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

Role overview

Cohere is hiring a full-time Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defense, Germany. The role is listed as remote-friendly and based in Germany, but is open only to German citizens living in Germany who are fluent in German. The work is technical delivery leadership for government and defence AI deployments. The listing does not state salary, and Cohere says applicants who do not match every criterion are still encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end technical program delivery for public sector and defence customers in Germany and across Europe, from initial deployment through production scaling.
• Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for customers, building relationships with departmental CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams.
• Translate public sector and defence requirements involving security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, and data sovereignty into actionable engineering plans.
• Navigate procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations.
• Communicate clearly with Cohere's engineering organisation, customer stakeholders, and public sector and defence leadership, translating AI/ML concepts for decision-makers without deep technical backgrounds.
• Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior stakeholders, including departmental executives, and represent Cohere's technical capabilities in sensitive government and defence contexts.
• Create project schedules that account for public sector and defence timelines, security review processes, and approval cycles, and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud providers, and internal teams.
• Manage risks specific to government and defence deployments, including privacy compliance, security, political and regulatory risk, and technology and infrastructure risk, while aligning product priorities with customer requirements.
• Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions that meet security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards by coordinating model customisation, security hardening, government-system integration, and bilingual support across teams.
• Establish governance checkpoints suited to high-stakes government and defence deployments and solve technical problems in air-gapped, on-premises, or highly regulated environments.

Qualifications

• 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.
• A proven track record managing complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs with stringent compliance requirements.
• A bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
• Strong understanding of enterprise software deployment architectures: cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and air-gapped.
• Comfort discussing API integrations, model inference, data pipelines, and ML operations with technical stakeholders.
• Deep understanding of how government and defence organisations procure, evaluate, and deploy technology.
• Familiarity with European government requirements such as data sovereignty, privacy laws including the Privacy Act, accessibility standards, official-language obligations, and security classifications.
• Understanding of defence and national security considerations in AI deployment.
• Eligibility to obtain a German security clearance.

Application conditions

• German citizenship is required; the listing explains that German government clearance eligibility requires German citizenship.
• The individual must be based in Germany.
• Fluent German is required to engage immediately with critical defence and national security customers.
• The role is listed as remote, with location listed as Germany; remote status does not imply worldwide eligibility.
• The position is full-time.
• An active German security clearance is not required, but eligibility to obtain one is expected and a clearance is strongly preferred.
• Cohere states that it may use AI-enabled tools to screen and assess applicants against the criteria, without limiting which applications recruiters may review.
• Applicants who need accommodation during recruitment can submit an Accommodations Request Form.
• Cohere lists roles on its official careers page and LinkedIn, and says legitimate communications come from @cohere.com or @cw.cohere email aliases.

Preferred qualifications

• An active German security clearance.
• Working knowledge of or experience with modern AI, including LLMs, agentic systems, MCP, RAG, fine-tuning, evals, and responsible AI; described as a strong differentiator.
• Experience with Algorithmic Impact Assessments or AI ethics frameworks; described as a strong asset.
• An advanced degree or technical certifications.
• Bilingual English and German proficiency.
• A background in or strong familiarity with European defence, intelligence, or critical infrastructure sectors.
• Experience with GC Cloud services such as Azure or AWS GovCloud, or with Protected B/C environments.
• Project management certification such as PMP or PgMP, or government-specific methodologies.

Compensation and benefits

• A weekly lunch stipend of $75, £75, or the equivalent in the employee's local currency.
• Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental health.
• RRSP matching, 401K, or a pension scheme.
• 100% parental leave top-up for up to six months for either parent.
• Annual enrichment benefits covering arts and culture, fitness and wellness, quality time, and a workspace improvement credit.
• An education and learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.
• Six weeks of paid vacation, described as 30 working days.
• A budget for traveling to other offices for remote employees, plus an annual company offsite.
• A $500 home office stipend.
• A co-working benefit for employees not near an office, and a daily lunch program, snacks, and community events for those in the office.

What this role focuses on

• The centre of the job is delivery ownership for sensitive government and defence AI programs, not model research or general commercial account management.
• The program manager is a bridge between Cohere's Applied ML, Forward Deployed Engineering, Platform, Product, and Go-to-Market teams and ministry, agency, and defence stakeholders.
• Public-sector process shapes the work: procurement, RFP responses, security review, approval cycles, data-sovereignty concerns, and regulatory compliance are part of delivery rather than side issues.
• The role requires enough technical depth to discuss model customisation, inference, APIs, data pipelines, ML operations, and cloud, on-premises, hybrid, or air-gapped deployment with technical stakeholders.
• It also carries a trust and representation dimension, including executive-level status communication and representing Cohere in sensitive national-security contexts.

Application preparation (editorial suggestions)

• Editorial suggestion: Because the role owns schedules around security reviews and approval cycles, prepare one concrete example of how you planned delivery around a government or regulated-customer approval process.
• Editorial suggestion: The role coordinates model customisation, security hardening, and government-system integration, so be ready to explain your closest experience working across engineering teams on a deployed enterprise system.
• Editorial suggestion: The listing names air-gapped, on-premises, and highly regulated environments, so if your background is mainly cloud-based, prepare to describe your nearest equivalent deployment constraint and how you handled it.
• Editorial suggestion: Since the role requires fluent German and immediate engagement with German defence and national-security customers, prepare to describe customer-facing work conducted in German.
• Editorial suggestion: The listing asks for familiarity with European government requirements such as data sovereignty and security classifications, so review how your past programs handled those constraints before applying.

