Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defense, Germany

• Own end-to-end technical program delivery for Germany and broader European public sector and defence customers, from initial deployment through production scaling

• Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for customers, building trusted relationships with departmental CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams

• Translate complex public sector and defence requirements (security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, data sovereignty) into actionable engineering plans

• Navigate complex procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations.

• Provide clear, timely, and objective communication across Cohere's engineering organisation, customer stakeholders, pubic sector and defence 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 stakeholders including departmental executives

• Represent Cohere's technical capabilities in sensitive government and defence contexts.

• Create and manage project schedules that account for public sector and defence timelines, security review processes, and approval cycles

• Identify and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud service providers, and internal Cohere teams

• Navigate risks unique to government and defence deployments: privacy compliance, security, political and regulatory, technology and infrastructure.

• Drive alignment between product development priorities and specific customer requirements.

• Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions that meet security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards

• Coordinate technical work across multiple teams: model customisation, security hardening, integration with government systems, bilingual support

• Establish governance checkpoints appropriate for high-stakes government and defence deployments

• Problem-solve complex technical challenges in air-gapped, on-premises, or highly regulated environments.

• 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.

• 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.

• Strong understanding of enterprise software deployment architectures (cloud, on-premises, hybrid, air-gapped)

• Working knowledge of or experience with modern AI: LLMs, agentic systems, MCP, RAG, fine-tuning, evals, and responsible AI would be a strong differentiator

• Comfortable discussing API integrations, model inference, data pipelines, and ML operations with technical stakeholders.

• Deep understanding of how government and defence organisations procure, evaluate, and deploy technology

• Familiarity with European government requirements: data sovereignty, privacy laws (Privacy Act), accessibility standards, official languages obligations, security classifications

• Understanding of defence and national security considerations in AI deployment

• Experience with Algorithmic Impact Assessments or AI ethics frameworks is a strong asset

• Eligible to obtain a German security clearance

• Active German security clearance

• Bilingual (English/German) proficiency

• Background in or strong familiarity with European defence, intelligence, or critical infrastructure sectors

• Experience with GC Cloud services (Azure, AWS GovCloud) or Protected B/C environments

• Project management certification (PMP, PgMP) or government-specific methodologies.

• A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in your local currency for lunch.

• Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental health.

• RRSP matching, 401K, Pension Scheme.

• 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months, for either parent.

• Annual enrichment benefits:

Arts & culture, fitness/wellness, quality time, and a workspace improvement credit. Education & learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.

• 6 weeks of paid vacation (30 working days!)

• Budget for traveling to other offices if you are remote, plus an annual company offsite.

• Cohere is remote-friendly, but we also have offices in Toronto, London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul with more opening soon.

• For those in the office: a daily lunch program, plenty of snacks, and regular community and social events.

• For those not near an office: a co-working benefit so you can work alongside others in your city.

• Everyone receives a $500 home office stipend to set up your workspace properly.

If any of the above doesn't line up exactly with your experience, we still encourage you to apply.

We strive to create an inclusive work environment for all; we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form , and we will work together to meet your needs.

We may use AI-enabled tools to screen and assess applicants against the criteria for this position. This helps our recruiters identify potentially qualified candidates, but it doesn't limit the applications our recruiters may review or consider.

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