Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defence

Leads end-to-end AI delivery programs for UK public sector and defence customers, translating stringent security, compliance, and infrastructure requirements into executable plans. Requires 6+ years of customer-facing technical program management experience, government or regulated-industry expertise, and eligibility for UK security clearance.

About the job

Responsibilities

Customer Program Leadership

Own end-to-end technical program delivery for UK 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 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

Provide clear, timely, and objective communication across engineering, customer, and government stakeholders.
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 that account for government timelines, security reviews, and approval cycles.
Identify and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud providers, and internal teams.
Navigate risks involving privacy compliance, security authorisations, technical constraints, and infrastructure limitations.
Align product development priorities with government requirements.

Technical Delivery and Execution

Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions meeting government-grade security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards.
Coordinate technical work across model customisation, security hardening, government-system integrations, and bilingual support.
Establish governance checkpoints for high-stakes government deployments.
Solve complex 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 success 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 ML operations with technical stakeholders.
Deep understanding of how government organisations procure, evaluate, and deploy technology.
Familiarity with UK government requirements involving data sovereignty, privacy, accessibility, official-language obligations, and security classifications.
Understanding of defence and national-security considerations in AI deployment.
Eligibility to obtain UK government security clearance.

Nice to Have

Active UK government Secret or Top Secret clearance; active Top Secret clearance is preferred.
Experience with UK 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 methodology certification.
Experience with Algorithmic Impact Assessments or AI ethics frameworks.

Compensation and 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, 401K, or pension scheme.
100% parental-leave top-up for up to six months for either parent.
Annual enrichment benefits for arts and culture, fitness and wellness, quality time, and workspace improvements.
Education and learning stipend.

Skills

AI/ML, LLMs, Agentic Systems, Mcp, RAG, Fine-Tuning, API Integrations, Model Inference, Data Pipelines, MLOps, Azure, Aws Govcloud, Project Management, Data Sovereignty, Security Clearance