Employer-published remote role. Listed location(s): Germany. Remote does not imply worldwide eligibility. Check the original listing for residency, work authorization, time zone, language and travel requirements.

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 public sector and defence accounts in Europe, particularly in Germany. This is a highly specialised role requiring an individual who understands technical program delivery, the technical complexity of frontier AI models and the unique requirements of government and defence organisations.

You will be the critical bridge between our cutting-edge AI capabilities and the specific needs of Ministries, Agencies, and defence organisations across Europe. 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 and defence engagements.

Location: Germany

Eligibility: This individual must be a German citizen living in Germany and fluent in German, enabling immediate engagement with critical defense and national security customers.

Security Clearance: German security clearance is not required, but is a strong nice-to-have.

What You'll Do

Customer Program Leadership:

• Own end-to-end technical program delivery for Germany and broader European public sector and defence customers, from initial deployment through production scaling
• Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for customers, building trusted relationships with departmental CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams
• Translate complex public sector and defence requirements (security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, 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 Cohere's engineering organisation, customer stakeholders, pubic sector and defence leadership
• Translate between AI/ML technical concepts and government-appropriate language for decision-makers who may not have deep technical backgrounds
• Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior stakeholders including departmental executives
• Represent Cohere's technical capabilities in sensitive government and defence contexts.

Complex Program Management:

• Create and manage project schedules that account for public sector and defence timelines, security review processes, and approval cycles
• Identify and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud service providers, and internal Cohere teams
• Navigate risks unique to government and defence deployments: privacy compliance, security, political and regulatory, technology and infrastructure.
• Drive alignment between product development priorities and specific customer requirements.

Technical Delivery & Execution:

• Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions that meet security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards
• Coordinate technical work across multiple teams: model customisation, security hardening, integration with government systems, bilingual support
• Establish governance checkpoints appropriate for high-stakes government and defence deployments
• Problem-solve complex technical challenges in air-gapped, on-premises, or highly regulated environments.

You May Be a Good Fit If:

Required Experience:

• 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.
• Proven track record managing complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs with stringent compliance requirements.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; advanced degree or technical certs a plus.

Technical Background:

• Strong understanding of enterprise software deployment architectures (cloud, on-premises, hybrid, air-gapped)
• Working knowledge of or experience with modern AI: LLMs, agentic systems, MCP, RAG, fine-tuning, evals, and responsible AI would be a strong differentiator
• Comfortable discussing API integrations, model inference, data pipelines, and ML operations with technical stakeholders.

Government & Defence Acumen:

• Deep understanding of how government and defence organisations procure, evaluate, and deploy technology
• Familiarity with European 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 is a strong asset
• Eligible to obtain a German security clearance

Nice to Have:

• Active German security clearance
• Bilingual (English/German) proficiency
• Background in or strong familiarity with European defence, intelligence, or critical infrastructure sectors
• Experience with GC Cloud services (Azure, AWS GovCloud) or Protected B/C environments
• Project management certification (PMP, PgMP) or government-specific methodologies.

Security Clearance Requirements

This role strongly prefers eligibility for German government security clearance.

We are looking for candidates eligible for German government clearance, meaning that they require German citizenship. In addition, this individual is required to be based in Germany and be fluent in German as this will enable immediate engagement with critical defence and national security customers.

What Makes This Role Unique

This isn't typical program management - it's a highly specialised role at the intersection of frontier AI, national security, and public sector digital transformation. You'll work on some of Canada's most sensitive and impactful AI deployments, helping government organisations harness cutting-edge technology while maintaining the highest standards of security, ethics, and accountability.

If you're passionate about responsible AI adoption, understand the unique constraints and opportunities within government, and want to have an outsized impact on how Canada leverages AI to serve its citizens, this role is for you.

Full-Time Employees at Cohere enjoy these Perks:

• A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in your local currency for lunch.
• Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental health.
• RRSP matching, 401K, Pension Scheme.
• 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months, for either parent.
• Annual enrichment benefits:

Arts & culture, fitness/wellness, quality time, and a workspace improvement credit.

Education & learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.

• 6 weeks of paid vacation (30 working days!)
• Budget for traveling to other offices if you are remote, plus an annual company offsite.

How and Where We Work:

• Cohere is remote-friendly, but we also have offices in Toronto, London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul with more opening soon.
• For those in the office: a daily lunch program, plenty of snacks, and regular community and social events.
• For those not near an office: a co-working benefit so you can work alongside others in your city.
• Everyone receives a $500 home office stipend to set up your workspace properly.

We strive to create an inclusive work environment for all; we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form, and we will work together to meet your needs.

We may use AI-enabled tools to screen and assess applicants against the criteria for this position. This helps our recruiters identify potentially qualified candidates, but it doesn't limit the applications our recruiters may review or consider.

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