Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defence, Canada

Cohere is an enterprise-focused artificial intelligence company specializing in secure, production-ready foundation models and integrated platforms that help organizations solve complex business challenges. The company has established itself as a leader in deploying frontier AI systems to large-scale customers worldwide, with offices across major technology and innovation hubs including Toronto, London, New York, and San Francisco.

As AI adoption accelerates across government and critical infrastructure, organizations managing sensitive data and national priorities face unique technical and regulatory hurdles. Cohere is expanding its dedicated team to serve Canadian federal agencies, provincial bodies, Crown corporations, and defence organizations navigating these complexities.

You'll join Cohere as a Technical Program Manager focused on public sector and defence customers in Canada. This hybrid role based in Ottawa puts you at the center of delivering cutting-edge AI solutions into environments with the highest security and compliance standards. You'll act as the essential link between Cohere's technical capabilities and government stakeholders, managing end-to-end program delivery while addressing the distinct requirements of federal procurement, data sovereignty, accessibility compliance, and defence considerations.

What you'll do

• Own complete technical program delivery for government and defence customers, from initial deployment phases through production scaling and ongoing support

• Serve as the lead technical contact and trusted advisor for departmental leaders, CIOs, and technical teams, building relationships with senior decision-makers

• Interpret and translate government requirements including security protocols, compliance obligations, accessibility standards, bilingual support needs, and data residency rules into concrete engineering deliverables

• Navigate government procurement cycles, RFP processes, and contractual technical commitments with accuracy and strategic insight

• Develop and maintain project schedules that accommodate government timelines, security review cycles, ministerial approval processes, and interdepartmental coordination

• Identify, track, and mitigate risks specific to government deployments such as privacy compliance, Algorithmic Impact Assessments, Treasury Board submissions, and security authorizations

• Coordinate technical delivery across multiple internal teams and government stakeholders, ensuring solutions meet government-grade standards for security, privacy, accessibility, and performance

• Communicate technical roadmaps and program status to government executives and Cohere leadership, translating complex AI concepts for audiences without deep technical backgrounds

What you'll bring

• At least 6 years of hands-on experience managing complex technical programs in customer-facing roles, with focus on AI, ML consulting, technology transformation, or enterprise software delivery

• Demonstrated success managing multi-stakeholder programs with demanding compliance requirements, particularly in government, defence, or heavily regulated industries

• Excellent executive communication skills and proven ability to build trusted relationships across organizational boundaries

• Strong grasp of enterprise software deployment models including cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and air-gapped architectures

• Working familiarity with modern AI systems including large language models, agentic architectures, retrieval-augmented generation, fine-tuning approaches, and responsible AI frameworks

• Deep knowledge of Canadian government procurement practices, data sovereignty rules, privacy legislation, accessibility standards, and official languages requirements

• Eligibility to obtain Canadian government security clearance, with Top Secret clearance strongly preferred

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline

Nice to have

• Experience with Algorithmic Impact Assessments or AI ethics governance frameworks

• Previous work in defence, national security, or classified environments

• Advanced degree or relevant technical certifications

What they offer

• Hybrid work arrangement based in Ottawa

• Opportunity to shape AI deployment in critical government and defence sectors

• Collaboration with leading-edge research and engineering teams across multiple disciplines