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

**Company:** [Cohere](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/cohere)
**Location:** Unspecified
**Role:** Technical Program Management
**Experience:** 6+ years
**Skills:** AI/ML, LLMs, Agentic Systems, Mcp, RAG, Fine-Tuning, MLOps, API Integrations, Model Inference, Data Pipelines, Azure, Aws Govcloud, PMP, Pgmp, Responsible Ai
**Posted:** 2026-07-20

> Leads end-to-end delivery of frontier AI programs for French and European government and defense customers, coordinating engineering teams, security, compliance, procurement, and deployment. Requires 6+ years of customer-facing technical program management experience, French citizenship, French fluency, and eligibility for government clearance.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities

### Customer Program Leadership
- Own end-to-end technical program delivery for French and broader European public sector and defense customers, from initial deployment through production scaling.
- Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for customers and build trusted relationships with departmental CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams.
- Translate public sector and defense requirements—including security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, and data sovereignty—into actionable engineering plans.
- Navigate complex procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations.

### Strategic Communication
- Provide clear, timely, and objective communication across engineering, customer, public sector, and defense stakeholders.
- Translate AI/ML technical concepts into language appropriate for government decision-makers.
- Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior stakeholders and departmental executives.
- Represent technical capabilities in sensitive government and defense contexts.

### Complex Program Management
- Create and manage schedules accounting for public sector and defense timelines, security reviews, and approval cycles.
- Identify and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud service providers, and internal teams.
- Manage privacy, security, political, regulatory, technology, and infrastructure risks.
- Align product development priorities with customer requirements.

### Technical Delivery & Execution
- Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions meeting security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards.
- Coordinate technical work across model customization, security hardening, government-system integration, and bilingual-support teams.
- Establish governance checkpoints for high-stakes government and defense deployments.
- Solve technical challenges in air-gapped, on-premises, and 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, defense, 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.
- Understanding of government and defense procurement, evaluation, and technology deployment.
- Familiarity with European government requirements, data sovereignty, privacy laws, accessibility standards, official-language obligations, and security classifications.
- Understanding of defense and national-security considerations in AI deployment.
- Eligibility to obtain French government security clearance; French citizenship is required.
- Based in France and fluent in French.

## Nice to Have

- Active French Secret or Top Secret security clearance.
- Bilingual English/French proficiency.
- Background in or familiarity with European defense, 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.
- Experience with Algorithmic Impact Assessments or AI ethics frameworks.
- Advanced degree or technical certifications.

## Compensation & Benefits

- Weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in local currency.
- Full health and dental benefits, including a separate mental-health budget.
- RRSP matching, 401(k), or pension scheme.
- Up to six months of 100% parental-leave top-up for either parent.
- Annual enrichment benefits for arts and culture, fitness and wellness, quality time, and workspace improvements.
- Education and learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.
- Six weeks of paid vacation (30 working days).
- Travel budget for visiting other offices if remote, plus an annual company offsite.

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