Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defence, Canada
Technical Program Manager bridging Cohere’s AI models with Canadian public sector and defence clients, managing complex deployments with strict security/compliance needs.
- Compensation
- CA$200K–CA$245K / yr
- Location
- Ottawa
- Work setup
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- 6+ years
- Category
- Project management
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 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 certifications a plus
Nice to have
- Active Canadian government security clearance (Secret or Top Secret)
- Bilingual (English/French) proficiency
- Background in or strong familiarity with Canadian defence, intelligence, or critical infrastructure sectors
- Experience with GC Cloud services (Azure, AWS GovCloud) or Protected B/C environments
- Project management certification (e.g., PMP, PgMP) or government-specific methodologies
- Strong understanding of enterprise software deployment architectures (cloud, on-premises, hybrid, air-gapped)
- Working knowledge of or experience with modern AI: LLMs, agentic systems, RAG, fine-tuning, evals, and responsible AI
- Deep understanding of how government organizations procure, evaluate, and deploy technology
- Familiarity with Canadian 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
Full description
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 headquartered in Toronto with key offices in London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul. 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 required
Security Clearance: Active Top Secret clearance strongly preferred; candidates eligible and willing to obtain clearance will also be considered.
What You'll DoCustomer 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