Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defence

Responsibilities

• Customer Program Leadership:
• Own end-to-end technical program delivery for Canadian public sector and defence customers, from initial deployment through production scaling
• Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for government customers, building trusted relationships with departmental CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams
• Translate complex government requirements (security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, data sovereignty) into actionable engineering plans
• Navigate government procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations.
• Strategic Communication:
• Provide clear, timely, and objective communication across Cohere's engineering organization, customer stakeholders, and government leadership
• Translate between AI/ML technical concepts and government-appropriate language for decision-makers who may not have deep technical backgrounds
• Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior government officials and departmental executives
• Represent Cohere's technical capabilities in sensitive government and defence contexts.
• Complex Program Management:
• Create and manage project schedules that account for government timelines, security review processes, and ministerial approval cycles
• Identify and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud service providers, and internal Cohere teams
• Navigate risks unique to government deployments: privacy compliance, Algorithmic Impact Assessments, Treasury Board submissions, security authorizations
• Drive alignment between product development priorities and specific government requirements.
• Technical Delivery & Execution:
• Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions that meet government-grade security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards
• Coordinate technical work across multiple teams: model customization, security hardening, integration with government systems, bilingual support
• Establish governance checkpoints appropriate for high-stakes government deployments
• Problem-solve complex technical challenges in air-gapped, on-premises, or highly regulated environments.
• You May Be a Good Fit If:
• Required Experience:
• 6+ years of experience as a customer-facing Technical or Engineering Program Manager in AI/ML consulting, technology transformation, or enterprise software delivery.
• Excellent executive communication and stakeholder management.
• Experience working with government, defence, or heavily regulated customers (public sector, defence contractors).
• Proven track record managing complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs with stringent compliance requirements.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; advanced degree or technical certs a plus.
• Technical Background:
• Strong understanding

Additional Information

Who are we? Cohere is the leading security-first enterprise AI company. We build cutting-edge foundation AI models and end-to-end products that are designed to solve real-world business problems. We're training and deploying frontier models for enterprises who are building AI systems. We believe that our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of AI and we are looking for folks that want to be part of that. We obsess over what we build. Each one of us is responsible for contributing to increasing the capabilities of our models and the value they drive for our customers. Cohere is a team of researchers, engineers, designers, and more, who are all passionate about their craft. We are a global technology company co-headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, with key offices in London, New York City, Montreal, Seoul, Germany and Paris. Join us! Why This Role? We're seeking an experienced Program Manager to join Cohere's customer-facing Program Management team, with a focus on Canadian public sector and defence accounts. This is a highly specialized role requiring an individual who understands technical program delivery, the technical complexity of frontier AI models and the unique requirements of government and defence organizations. You will be the critical bridge between our cutting-edge AI capabilities and the specific needs of Canadian federal departments, provincial agencies, Crown corporations, and defence organizations. You'll navigate complex procurement processes, stringent security requirements, data sovereignty concerns, and regulatory compliance while ensuring our customers successfully deploy and scale our AI solutions. In this role, you'll collaborate with our Strategic Customer team, Applied ML (AML) Engineering, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE), Platform, Product, and Go-to-Market teams, serving as the technical program lead and trusted advisor for our most sensitive and high-impact government engagements. Location: Ottawa (preferred) or Montreal or Toronto required (proximity to government customers) Security Clearance: Active Top Secret clearance strongly preferred; candidates eligible and willing to obtain clearance will also be considered.

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