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

**Company:** [Cohere](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/cohere)
**Location:** Ottawa, Canada, Toronto, Canada, Montreal, Canada
**Role:** Technical Program Management
**Salary:** CA$160k – CA$245k/yr
**Experience:** 6+ years
**Skills:** AI/ML, LLMs, Agentic Systems, Mcp, RAG, Fine-Tuning, MLOps, API Integrations, Data Pipelines, Cloud Architecture, Aws Govcloud, Azure, Project Management, Responsible Ai, Algorithmic Impact Assessments
**Posted:** 2026-06-12

> Leads end-to-end delivery of frontier AI programs for Canadian public sector and defence customers, translating security, procurement, compliance, and technical requirements into coordinated deployments. Requires 6+ years of customer-facing technical program management experience, government or regulated-sector expertise, and eligibility for Canadian security clearance.

## Job Description

## 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.
- Translate government requirements, including security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, and data sovereignty, into actionable engineering plans.
- Navigate government procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations.

### Strategic Communication
- Communicate clearly and objectively across engineering teams, customer stakeholders, and government leadership.
- Translate AI/ML technical concepts into language appropriate for government decision-makers.
- Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior government officials and departmental executives.
- Represent technical capabilities in sensitive government and defence contexts.

### Complex Program Management
- Create and manage project schedules accounting for government timelines, security reviews, and approval cycles.
- Identify and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud service providers, and internal teams.
- Manage risks involving privacy compliance, Algorithmic Impact Assessments, Treasury Board submissions, and security authorizations.
- Drive alignment between product priorities and government requirements.

### Technical Delivery & Execution
- Ensure timely delivery of AI solutions meeting government-grade security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards.
- Coordinate model customization, security hardening, government-system integrations, and bilingual support.
- Establish governance checkpoints for high-stakes government deployments.
- Solve technical challenges in air-gapped, on-premises, or highly regulated environments.

## Requirements

- 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 skills.
- Experience working with government, defence, or heavily regulated customers.
- Proven experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs with stringent compliance requirements.
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
- Strong understanding of enterprise software deployment architectures, including cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and air-gapped environments.
- Working knowledge of modern AI, including LLMs, agentic systems, MCP, RAG, fine-tuning, evaluations, and responsible AI.
- Ability to discuss API integrations, model inference, data pipelines, and MLOps with technical stakeholders.
- Deep understanding of government technology procurement, evaluation, and deployment.
- Familiarity with Canadian requirements related to data sovereignty, privacy, accessibility, official languages, and security classifications.
- Understanding of defence and national security considerations in AI deployment.
- Experience with Algorithmic Impact Assessments or AI ethics frameworks is an asset.
- Eligible to obtain Canadian government security clearance; Top Secret is preferred.

## Nice-to-Haves

- Active Canadian government Secret or Top Secret clearance.
- Bilingual English/French proficiency.
- Background in or familiarity with Canadian defence, intelligence, or critical infrastructure sectors.
- Experience with GC Cloud services, Azure, AWS GovCloud, or Protected B/C environments.
- PMP, PgMP, or government-specific project management certification or methodology experience.

## Compensation & Benefits

- Compensation range for candidates in Canada: **$160,000–$245,000 CAD**.
- Weekly lunch stipend of $75 or equivalent in local currency.
- Full health and dental benefits, including a separate wellness budget.

## Similar jobs

- [Technical Program Manager](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/6397e2f3-fc0e-4d9d-8676-c74d564b0d3e) - Sardine - Remote - $175k – $215k/yr
- [Technical Deployment Lead, Semiconductors](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/9f58bc66-c60f-45bb-8163-31b5a719b504) - OpenAI - Remote - $176k – $224k/yr
- [Senior Technical Program Manager](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/ccd90d5f-a95b-4c51-aece-a8cbe63ee12c) - GitLab - Remote - $203k – $346k/yr
- [Senior Technical Program Manager](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/dab6712a-aa32-4f13-935d-4d3f848eb728) - Okta - Toronto, Canada - CA$108k – CA$149k/yr
- [Senior Implementation Project Manager](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/bddcce3d-641c-4715-8fe3-47c708120ac9) - OpenLoop - Remote

**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/5acb175c-9a21-4336-8641-0edc8126f860
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/5acb175c-9a21-4336-8641-0edc8126f860