Technical Program Manager

Role Overview

Join Cohere as a Technical Program Manager for EMEA public sector and defense accounts. You will lead end-to-end technical program delivery, bridging Cohere’s AI capabilities with the procurement, security, and compliance needs of government and defense organizations.

Key Missions

• Own end-to-end program delivery for UK/EMEA public sector and defense customers, from initial deployment through production scaling.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for government customers, building trusted relationships with CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams.
• Create and manage project schedules aligned to government timelines, including security review processes and ministerial approval cycles.

Requirements

• Proven experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs with stringent compliance requirements.
• 2+ years in customer-facing technical delivery and operations for enterprise-grade software or AI/ML solutions.
• 7+ years experience as an Engineering or Technical Program Manager.
• Experience working with government, defense, or heavily regulated customers (public sector, defense contractors).
• Strong understanding of LLM training, fine-tuning, and/or deployment.
• Strong understanding of enterprise deployment architectures: cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and air-gapped.
• Ability to discuss API integrations, model inference, data pipelines, and MLOps with technical stakeholders.
• Understanding of defense and national security considerations in AI deployment.
• Must be eligible to obtain German government security clearance (with Top Secret preferred).
• Familiarity with German government requirements including:
  • data sovereignty
  • privacy laws (e.g., Privacy Act)
  • accessibility standards
  • official languages obligations
  • security classifications
• Experience with technical risk impact assessments (e.g., Algorithmic Impact Assessments) or AI ethics frameworks.
• Deep understanding of how government organizations procure, evaluate, and deploy technology.
• Active German government security clearance (Secret or Top Secret) with strong preference for active Top Secret.
• Bilingual German/English proficiency.
• Background in or familiarity with German defense, intelligence, or critical infrastructure sectors.
• Project management certification such as PMP or PgMP, or familiarity with government-specific methodologies.
• Experience with GC Cloud services (Azure, AWS GovCloud) or Protected B/C environments.

Nice-to-haves / Special Eligibility Notes

• Currently hold Secret clearance and eligible for TS upgrade, or previously held clearance that has lapsed.
• If no active clearance: you must be eligible and willing to undergo Top Secret clearance (can take 12–18 months). Candidates without active clearance will initially work on non-classified public-sector accounts.

How to Apply

If some requirements don’t perfectly match your background, the company still encourages you to apply.