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 Nathan and Kyle experienced as technical officers in the field.
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.
I love working with my hands, working outdoors and problem solving. I started out doing a Bachelor of Science, but uni wasn't for me. After a conversation with an human resources manager about pathways into the Bureau, I changed to an 18-month Diploma of Electronics and Communications Engineering at TAFE.
I actually did work experience at the Bureau in Year 10, which kind of sowed the seed, I've had a passion for the weather for a long time!
After I got my diploma, I started out as a technical officer level 2 (TO2) in Melbourne. It was a temporary role, but while I was doing that an opportunity came up for an ongoing TO3 role, which I applied for and got. Now I'm back home in Adelaide, acting as a TO4. In just under 3 years I've had some pretty good opportunities.
The travel is something that I absolutely love, we get to visit places the general public don't tend to see. We go right out to remote Western Australia, the far north of South Australia. We get to see all the different landscapes, at different times of year. I also love knowing that I'm providing a good service not only for our main stakeholders, like aviation, defence and emergency services, but for the Australian public.
Kyle inspects a rain gauge at Tarlee in South Australia
Our primary job is to go out in the field and verify that all instruments are performing to World Meteorological Organization standards. There's no such thing really as a typical week. Some days it's quiet and everything's well behaved, and some weeks it's like everything is throwing a hissy fit!
Say an automatic weather station (AWS) goes down, we have to try and remote diagnose the issue. If it can't be done remotely, we organise a crew to head out with the correct components, book accommodation, get the car and head off to do the job.
I've had so many great trips, one of my favourite field trips so far was to Wilson's Promontory. I was due to head back to Adelaide, but I was lucky enough to get on the Prom trip, it's usually a bit of a fight to the death to get on that one! It was a routine 6-monthly verification, for a climate observations reference AWS. We visit those sites twice a year, doing performance checks and seeing if any sort of corrective maintenance is required.
When it comes to field work, you can have a day where everything just works perfectly and then some trips … you might have computer issues, connectivity issues, you might do something and then all of a sudden something down the line is knocked out. Having a problem-solving mindset is an important thing. But there's so much experience here, so much knowledge. Everyone is willing to share that information, especially with the new technicians.
So as long as you enjoy getting your hands dirty, being away from home and love a lot of travel, then it's definitely a good job! There are great benefits in as well. Really good allowances, great super, a flexible working environment and you're surrounded by people who share the same passion and are always willing to help you out.
I'm planning to make it a lifelong career. There are so many opportunities here, and you don't have to be a technical officer for the rest of your days. There are lots of temporary assignment duties, if you want to take on a different challenge or just have a change of scenery for 6 to 12 months.
For me, this is more of a passion than a job.