South Wales
In each hub, there’s a range of skillsets that complement each other. My background in hydrography means my strength is working on flood warning stations, and then we have people with in-depth electronic experience who work on radar systems. So they might send me along to a radar to help out and learn, but I'm not going to be the person that's expected to fault-find or resolve a radar issue.
But if I'm going on a flood trip, I'll lead the trip and because of my past experience and BMTC training, I have a good understanding of the electronics with the flood network. If there's ever an issue that I can't fix, there's someone in the hub that I can call up to talk through it. I guess it's just about working as a team. You can't expect everyone to be an expert at everything.
I was in my last job for 6 years, with very little progression in that time. The Bureau's definitely heaps better in that regard, there are so many opportunities to progress your development, to do training courses, to act in higher roles. I loved my last job, but the ability to progress and to experience new opportunities wasn't there. I'd say the biggest benefit though is lifestyle. I think the flexibility and the ability to shift your work around your life is second to none. This week we went to Mildura to fix some storm damage, 6 weeks ago I was in Tonga, and then next week I'll be in the Adelaide Hills fixing up rain gauges. It's a forever changing landscape, in a positive way. It's good for me at this stage of my life.
If you're thinking about applying for a job as a TO, do it for sure. I think it's an open door to a million other doors.
Since joining the Bureau in 2020, my office view has been pretty amazing – from the big open skies of Western Australia to the tropical paradise of Christmas Island.
I was first employed by the Bureau as a technical officer level 3 (TO3). It was very similar to my previous job.
The role is a general field technician across a few of the different networks. For example, weather radars, automatic weather stations and balloon launchers. Sometimes we might work on flood warning network and other stations too.
From the Perth hub, where I'm based, we can go to very remote areas. We also go out to islands such as Christmas Island or the Houtman Abrolhos islands.
I became interested in this type of work after seeing electronics technicians working on equipment at my job in a photo lab.
After my studies I did an intern program as a civilian in the Department of Defence, at a torpedo maintenance facility site. It was really interesting but I wondered if I had limited my opportunities. It was such a niche role. Although the job was in a windowless Defence compound, I knew I would never be able to leave for a ‘boring’ job.
One of my colleagues told me that the Bureau was advertising technical roles. I knew the job was going to be just as interesting, if not more so.
Nathan visits remote locations and islands from our Perth hub
Since joining, I've learned about the different meteorological sensors and the way that weather data is obtained and recorded. Plus how to manage fieldwork logistics. You need good foresight and to really understand the job before you jump in a vehicle or on a plane. It costs time and money for us to get to a job. You can't get there and realise you forgot to pack that certain screwdriver.
One of my job highlights so far is going out to Carnegie station, a property between Wiluna and Warburton. I remember going into Google Maps. My marker was in the word 'Western' on the map of WA – basically dead in the middle of the state. Being welcomed by the station owners, staying at the homestead, and hearing about life out there was an added bonus.
There's lots of trips we do where you feel like an adventurer. You think: 'people usually have to pay for these sorts of adventures'. And this is my job!
I've also had opportunities in high-level roles such as the network lead or operations lead. To support me in these roles, leading teams, the Bureau has management essentials training. I have some more training planned.
These roles cover a lot more administration but it's needed to keep field work teams ticking over. I'm happy to do that and support the team.